Showing results by author "Paul Mendez" in Literature & Fiction

In the Black Country in the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso is a determined and humble Jamaican who has moved to Britain with his wife to secure a brighter future for themselves and their children. At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London - escaping from a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community and the desolate, disempowered Black Country - but finds himself at a loss for a new centre of gravity and turns to sex work to create new notions of love, fatherhood and spirituality.

In Making an Elephant, Graham Swift brings together a richly varied selection of essays, portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. Full of insights into his passions and motivations, and wise about the friends, family and other writers who have mattered to him over the years, this is a revealing and intimate collection. Kazuo Ishiguro advises on how to choose a guitar, Salman Rushdie arrives for Christmas under guard and Ted Hughes shares the secrets of a Devon river. There are private moments, too, with long-dead writers.