Inkspot Publishing – förlag

The sheep that's a good listener. The woman and the ice cream salesman. The young man who falls in love with a washing machine. That age old tale.Funny, macabre, heart-breaking, eerie, disturbing, provocative...the 21 stories in this collection of originals are all winners of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival Short Story Competition Winners from its inception in 2016 to 2022. The stories are hugely varied in style and genre, and will appeal to any lover of fiction and the much-loved short story form. They have impressed the likes of Tessa Hadley, Nicholas Royle, Rachel Sieffert, Sarah Franklin, Martyn Waites, Isobel Dixon and Yasmin Kane.

Hamburg, 1947.Adam is a young British lawyer is posted to the destroyed city to assist in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, an exhausting, soul-destroying and demoralising task.He falls in love with a German prostitute during a time of strict anti-fraternisation rules. Rose is beautiful, educated, clever, witty … and Adam becomes increasingly obsessed with her.Then a Nazi prisoner, responsible for the cold-blooded killing of hundreds of innocents, escapes while in Adam’s custody. There is only one place for the desperate man to hide: in Hamburg’s forbidden Dead Zone. And Adam is even more desperate to find him, no matter what the cost.

15-year-old Neveah leads a double-life. She lives with her mum, Marie, who works nights and isn't too bothered what Neveah gets up to, as long as it doesn't affect her.When Neveah isn't at school, she’s earning good money by moonlighting as a digital freelancer. Giles, her biggest client, is married with a troubled home life. Neveah lies to him about her age, telling him she's twenty-two and he believes her. Caught in a heated affair, Neveah will do just about anything to stop him from finding out her true age.But a secret this big can't stay under wraps forever. When it all comes out, the consequences are devastating.Why do some young girls become sexually active way sooner than is good for them, and if a man has sex with a girl who lies about her age, is he still culpable?

Hamburg, 1947.Adam is a young British lawyer is posted to the destroyed city to assist in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, an exhausting, soul-destroying and demoralising task.He falls in love with a German prostitute during a time of strict anti-fraternisation rules. Rose is beautiful, educated, clever, witty … and Adam becomes increasingly obsessed with her.Then a Nazi prisoner, responsible for the cold-blooded killing of hundreds of innocents, escapes while in Adam''s custody. There is only one place for the desperate man to hide: in Hamburg''s forbidden Dead Zone. And Adam is even more desperate to find him, no matter what the cost.At once an adventure, an unconventional love story and an examination of individual culpability in the face of historical horrors. The novel poses uncomfortable questions about ordinary Germans and their possible collusion in the atrocities committed in the name of the Fatherland, and whether people from other nations, in the same circumstances, would have behaved differently. Those of us who look back in time can only hope we will never be similarly tested.

Meet the Newells, a big family of good lookers and hard grafters.From their sleepy working class backwater, the siblings break into Oxford academia, London's high life, the glossy world of magazine publishing and the stratospheric riches of New York's hedge funds.Then there's Paddy, the wrong'un in their midst, who has just been released from prison for dangerous driving.As things fall apart around his sister Bea, is Paddy behind it all? And why does matriarch Edie turn a blind eye to her son's malevolence? Will she stand by and watch while he wrecks the lives of her other children? Just how much is she willing to sacrifice to protect her son?

Meet the Newells, a big family of good lookers and hard grafters. From their sleepy working class backwater, the siblings break into Oxford academia, London''s high life, the glossy world of magazine publishing and the stratospheric riches of New York''s hedge funds. Then there''s Paddy, the wrong''un in their midst, who prefers life''s underbelly. As things fall apart around his sister Bea, is Paddy behind it all? And why does matriarch Edie turn a blind eye to her son''s malevolence? Will she stand by and watch while he wrecks the lives of her other children? Just how much is she willing to sacrifice to protect her son? The book opens with Edie, now in her seventies, who looks back on her early married life with her husband, George, and their ever-growing brood. She loved having babies, but resented their growth and increasing independence. She recalls the horror and confusion surrounding the death of her toddler son, Timmy. Even though it happened forty years ago, she still blames her brother, his uncle, for falling asleep while he was supposed to be looking after the children. Now, her favourite son, Paddy, has just been released from prison for dangerous driving. She is good at making excuses for him. All her other children are successful, and have done extremely well in their chosen careers, but it becomes apparent that she begrudges her only daughter''s success. Why does she resent her daughter so much? Paddy is malevolent, violent, bullying, cruel... Edie has never forgiven herself for giving him up to the care system before she married George. He has never fitted in with his siblings, and is the bad apple that can ruin the whole batch. The only person he has ever cared about is his stepfather, George, who saw only too clearly what Edie has always been blind to. Bea, the only daughter in the family, has grown up knowing her mother doesn''t love her. She is a successful journalist, and adores her husband, David, and her stepchildren, but longs for a baby of her own. Then suddenly David dies. In the midst of her grief, her glamorous cleaning lady, Lorena, flaunts her pregnancy. She insists that the baby is David''s, and is willing to take a DNA test to prove it. Welcome to the world of the Newells, where nothing is as it seems.

Neveah is fifteen, a schoolgirl who is neglected in different ways by both her parents. She lives with her mum, Marie, who works nights and isn''t too bothered what Neveah gets up to, as long as it doesn''t affect her. Neveah''s dad is the lead singer of a band and is often on the road, maintaining sporadic contact with his daughter.Neveah is a good student and is ambitious for herself. She also has a secret life. She''s earning good money by moonlighting as a digital freelancer. Neveah is also having an affair with her biggest client, Giles, who is married with a troubled home life. Neveah lies to him about her age, telling him she''s twenty-two and he believes her. Neveah will do just about anything to stop him from finding out her true age. Not only does she need the money, but she has developed strong feelings for Giles. But a secret this big can''t stay under wraps forever. When it all comes out, the consequences are devastating. Not only for Neveah and Giles, but for Giles''s family.The novel examines toxic masculinity in boys and the early sexualisation of young girls and society''s collective collusion in this process, including by the girls themselves. Why do some young girls become sexually active way sooner than is good for them, and if a man has sex with a girl who lies about her age, is he still culpable? Welcome to the murky world of contemporary sex, where everyone has something to hide.

Paradise Undone, A Novel of Jonestown is a part real, part imagined retelling of the tragic events that led to the USA''s biggest single loss of civilian life in the twentieth century.On November 18th 1978, nine hundred and nine people died in the Guyanese jungle. Published on the 45th anniversary, Annie Dawid''s compelling story of Jonestown explores the tragedy through the voices of four protagonists - Marceline Baldwin Jones and three other members of Peoples Temple. Drawing on extensive research and interviews, Annie Dawid blends fact and fiction, using real and composite characters to tell a story about the horrific mass murder/suicide that took place in the Guyanese jungle, all because of one man with a God complex.

Italy, 1978: A British Investigative Journalist joins forces with a former CIA agent to uncover a deadly international conspiracy. Journalist Peter Kentish brings his family to the small medieval town of Colletta under the guise of a family holiday. Behind closed doors, he is conducting a series of private interviews with former CIA Agent, Robert Bravo. Bravo's insider revelations bring light to the CIA's collusion with the Italian mafia, all in the name of preventing communism from taking hold of Italy. Meanwhile, Peter's eldest son, sixteen-year-old Sebastian, finds his own trouble with a spirited chambermaid named Rosetta. Caught between the adrenaline of first love and the sting of his mother's disapproval, Sebastian redirects his attention to a third - and more suspicious - figure. As the tapes become more incriminating, watchful eyes begin to close in.

After Harry Jones takes his life in the chilling waters of Vixens Mere, not one body is recovered, but two. Vixens Mere marina hosts a ragtag houseboat community whose lives are as tangled as their mooring ropes, each trying to escape something. A marriage damaged by PTSD, a guilty lover, aging hippies with a secret sadness, a newcomer escaping a toxic relationship, and a kindhearted misfit whose loyalty is tested to the limit. Under Vixens Mere tells the story of these boondock boat dwellers as they unify against investigators, vindictive exes, and anyone else who messes with them.