Alan Warner – författare

NOW A SELL-OUT PLAY: OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOURThe choir from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School for Girls is being bussed to the national finals in the big, big city. And it's an important day for The Sopranos - Orla, Kylah, (Ra)Chell, Amanda Konky and Fionnula (the Cooler) - pub-crawling, shoplifting and body-piercing being the top priorities. Then it's time to lose that competition - lose, because a nuclear sub has just anchored in the bay and, tonight, the Man Trap disco will be full of submariners on shore-leave. There is no time for delays. . . But after the fifth bottle of alco-pop up the back of the bus it's clear that all is not going to plan, for anyone. The Sopranos are never going to be the same.'Compassionate and riotously funny. It is a long time since I read a novel which had me rocking with laughter' -The Times

Winner of the James Tait Black Fiction PrizeFor 16-year-old Simon Crimmons there is not a lot to do. Going nowhere, fed up with school, he leaves to work as a driver on the trains. That summer he is introduced to a world of grown-up glamour, strikes and girlfriends. When Simon falls for the ethereal, aristocratic Varie, he finds freedom and adventure but will it be at a price? Too ‘posh’ for the railways, too ‘working class’ for Varie, Simon must navigate what it means to be a man as his world is turned upside down.

High up in the Conrad Flats that loom bleakly over Acton, two future stars of the literary scene - or so they assume - are hard at work, tapping out words of wit and brilliance between ill-paid jobs writing captions for the Cat Calendar 1985 and blurbs for trashy novels with titles like Brothel of the Vampire. Just twenty-one but already well entrenched in a life eked out on dole payments, pints and dollops of porridge and pasta, Llewellyn and Cunningham don't have it too bad: a pub on the corner, a misdirected parental allowance, and the delightful company of Aoife, Llewellyn's model fiancée, mother of his young baby - and the woman of Cunningham's increasingly vivid dreams.Alan Warner's superb new novel sees the author of Morvern Callar at the top of his game.

Is this the right book for me?Do you have responsibility for managing cash flow in a small to medium enterprise or as a manager in a larger organisation, but have limited financial experience? Do you worry that lack of attention to this crucial aspect of financial management could lead to disaster for your business? Improve your Cash Flow, written by two leading financial experts, will help employers, managers and consultants to understand more about how to manage cash flow and how it can impact on your business. Whether you are working at home, a growing business or a non-financial manager this book will guide you easily through all the issues, providing practical advice on why cash is king, including why businesses go bust; why profit is not cash, how to deal with creditors and debtors; using supplier credit as a source of finance; debtors and cash collection; financial planning and sources of funding; the pros and cons of debt finance, using your bank effectively and much more.Improve your Cash Flow includes:Chapter 1: Why 'cash is king'?Chapter 2: Profit and cash flowChapter 3: The impact of the business modelChapter 4: Key decisions and start-up timeChapter 5: Cash flow planningChapter 6: Sources of fundingChapter 7: Controlling capital expenditureChapter 8: Debtors and cash collectionChapter 9: Managing stock levelsChapter 10: Using supplier credit as a source of financeChapter 11: Alternative routes to financingChapter 12: Formats for cash flow reportingChapter 13: Recruting financial expertiseChapter 14: Using your bank effectivelyChapter 15: 'Cash is king'Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and added features: Not got much time?One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.Author insightsLots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the authors' many years of experience.Test yourselfTests in the book and online to keep track of your progress.Extend your knowledgeExtra online articles to give you a richer understanding of setting up your own small business.Five things to rememberQuick refreshers to help you remember the key facts.Try thisInnovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.

'One of our finest writers' Michael Moorcock'Alan Warner is one of our best living writers' Jenni FaganKitchenly 434 is set in a sprawling Tudorbethan mansion in Sussex, Kitchenly Mill Race, on the cusp of the arrival of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. In some ways, the last days of an Age of Innocence.Marko Morrell, guitarist in Fear Taker, is one of the biggest rock stars in the world. His demanding lifestyle means he is frequently in absentia at Kitchenly, his idyllic country retreat, and so it is his butler (or 'help'), Crofton Clark, who is charged with the maintenance and housekeeping. When, one day, two young girls arrive looking for Marko clutching their copies of Fear Taker LPs, Crofton finds himself on a romantic misadventure which leads to the tragi-comic unravelling of the fantasies he has been living by.A novel about delusional male behaviour, opening and closing curtains, self-awareness, loneliness and 'getting it together in the country', Kitchenly 434 is a magnificent novel about the Golden Age of Rock in the bucolic English countryside.

Finally, a brilliant exploration of the German rock band Can's 1971 album Tago Mago. This hugely unique and influential album deserves close analysis from a fan, rather than a musicologist. Novelist Alan Warner details the concrete music we hear on the album, how it was composed, executed and recorded--including the history of the album in terms of its release, promotion and art work. This tale of Tago Mago is also the tale of a young man obsessed with record collecting in the dark and mysterious period of pop music before Google. Warner includes a backtracking of the history of the band up to that point and also some description of Can's unique recording approach taking into account their home studio set up.Interviews with the two surviving members: drummer Jaki Liebezeit, keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and bassist Holger Czukay make this a hilariously personal and illuminating picture of Can.

It is off-season in a remote Highland sea port: twenty-one-year-old Morvern Callar, a low-paid employee in the local supermarket, wakes one morning to find her strange boyfriend has committed suicide and is dead on their kitchen floor. Morvern's laconic reaction is both intriguing and immoral. What she does next is even more appalling...WINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD

Shortlisted for The Winston Graham Historical Fiction Prize and The Highland Book PrizeA battle lost. A daring escape. A long walk into obscurity. The ultimate failure…In the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Culloden, a lonely figure takes flight with a small band of companions through the islands and mountains of the Hebrides. His name is Charles Edward Stuart: better known today as Bonnie Prince Charlie. He had come to the country to take the throne. Now he is leaving in exile and abject defeat.In prose that is by turns poetic, comic, macabre, haunting and humane, multi- award-winning author Alan Warner traces the frantic last journey through Scotland of a man who history will come to define for his failure.'Written in carefully crafted prose . . . this reimagining of Charles Edward Stuart’s escape from Culloden is a triumph' – Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman