With a surprising yet sensitive comic touch, the author of "Dancer from the Dance" has written his most mature work to date, a poignant, polished collection of 16 stories which journey across landscapes of regret and loss, shame and pride, loneliness and love.

Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy-tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.

The members of the literary circle known as the Violet Quill—Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano, Edmund White, Christopher Cox, Michael Grumley, Robert Ferro, and George Whitmore—collectively represent the aspirations and the achievement of gay writing during and after the gay liberation movement. David Bergman's social history shows how the works of these authors reflected, advanced, and criticized the values, principles, and prejudices of the culture of gay liberation. In spinning many of the most important stories gay men told of themselves in the short period between the 1969 Stonewall Riots and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s, the Violet Quill exerted an enormous influence on gay culture. The death toll of the AIDS epidemic, including four of the Violet Quill's seven members, has made putting such recent events into a historical context all the more important and difficult. The work of the Violet Quill expresses the joy, suffering, grief, hope, activism, and caregiving of their generation. The Violet Hour meets the urgent need for a history of the men who bore witness not only to the birth but also to the decimation of a culture.

A Waterstones Paperback of the Year! What happens when you feel stressed? Maybe you start sweating, or your heart beats faster. When Charlie McGuffin gets stressed, something a little bit different happens: he turns into an animal! Unfortunately, things are getting quite stressful for Charlie: - His dad's business is in real trouble - He might have to move in with his Aunt Brenda and her seventeen cats (and wooden leg) - And it's getting harder and harder to control his powers Luckily, Charlie's best friends Flora, Wogan and Mohsen are on hand to help. If they can break into the fortress-like offices of Van Der Gruyne Industries and recover the McGuffins' stolen gold, maybe Charlie won't have to move away after all. Can Charlie's friends help him master his powers once and for all, or will he end up stuck as a pigeon forever? Praise for Charlie Changes into a Chicken: 'This is a really funny book!' Alice, age 8 'My body couldn't help but shake with laughter' Maren, age 10 'Belly-busting hilarity' The Guardian 'Laugh-out-loud funny' The Mail on Sunday 'The modern masterpiece . . . this savvy, comic tale ticks every box' The Daily Telegraph 'Cleverly daft storytelling at its very, very best' Maz Evans, author of Who Let The Gods Out? 'The best kind of silly' The Observer 'Full of heart and humour, wit and wisdom' Sophie Anderson, author of The House with Chicken Legs 'Wonderfully heart-warming and absolutely hilarious' Catherine Doyle, author of The Storm Keeper's Island Charlie Changes into a Chicken has been: Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize! Longlisted for the Brandford Boase Award! Longlisted for the Blue Peter Award! The Guardian and The Telegraph's Book of the Year!