Exciting times at Cultured Llama. We have moved out of the Cultured Llama’s stable of origin, and have travelled on a journey through the frozen wastes of Kent, our llamas packed with baskets of books, including a new treat for you lucky readers – A Short History of Synchronised Breathing and other stories, by Vanessa Gebbie.
Sublime short stories from Vanessa Gebbie, a master of the art. Meta-fiction, fable, satire, instruction manual, or reportage? Sometimes all in the one story. A Short History of Synchronised Breathing is funny, sexy, original, heartbreaking, and with true insights to the human condition.
978-0-9568921-2-6. Cultured Llama. PB. 203×127mm. 160pp. February 2017. Short Stories. £12.00
Charming and challenging, inventive and intelligent – a wonderful collection that is also laugh out loud funny.
Paul McVeigh, author of The Good SonA prodigiously gifted writer.
Maggie Gee, author of Virginia Woolf in ManhattanAbout The Coward’s Tale:
Gebbie is as at ease with humour as she is with poignancy. A hypnotic debut.
Leila Sanai, The IndependentAbout Storm Warning:
…enough good pieces in enough styles for the book to be used as an anthology demonstrating how stories should be written nowadays.
Tim Love’s Literary References
Order a copy for £12 (plus p&p); p&p is free if you buy two or more of any of our books:
A Short History of Synchronised Breathing and other stories
For more stories, Who Killed Emil Kreisler? by Nigel Jarrett is a great and varied read. Reviewed by Cath Barton for Wales Arts Review:
Jarrett is a chameleon in his use of the English language and changes his style to suit his subject. His fluency and adaptability are remarkable.
It is difficult to pigeon-hole Nigel Jarrett’s writing, and that is all to the good. Sometimes he reminds me of Somerset Maugham, a wonderful storyteller, albeit one who some now regard as old-fashioned. My favourite story in this collection is “Wish You Were Here”. I love its sense of mystery. What is the narrator’s line of work? Who sent him the postcards that had gone missing from his neighbour’s collection after her death? What is the significance of the pictures? And what about the fifth postcard? That’s the great thing about a good story like this one – it makes the reader into a collaborator and it is for each one of us to make our own sense of it. Great stuff.
Order a copy for £12 (plus p&p); p&p is free if you buy two or more of any of our books: Who Killed Emil Kreisler?
If it’s poetry you’re after, There are no Foreign Lands by Mark Holihan is a perfect choice. Reviewed on The High Window poetry website, here is what Michael Curtis has to say:
These patient, expansive poems take the time to describe what’s felt through what seen, what happens, often shot through with a wry, deadpan humour that seems characteristically Californian.
Order for £10 plus p&p: There are no Foreign Lands
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