Garry Kilworth

The much-praised novel of the original 1980s classic film, the inspiration for a new major blockbuster starring Henry Cavill 'There Can Be Only One'The battle rages across the centuries, from the wind-scoured Sahara to the wild Russian steppes to the rocky crags of Scotland. And only one Immortal can survive. MacLeod is the Highlander. A Scottish clan warrior from the 16th century, he was taught the deadly arts by an ancient mentor, who then suffered the only wound that can end an Immortal's life: decapitation. Now, seven lifetimes later, MacLeod faces the final test. The Kurgan, his ancient adversary, has tracked him all the way to the streets of New York City. The fight will be the same: blade to blade. Only the outcome is in doubt. Will the Highlander win? Or will the Kurgan's scimitar stop him with a blow that will plunge the earth itself into an era of darkness and chaos? Based on the cult film classic, the original novel, republished for a new generation.

Rain ghost, rain ghost, go away... Steve is being followed, watched. Something is waiting for him. Something is coming to get him. Steve is being haunted. But by what? And why? Does it have anything to do with that night Steve got lost out on the moors - and what he found there? How do you stop...a haunting? When Steve finds an ancient dagger on the moors he realizes that, unless he returns it, he will always be haunted by the brooding presence he has disturbed. The Scholastic classic returns to print for a whole new generation

Giants dwell the world over. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some with enormous bodies and some, occasionally, without. You may find them striding across the Salisbury Plain, wading through the oceans, or residing in the forests of a distant planet. The one thing they all have in common is that their size matters. The Gogamagog Circus is the latest collection from master raconteur Gary Kilworth. Here are thirteen gigantic short stories of our Brobdingnagian cousins, presented for your delectation, including eight brand new tales specially written for this collection. His characters and the sense of place he creates is immediate and strong (Sunday Times) Arguably the finest writer of short fiction today, in any genre (New Scientist) A British writer who shows great versatility and invention . . . Kilworth has a fertile, wide-ranging imagination (Library Journal)Kilworth is a master of his trade. (Punch Magazine) A convincing display of fine talent. (The Times)

These short stories were all penned in and around Garry Kilworth's time in Hong Kong. The collection is split half-and-half into general fiction stories and supernatural tales. They were all inspired by the people and places of that magical effervescent city, not forgetting its surrounding mountains and countryside, and the myriad islands that come within its sphere. There are tales from Chinese viewpoints and stories about the lives of expatriates. If you read no other general fiction stories, then you must try 'Typhoon' with its fearless heroine the indomitable Elizabeth, or the imperturbable reptile catcher from 'The Snake-Man Cometh'. If your taste is not for the fantastic, you would be poorer in spirit for not experiencing the poignancy of 'The Hungry Ghosts' and 'Memories of the Flying Ball Bike Shop.'If you have never been to Hong Kong, enter it page by page. If you have, retrace its familiar corners. There's plenty of variation to satisfy most readers' literary appetites. Fans of elegant short fiction and Far Eastern culture will find this very worthwhile reading." Garry Kilworth is arguably the finest writer of short fiction today, in any genre." (New Scientist)"His characters are strong and the sense of place he creates is immediate." (Sunday Times)"Kilworth is a master of his trade." (Punch)"Kilworth is one of the most significant writers in the English language." (Fear)

Moby Jack and Other Tall Tales is a collection of stories that span some 20 years. They cover a variety of themes and are more different, in style as well as content, than they are similar. As the author himself says, "Some writers follow a path of sameness in order to satisfy their readers' desire for familiarity. To me that's like going to same country for your holiday every year. It's not me. I like going somewhere different every time." The tales range from Chinese fantasy ('Death of the Mocking Man') to science fiction ('Moby Jack'), to fantasy ('The Sculptor') to horror ('The Megowl') to ghost stories ('Hunter's Hall') - but for the most part they're just plain odd and refuse to slot into any set category. This edition of Moby Jack also includes the previously uncollected 'When the Music Stopped' by Christian Lehmann and Garry Kilworth. So, if you like weird stories, dark comedy and tales where characters get into impossible situations and only occasionally extract themselves, then you'll probably enjoy this volume." A selection of stories whose diversity, originality and poignancy leave me breathless with awe." (Claude Lalumiere, Locus Online)"Garry Kilworth is arguably the finest writer of short fiction today, in any genre." (New Scientist)"His characters are strong and the sense of place he creates is immediate." (Sunday Times)"Kilworth is a master of his trade." (Punch)"Kilworth is one of the most significant writers in the English language." (Fear)

In which unstoppable time meets immoveable space... James Ovit is a naive and slightly-lost maverick son of an elderly serial monogamist mother, whose mundane life is suddenly kick-started into headlong travel through time and space by a group of ruthless and callous scientists. His journeys first take him spuriously into the near past and thence into the far future where, expecting to enhance his career, instead he finds other-worldly love. Finally, after tragedy causes him to cast off his loyalty to his superiors, he rejects the diplomatic corps for work as an assassin and is sent into the past to eliminate an illegal time traveller and a monster. However, things never do work out the way James believes they will and, when he finds himself researching the strangest biography of all time, he knows the authorities who gave him another chance will once again shake their heads in disbelief at his ability to ignore their orders. "A subtle, poetic novel about the power of place - in this case the South Arabian Deserts - and the lure of myth. It haunted me long after it ended." (City Limits on Spiral Winds) "Full of hope, irony and despair and as moving in its understated way as Riddley Walker, the last post-apocalypse novel worth paying hard cash for." (Time Out Magazine on Abandonati) "This book is wonderful, representing as it does, good fun without complications, and joy without debt." (David Mathew, Interzone, on Shadow-Hawk) "Kilworth's enthralling writing transforms myths into reality." (Sharon Gosling, SFX, on The Princely Flower) "This is a great, great, great book." (Roger Swift, Black Tears, on The Princely Flower)

Stories from the back of the brain. These short stories span a period of 40 years. They are as eclectic as the insect world, ranging from the bizzare to the quixotic and back again. Plucked from an oeuvre of 145 stories, they are beautifully crafted tales, several of which have snatched awards from the jaws of oblivion or shouldered their way into short lists. Though he writes longer fiction Garry Kilworth considers himself primarily a short story writer, which is his first and last love. There is science fiction, fantasy, horror, folk lore and legend within these pages. What does not fall into any of those categories is simply unclassifiable weird fish. The first tale is a parallel world story in which we, the people who inhabit this planet, can walk on water. The last story involves the kind of madness which is brought on by too much discipline and good order. These two sandwich a vast array of brilliant and sometimes puzzling pieces of prose. "One is left in no doubt about the quality of the writing or of Kilworth's talent..." Times Educational Supplement "The tales are haunting, often almost poetic, but still chilling." Fantasy Zone on In The Country Of Tattooed Men "His characters are strong and the sense of place he creates is immediate and strong." Sunday Times "Kilworth is a master of his trade." Punch "Arguably the finest writer of short fiction today, in any genre" New Scientist

Winner of the World Fantasy Award "I am placing this entry at the beginning of my edited journal for reasons that will become apparent. Time is very short for me now, the final part of the ritual draws near... I cannot pretend that I am not frightened." There were these two British writers, one lived in the country, the other in the city. The country writer loved to visit the city and partake of brandy and Greek kebabs in the local hostelry. The city writer liked to visit the country and guzzle ale and barbecued steak under the apple trees. The two writers needed an excuse for these indulgences, and so they invented one, and this excuse was called "collaborating on a story" ... It soon emerged that the story was to be about a legendary tree, which they both vaguely recalled from the tales their grandfathers used to tell them of mystery and myth. Soon they were delving with suppressed excitement into old documents at the British Museum and began to come up with some frightening discoveries. The first of these finds was in studying the original text, in Anglo-Saxon, of the Old English poem "The Dream of the Rood". The marrying of the "tree" (crucifixion cross) and the "thorn" (a runic character) was too elaborately regular to be an accident of metre or alliterative language. Other discoveries followed, and the story gradually surfaced, like a dark secret from its burial mound. The Ragthorn: a dark and unsettling World Fantasy Award-winning novella by Robert Holdstock and Garry Kilworth. Also included in this volume, two bonus stories: "The Fabulous Beast" by Garry Kilworth, and "The Charisma Trees" by Robert Holdstock. Robert Holdstock: 'Britain's best fantasist ... these are the visions of a real artist.' - The Times 'Our finest living mythmaker. His narratives - intense, exuberant, earthy, passionate, dense with metaphor - are new trails through the ancient forest of our imaginations. An essential writer.' - Stephen Baxter 'No other author has so successfully captured the magic of the wildwood.' - Michael Moorcock 'A new expression of the British genius for true fantasy.' - Alan Garner, on Mythago Wood Garry Kilworth: 'Garry Kilworth is arguably the finest writer of short fiction today, in any genre.' - New Scientist 'Kilworth is one of the most significant writers in the English language.' - Fear Magazine 'Probably one of the finest writers of short stories Britain has ever produced.' - Bookstove Online 'Kilworth is a master of his trade.' - Punch Magazine

In 1870 an enterprise began in Australia that was breathtaking in its ambition: to construct a single galvanised iron wire between Adelaide and Darwin, crossing two thousand miles of virtually unexplored wilderness. This was the Overland Telegraph Line, using local trees as poles, thousands of them, and hundreds of men who would not return to civilization for two years or more. Some would not return at all. Alex McKenzie is a young telegrapher who believes his chosen profession to be at the cutting edge of contemporary science. A man who knows that once the last pole is erected and the line is open from Adelaide, to Darwin, to London and on to New York, the world will have shrunk and messages that used to take four months from sender to receiver will then take only minutes. His hopes for the future, for him and the love of his life, Sally, rest on the success of this magnificent Australian achievement. However, there are those whose enmity he has aroused and who would not hesitate to rob him of his life simply because he represents all they hate: someone who has grabbed at his opportunities and has risen from farm labouring roots to man of science. The Iron Wire a novel of human hope and progress in a land where men die, women are widowed, and bushrangers live by the lie and the gun. "His characters are strong and the sense of place he creates is immediate." (Sunday Times on In Solitary) "The Songbirds Of Pain is excellently crafted. Kilworth is a master of his trade." (Punch Magazine) "Atmospherically overcharged like an impending thunderstorm." (The Guardian on Witchwater Country) "A convincing display of fine talent." (The Times on A Theatre Of Timesmiths) "A masterpiece of balanced and enigmatic storytelling ... Kilworth has mastered the form." (Times Literary Supplement on In The Country Of Tattooed Men) "An absolute delight, based on the myths and legends of the Polynesian peoples." (Mark Morris on The Roof Of Voyaging) "A subtle, poetic novel about the power of place - in this case the South Arabian Deserts - and the lure of myth. It haunted me long after it ended." (City Limits Magazine on Spiral Winds)

Montagu Sylver - a descendant of the famous outlaw, Sylver - is a famous weasel detective, intent on solving mysteries. Can he ferret out the truth when he learns that the anarchist Spindrick plans to blow everyone to smithereens with a fiendish bomb? Or find a lemming prince who vanishes almost as soon as he sets paw on Welkin soil? From rat-controlled sewers, to the fog-shrouded docks and a banner-strewn battlefront in the north, Monty is soon on the trail, aided and abetted by his trusty weasel companions. But time is running out - especially when the corrupt Sheriff Falshed trumps up a charge against Monty and he is suddenly a fugitive from the law... Set in a gloriously witty semi-Victorian world, GASLIGHT GEEZERS is a fast and furious animal fantasy tale that begins a new cycle of adventures for the weasels of Welkin.

Udolphus Beck - an otter - is an unraveller of mysteries. And as the colourful Carnvival explodes onto the streets and canals of the city - with masked creatures everywhere - Udolphus discovers that the conspirators are not afraid to get blood on their paws...