Kate Clanchy

Like the creation myths they supersede, the revelations of science are seared into our collective imagination through storytelling. In this anthology, authors have worked together with scientists and historians to bring vividly to life the stories behind the 'eureka!' moments that changed the way we live, forever.

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award The 'English' of this novel are a particular kind of family. Their ailing patriarch is Phillip Prys, the once-famous writer unexpectedly eclipsed first by voguish Salman Rushdie, and second by a massive stroke. His third wife, Shirin, pads through their house in Hampstead, resolute in the face of Myfanwy, first spouse, who returns with all the subtlety of a stormy weather front to manage Phillip's care. Their children, Jake and Juliet, have each retreated towards drugs and food, their already strained relationship with their father unable to bear this latest rupture. And to cap it all, it's the hottest summer anyone can remember. Enter Struan. Built like a heron, fresh from Scotland, he is thrust -- quite literally -- into the bosom of the family as Phillip's 17-year-old nurse. He's had experience of death, but not of London. It's a foreign country, with foreign food and foreign customs. But it also has a kind of magic. As he comes under the influence of each Prys, his life begins to change in ways he could never have imagined. And so, in the meantime, do theirs. . .

‘An absolutely wonderful book’ - Deborah Moggach In a London street at the turn of the twenty-first century, two neighbours start to chat over the heads of their children. Kate Clanchy is a writer, privileged and sheltered. Antigona is a refugee from Kosovo. On instinct, Kate offers Antigona a job as a nanny, and Antigona accepts. Over the next five years and a thousand cups of coffee Antigona's extraordinary story slowly emerges. She has escaped from a war, she has divorced a violent husband, but can she escape the harsh code she was brought up with? At the kitchen table where anything can be said, the women discover they have everything, as well as nothing, in common.

Do you want to write a poem? This book will show you 'how to grow your own poem'...

I text you how much ?it hurts not to see you. Here are poems about love, loss, mothers, fathers, God, rain and growing up. About all the things that poems are always about, in fact, with one crucial difference. Instead of being remembered from an adult distance, these poems were written by a diverse group of teenagers direct from their own experience. So as well as being clever, funny and moving, they are also immediate – they go straight to the heart like a text from a friend. Most of these poems are by pupils from a single multicultural comprehensive school, Oxford Spires Academy. Many have already been social media sensations: some students' poems, for instance, have been retweeted over 100,000 times. A donation from the sale of this book will be made to the charity Asylum Welcome.

An unforgettable collection of poems by young people, edited by the award-winning writer and teacher Kate Clanchy. I text you how much it hurts not to see you. Here are poems about love, loss, mothers, fathers, God, rain, and growing up. About all the things that poems always are about, in fact, with one crucial difference. Instead of being remembered from an adult distance, these poems were written by a diverse group of teenagers direct from their own experience. So as well as being clever, funny and moving they are also immediate – they go straight to the heart like a text from a friend. Most of these poems are by pupils from a single multicultural comprehensive school, Oxford Spires Academy. Many have already been social media sensations: Linnet Drury’s poems, for instance, have been retweeted over 100,000 times. All the poets have been paid for their poems. Friend: Poems by Young People has been edited by the award-winning poet, writer and teacher Kate Clanchy. A previous anthology of her students’ work, England: Poems from a School, was published to great acclaim in 2018.

With a new afterword. 'The best book on teachers and children and writing that I've ever read. No-one has said better so much of what so badly needs saying' - Philip Pullman Kate Clanchy wants to change the world and thinks school is an excellent place to do it. She invites you to meet some of the kids she has taught in her thirty-year career. Join her as she explains everything about sex to a classroom of thirteen-year-olds. As she works in the school ‘Inclusion Unit’, trying to improve the fortunes of kids excluded from regular lessons because of their terrifying power to end learning in an instant. Or as she nurtures her multicultural poetry group, full of migrants and refugees, watches them find their voice and produce work of heartbreaking brilliance. While Clanchy doesn’t deny stinging humiliations or hide painful accidents, she celebrates this most creative, passionate and practically useful of jobs. Teaching today is all too often demeaned, diminished and drastically under-resourced. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me will show you why it shouldn’t be. Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2020

'An impressive line-up of established and emerging names' Sunday Times 'These eerie, unsettling stories are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine' Daily Express A rich collection of unnerving ghost stories and sinister histories conjured from the imaginations of bestselling authors: Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Michael Hurley, Sarah Perry, Stuart Evers, Kate Clanchy, Kamila Shamsie and Max Porter. From medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker, locations are inspired by rumours of hauntings on English Heritage sites*. Let these immersive stories transport you to the past - the perfect book for the haunting season. *Also includes a gazetteer of EH properties which are said to be haunted.

'An impressive line-up of established and emerging names' Sunday Times 'These eerie, unsettling stories are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine' Daily Express A rich collection of unnerving ghost stories and sinister histories conjured from the imaginations of bestselling authors: Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Michael Hurley, Sarah Perry, Stuart Evers, Kate Clanchy, Kamila Shamsie and Max Porter. From medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker, locations are inspired by rumours of hauntings on English Heritage sites*. Let these immersive stories transport you to the past - the perfect book for the haunting season. *Also includes a gazetteer of EH properties which are said to be haunted.