Showing results by author "Scarlett Thomas" in All Categories

22 writers talk about their memorable excursions and the act of walking, and share their creative observations. In these six series, taken from BBC Radio 3's The Essay, an array of novelists, poets, journalists and biographers chart the varied and inspiring walks they have taken around Britain and elsewhere. Here are treks taken at daybreak and after dark; in winter and in spring; in the footsteps of the past; and - in the case of Robert Macfarlane - along the ridges of the South Downs.

Effie Truelove has learned to travel through magical books to the Otherworld. Maximillian Underwood, Effie's classmate, is more interested in the dark and forbidden Underworld. When Effie and Maximilian both mysteriously vanish, their friends Raven, Lexy and Wolf don't know where to turn for help. Raven is a witch, and her horse, Echo, has revealed that Effie is in deep danger and time is running out.

When Ariel Manto uncovers a copy of The End of Mr. Y in a secondhand bookshop, she can't believe her eyes. She knows enough about its author, the outlandish Victorian scientist Thomas Lumas, to know that copies are exceedingly rare. And, some say, cursed. With Mr. Y under her arm, Ariel finds herself thrust into a thrilling adventure of love, sex, death and time travel.

Oligarchy is Scarlett Thomas' fierce and brilliant new novel about power, privilege and peer pressure. When Natasha, daughter of a Russian oligarch, arrives for her first day at an all-girl boarding school, she finds herself thrown into a world of fierce pecking orders, eating disorders and Instagram angst. Then her friend Bianca mysteriously vanishes, and the world of the school gets ever darker and even weirder. Scarlett Thomas' first adult fiction since 2015 is a major return.

A subtle, fleeting glance, the smell of amber in a cozy bedroom, the velvety sound of your lover's voice as he whispers to you, and the delicate sensation of fingertips on damp skin...these are the little things that, when melded together, take our fantasies from slightly arousing to passionate desires. The beautifully written stories in Friday Night Fun take you through an enticing variety of situations that will stimulate your curiosity and sense of wonder.

In these Texas-set stories of romance and adventure, the Civil War is over, Christmas is coming - and it's time for three rugged fighters to become lovers....