Books with author Jonathan Craig

Robin, a postgrad student in Coventry, has spent four and a half years not writing his thesis. He and his academic colleagues, united by pallor, social ineptitude and sexual inexperience, once spent hours discussing their theories, but they somehow never made it into print. Now his unfinished thesis languishes in a drawer, and Robin hides in his room, increasingly frightened by a world he doesn't understand. His friends have failed him and romance eludes him. His only outlet is his short stories, scribbled in notebooks and expressing his secret obsessions and frustrations. Then, when an unfortunate and embarassing incident in a public park lands him in serious trouble, Robin's life finally spirals out of control ...

Between 1939 and 1945, the civilian population in Britain was exposed to the grim and dangerous realities of war to an unprecedented degree. Yet many remember those years as bringing fulfilment, a sense of adventure, even exhilaration, and found the common danger gave their lives a shape and purpose that they have been unable to recapture in peacetime. Others see the wartime as essentially a time of nothing more valiant than endurance, of 'making do', a dismal episode of their lives remembered above all for its deprivations, restrictions and tedium. Yet others found that, while there was certainly intensity, it was to be found in the frustrations and disappointments they experienced, perhaps through an ambition being thwarted, a relationship abruptly severed, an education cut short, a childhood missed.This book gathers the personal stories of 35 people, drawn from all walks of life, and evokes as never before, the reality of life in Britain during the Second World War. Here is a uniquely personal portrait of a nation at war, with contemporary photographs, diaries, letters, poems, and other memorabilia belonging to the men and women whose wartime lives fill this absorbing book.

Music, murder ...and Madeleine William has a lot on his mind. Firstly there's The Alaska Factory, the band he plays in. They're no good and they make his songs sound about as groovy as an unpressed record. In fact, they're so bad he's seriously thinking of leaving to join a group called The Unfortunates. Secondly, there's Madeleine, his high-maintenance girlfriend whose idea of a night of passion is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical followed by a doorstep peck on the cheek. Maybe they're not soulmates after all? Lastly, there's the bizarre murder he's just witnessed. The guiding force behind The Unfortunates lies bludgeoned to death at his feet and, unfortunately for William, there aren't too many other suspects standing nearby...

Maxwell Sim seems to have hit rock bottom: separated from his wife and daughter, estranged from his father, and with no one to confide in even though he has 74 friends on Facebook. He's not even sure whether he's got a job until suddenly a strange business proposition comes his way which involves a long journey to the Shetland Isles - and a voyage into his family's past which throws up some surprising revelations. Jonathan Coe's new book is a story for our times: Maxwell finds himself at sea in the modern world, surrounded by social networks but unable to relate properly to anyone. Yet as he delves into his family history he manages to find the resources to survive.