Paul Kingsnorth – författare

*New York Times bestseller*How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be humanIn Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake.It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Here Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic and poetic, Against the Machine is a spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

What kind of man am I? I wonder what I think about that now that I have spent a year here, watching the layers peel off, stripping myself back . . .Beast plunges you into the world of Edward Buckmaster, a man living alone on a west-country moor. What he has left behind we don't quite know; what he faces is a battle with himself, the elements and with the animal he begins to see in the margins of his vision. A creature that will become an obsession . . .

'Like Robert Macfarlane re-written by Cormac McCarthy.' Telegraph'Beckett doing Beowulf.' London Review of Books One thousand years from now, the sole inhabitants of a small island - a group no larger than an extended family - are living in a post-civilised world. They are perhaps the Earth's only human survivors.But lurking outside their isolated community is a figure in red, an emissary from another way of life: a virtual place of refuge and security, of escape from the dangers of a newly wild world. The visitor calls it Alexandria. A work of radical and matchless imagination, Paul Kingsnorth's new novel is a mythical, polyphonic drama driven by elemental themes: of community versus the self, the mind versus the body, machine over man; whether to put your faith in the present or the future.Set on the far side of the climate apocalypse, Alexandria completes the Buckmaster Trilogy, which began with Kingsnorth's prize-winning The Wake.

Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist, an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on 'sustainability' rather than the defence of wild places for their own sake and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change.Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth's thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls 'dark ecology,' which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds. Provocative and urgent, iconoclastic and fearless, this ultimately hopeful book poses hard questions about how we have lived and should live.

It could turn out to be the biggest political movement of the twenty-first century: a global coalition of millions, united in resisting an out-of-control global economy, and already building alternatives to it. It emerged in Mexico in 1994, when the Zapatista rebels rose up in defiance of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The West first noticed it in Seattle in 1999, when the World Trade Organisation was stopped in its tracks by 50,000 protesters. Since then, it has flowered all over the world, every month of every year. The 'anti-capitalist' street protests we see in the media are only the tip of its iceberg. It aims to shake the foundations of the global economy, and change the course of history. But what exactly is it? Who is involved, what do they want, and how do they aim to get it? To find out, Paul Kingsnorth travelled across four continents to visit some of the epicentres of the movement. In the process, he was tear-gassed on the streets of Genoa, painted anti-WTO puppets in Johannesburg, met a tribal guerrilla with supernatural powers, took a hot bath in Arizona with a pie-throwing anarchist and infiltrated the world's biggest gold mine in New Guinea. Along the way, he found a new political movement and a new political idea. Not socialism, not capitalism, not any 'ism' at all, it is united in what it opposes, and deliberately diverse in what it wants instead -- a politics of 'one no, many yeses'. This movement may yet change the world. This book tells its story.

'As disturbing as it is empathetic, as beautiful as it is riveting' Eimear McBride, New Statesman'A literary triumph' Adam Thorpe, Guardian1066. The Norman invasion has brutally seized the country that the Buccmaster of Holland, a proud landowning farmer in Lincolnshire, once knew. Bereft of his wife and sons, the Buccmaster clings to the ways of the Old Gods, and assembles a band of 'grene men' to seek revenge. Winner of the Gordon Burn Prize 2014 and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, The Wake transports readers to an English landscape steeped in folklore, omens and violence. Told in a 'shadow tongue' - a form of Old English understandable to a modern reader - the novel is an astonishing and gripping depiction of faith, homeland and identity at the end of the world.'Strange and extraordinary . . . it lingers in the imagination' The Times

Nature is so beautiful it must mean something. Christians have seen in the beauty of creation a sign of the beauty of the Creator; the natural world teaches us to know the “author of beauty.” But anyone who starts thinking more seriously about beauty soon runs into more troubling aspects.We’re more awash with images than ever before, many of them doctored or artificial. Any idealized beauty that excludes humankind’s imperfection and vulnerability is prone to becoming inhuman. And even the wholesome beauty of nature or the fine arts is only a partial truth in a world where children starve or are trafficked to abusers. Yet stubbornly, beauty remains. Through trees, gargoyles, paintings, and fellow humans, the writers in this issue ask hard questions to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the good, the true, and the beautiful.On this theme:Natalie Carnes revisits Christianity’s love-hate relationship with sacred art: Are those icons or idols?Brandon Vaidyanathan says his mother’s mental illness changed the way he sees human beauty.Sean Rubin tells how his mother found Jesus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Sergio Bermudez views Paris from the perspective of Notre-Dame Cathedral’s grotesques and gargoyles.Cardinal Christoph Schönborn reflects on Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement during a conclave.Ben Quash looks at how beauty has shaped Christian imagination, from Absalom’s hair to English gardens.Philip Holsinger sees the future of El Salvador in one bright, carefree child.Caitrin Keiper searches for meaning in the loss of her unborn baby.Chris Voll profiles a sculptor who left a promising career to care for his dying father.Also in this issue:Six new poems by Wendell Berry.Paul Kingsnorth offers six ways to resist the Machine.The Bruderhof’s rule about gossip was written in 1925. Does it still work?Discover LesslieNewbigin, who reimagined the role of a missionary.Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

*New York Times bestseller*How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be humanIn Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake.It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Here Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic and poetic, Against the Machine is a spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

We see the signs around us every day: the chain cafés and mobile phone outlets that dominate our high streets; the disappearance of knobbly carrots from our supermarket shelves; and the headlines about yet another traditional industry going to the wall. For the first time, here is a book that makes the connection between these isolated, incremental local changes and the bigger picture of a nation whose identity is being eroded. As he travels around the country meeting farmers, fishermen and the inhabitants of Chinatown, Paul Kingsnorth reports on the kind of conversations that are taking place in country pubs and corner shops across the land - while reminding us that these quintessentially English institutions may soon cease to exist.

From the legends of King Arthur embedded in the rocky splendour of Tintagel to the folklore and mysticism of Stonehenge, English Heritage sites are often closely linked to native English myths. Following on from the bestselling ghost story anthology Eight Ghosts, this new collection of stories inspired by the legends and tales that swirl through the history of eight ancient historical sites.Including an essay by James Kidd on the importance of myth to our landscape and our fiction, and an English Heritage survey of sites and associated legends, These Our Monsters is an evocative collection that brings new voices and fresh creative alchemy to our story-telling heritage.Author and atmospheric locations include:Edward Carey - Bury St Edmunds AbbeySarah Hall - Castlerigg and other stone circlesPaul Kingsnorth - StonehengeAlison MacLeod - Down HouseGraeme Macrae Burnet - Whitby AbbeySarah Moss - Berwick CastleFiona Mozley - Carlisle CastleAdam Thorpe - Tintagel CastleWith original black-and-white illustrations by Clive Hicks-Jenkins

Att ta sig igenom genom en kollaps är en märklig upplevelse. Det kanske mest märkliga är att ingen vill erkänna att det är en kollaps. Nu börjar resultaten av ett halvt sekel av skulddriven tillväxt bli omöjliga att förneka på ett övertygande sätt, men även när ekonomier och det vi tar för givet faller sönder håller våra utsedda ledare modigt försvarslinjen. Ingen vill vara den första att säga att sprickan i dammen inte går att reparera. Att lyssna på en politisk ledare i detta ögonblick i historien är som att sitta igenom en predikan av en präst som förlorat sin tro men desperat försöker att inte erkänna det, inte ens för sig själv. Se presidenter, premiärministrar, statsministrar och lokala partiledare komma dundrande med pr-floskler till de trogna. De pratar om tillväxt som om de blotar låtsaspengar till en hednisk gud. Allt kommer att bli bra. I tider som dessa söker folk efter svar någon annanstans. Men en tid av kris är också en tid för att öppna upp för nya tankar, nu när det som var parkerat i periferin flyttas till centrum. När världen faller ihop kommer tiden för att tänka nytt; det finns alltid gott om människor som vill passa på att presentera sina grandiosa idéer. Men här är en tanke: tänk om stora idéer är en del av problemet? Tänk om problemet i själva verket är just storheten i sig?

After moving with his family to a small-holding in Ireland, Paul Kingsnorth expected to find contentment. It was a goal he had sought, after years of rootlessness as an environmental activist and renowned author. Instead he found that his tools as a writer were failing him, calling into question his fundamental beliefs about language and setting him at odds with culture. Informed by his travels across the world, the writings of Annie Dillard and D H Lawrence, Savage Gods asks: what does it mean to belong? What sacrifices must be made to truly inhabit a life? And can words ever paint the truth of the world, or are they part of the great lie which is killing it?

From the legends of King Arthur embedded in the rocky splendour of Tintagel to the folklore and mysticism of Stonehenge, English Heritage sites are often closely linked to native English myths. Following on from the bestselling ghost story anthology Eight Ghosts, this new collection of stories inspired by the legends and tales that swirl through the history of eight ancient historical sites.Including an essay by James Kidd on the importance of myth to our landscape and our fiction, and an English Heritage survey of sites and associated legends, These Our Monsters is an evocative collection that brings new voices and fresh creative alchemy to our story-telling heritage.Author and atmospheric locations include:Edward Carey - Bury St Edmunds AbbeySarah Hall - Castlerigg and other stone circlesPaul Kingsnorth - StonehengeAlison MacLeod - Down HouseGraeme Macrae Burnet - Whitby AbbeySarah Moss - Berwick CastleFiona Mozley - Carlisle CastleAdam Thorpe - Tintagel CastleWith original black-and-white illustrations by Clive Hicks-Jenkins