Matt Simpson’s poetry has among its principal themes one of coming to terms with the past as a way of understanding the present. In the present collection Simpson continues his journey into his family history. He has also been on other travels: there are poems about Japan, Tasmania, Ireland and the Greek islands of Aegina and Leros. Simpson is not shy of big themes. Here are poems about identity, love, death, illness, friendship. Simpson can be tenderly elegiac as well as celebratory, meditative and humorous.

A young writer of radically religious tendency is invited to spend the first weekend of the New Year at a country house in the company of other creative or talented individuals who have been earmarked, unbeknownst to themselves, for participation in a unique experiment in connection with a certain revolutionary museum,whose contents are even more sublimated than the relationships that artificially develop between guests and patrons both before and after their enlightenment. A deeply philosophical novel by John O'Loughlin.

Berit Frydenlund was born in England ten months after the end of WWII. Until 1948, she lived in Sarpsborg, Norway, then returned to England where she resided until 1974. She is the oldest of eight children. At Gloucestershire College of Education, she majored in education and literature, then began her teaching career. After emigrating to the United States, she received a BSc from Malone College in Ohio and continued in the profession about which she was passionate working with children. Raised in an age when family secrets were not aired, she tells the story of a difficult childhood in the ’50s and ’60s and her learned behaviors of the time. Berit and her husband, Larry, have a son and a daughter and five grandchildren. They live in Dover, Ohio. Becoming Berit is her first book.

Claire Wilson was born in 1940 when little was known about the congenital defect known today as Intersex. Her father refused to accept the new baby, seeing “him” as a poofter. Consequently, the baby was medically mutilated and raised as a boy in the hope that “he” would turn out as a normal man and save “his” father's revulsion and shame. Claire grows up not knowing who or what she is until she arrives in her teens. Her mother explains how she was born and Claire's world takes on new meaning. She decides to live as “William” fearing her father's anger and rejection of her as useless. Claire as “William” marries Sharon and they have two children. Trying all the time to live the life of a man tormented her. So she eventually decides to tell her spouse and she is rejected by her family. So, more trauma is introduced to her life. Thankfully, her doctor is very supportive of her and manages to have the UK National Health Service commit funds for Gender Reassignment Surgery. Subsequently, the surgery she is to undergo, unknown to Claire, is the start of yet more trauma.

Beautifully rendered, heartbreakingly adorable, and wonderfully wacky knitted caps for newborns and toddlers Thirty-eight million Americans knit, and that number grows every day. The baby hat is the perfect project for knitters of any level, with enchanting patterns that are easy enough for rank beginners but also interesting enough for the most accomplished needle wielders, in yarns that range from silk and linen to cashmere and mohair. Susan Anderson’s Itty-Bitty Hats presents thirty-eight irresistible designs for infants and toddlers—fun, hip, creative patterns with decorative flourishes that are witty, whimsical, and undeniably unique. The projects are arranged by order of difficulty and accompanied by beautiful photographs, instructive how-to illustrations, and utterly clear instructions (with no confusing abbreviations or insider shorthand). Anderson also provides an indispensable introductory section on stitches, materials, equipment, terminology, and techniques, allowing even the most inexperienced knitter to get started confidently. Made for boys and girls, by parents and grandparents, aunts and even uncles, and, of course, best friends, the handmade hat is the perfect shower or birth or birthday gift—and Itty-Bitty Hats is the perfect gift for any knitter.

Set in the north of England, Barker's new novel portrays a child psychiatrist who rescues a man from drowning one day while walking on a beach in Northumberland. Uncannily, he recognizes the man: it's Danny Miller, a child murderer at whose trial he once gave evidence. Since the trial, he has reconsidered that evidence and found it lacking. Now he confronts the man whose altered fate may be his responsibility.