English Working Class

When Graham Caveney was in his early 20s, he began to suffer from what was eventually diagnosed as agoraphobia. What followed were decades of managing his condition and learning to live within the narrow limits it imposed on his life: no motorways, no dual carriageways, no shopping centres, limited time outdoors. Graham’s quest to understand his illness brought him back to his first love: books. From Harper Lee’s Boo Radley, Ford Madox Ford, Emily Dickinson and Shirley Jackson: the literary world is replete with examples of agoraphobics—once you go looking for them.

Beginning with his first book, Shouting at No One, from 1983, and continuing through to So Where Are We?, from 2017, A Certain Clarity provides a generous selection of Lawrence Joseph's poetry "of great dignity, grace, and unrelenting persuasiveness" (John Ashbery), each poem "an inspired, made thing by a poet-advocate who has honed a timely song within an urgent testimony that embraces the complex density of truth" (Yusef Komunyakaa).

Set against the bawdy life of a 1950s Aussie pub, young Chooka searches for his identity, and that of his underage girlfriend, Iris. Chooka’s alcoholic father dies and Eddie, the bar owner, takes him in. When Iris’s best friend Millie is murdered, Iris disappears, and Chooka’s nemesis, The Preacher, accuses him of the murder. Challenged by tragedy and tempered by humor, the search for identities intensifies until this raw young couple finally discovers what it truly means to love each other.

After the death of his wife, a father raises his two sons alone. His bond with Fus, the eldest, and Gillou, the youngest, is a close one. But their town is not one of opportunity, and it soon becomes clear that the boys are heading down different paths. Gillou sets his sights on university in Paris. Fus, despite his socialist upbringing, falls in with the local far-right group. Though he joins mostly for the camaraderie, their activities, which might on the surface appear harmless, lead to a violent confrontation.

At three p.m. on a Saturday afternoon in 1911, Oskar Johansson is caught in a blast in an industrial accident. The local newspaper reports him dead, but they are mistaken. Because Oskar Johansson is a born survivor. Though crippled, Oskar finds the strength to go on living and working. The Rock Blaster charts his long professional life - his hopes and dreams, sorrows and joys. His relationship with the woman whose love saved him, with the labour movement that gave him a cause to believe in, and with his children, who do not share his ideals.

In this comic mystery with a subcultural flavor, Lizzie Malley entertains her powerful and kinky clients on the old Melbourne-Williamstown Ferry. Her father Sandy is the union boss on the wharf. And her Mom, Babs, well, she's an Aussie mom who rules the roost from her kitchen, and who has her own secret, that of St. Robert's toe shared only with local priest Father Zappia. When disfigured bodies start popping up in the Yarra beside the ferry, tightly bound Paul Striker of CID, is confronted with the web of illegalities that pervades Williamstown, and the Malley family with its ties to ...

After one disastrous magic show too many, Abby’s dad decides to give up showbiz. Abby’s mum was the dazzling magician. Now she’s gone, it doesn’t feel the same. But when Abby finds her mum’s dusty old book, they decide to put on a show for some care home residents. The book’s spells inspire new joy. A lady feels young again when she is lifted into a dance, and two children learn that anything is possible when they fly.

Warwickshire, 1934. Deep in a hamlet in the Warwickshire countryside, Red Hollow Hall is a male-only sanitorium run by the charismatic psychiatrist Dr Moon. However, all is not well, and Dr Moon's patients are leaving Red Hollow in droves. Recent disturbances, which originally appeared to be pranks, have descended into something more sinister, and now the men believe they have a malevolent visitor - the mermaid of Red Hollow. The ghost of a murdered girl, they believe the mermaid, wreaks bloody revenge on unsuspecting men each time the hamlet floods.

Hungry Two guys are hungry for each other but also for something more. Each want a relationship built on what they see in the movies. But, they’re not stupid—they know it comes at a price-trust. Warning: For mature readers only this erotic short story depicts graphic sex including anal, fingering, blowjobs and other taboo risqué subject not suitable to list on this write-up.