Kirjahaku

Jeremiah Bembo lives quietly growing fruit and vegetables which his wife Judith sells at the local market. In secret, under the name of Solomon Straw, he travels the country as England's executioner, carrying out the hangings required by law. In a post-war provincial Britain seamed with commonplace corruption, he strives to maintain a balance of compassion and justice, until a murder is committed which brings his two lives into an inevitable collision. 'A brilliant, terrifying and haunting novel . . . it has an almost Dickensian moral clarity . . . It combines all the packed action of a thriller with a vision remarkable for its breadth and for its humanity' Evening Standard 'A compelling mixture of murder-mystery, Greek tragedy and love story . . . In its exploration of human depravity Tim Binding, like his executioner hero, has taken on a terrible task with grace and intelligence' Sunday Telegraph

The island in question is Guernsey, during the German occupation in the Second World War, and the book itself is part thriller, part love story, and wholly engrossing on the subject of occupation and its moral choices. Who can be confident today how he or she would have behaved under such circumstances?' Antonia Fraser, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph 'How close is the relationship between menace and protection, how powerful the seduction of treachery and how intense the relationships forged in the crucible of a small island are vividly demonstrated by Binding. . . a novel of rewarding subtlety and insight into the best and worst of human nature' Jane Shilling, The Times 'Tim Binding is a very clever writer. . . As a murder- mystery, this is immensely readable. But it is much more than that. . . a thought-provoking study of men and women in a time of madness' Simon Linnell, Daily Telegraph 'Binding captures the essence of life under occupation with fine description of character and a taut plot. . . There are heart-stopping twists and turns in the way in which people behave and react. . . This is high-class fiction: tense, compassionate, surprising and moving' Catherine Pepinster, Independent on Sunday

Spring 1982. Anglefield Road is a peaceful cul-de-sac in a suburban town north of London, with four houses looking out on each other. But when Argentina invades an obscure British colony, the Falklands – provoking a national crisis and a patriotic revival – the repercussions for the residents of Anglefield Road reach far beyond the events of that momentous summer. Enthralling, moving, darkly funny and humane, Anthem is a triumphant account of ordinary people and war, as the lives of four families are reshaped by a dispute over a group of small, barren islands at the bottom of the world.

This is the story of weatherman Giles Doughty. Giles does not wear sensible ties and knitted jumpers like other weathermen. Rather, his life is a whirlwind - of romance, sex and decadence. But then one day he is shocked out of his self-absorption by the reappearance of his childhood friend Stella Murdoch. Stella, who disappeared suddenly so many years ago. As the novel develops and darkens, Giles is forced into an exploration of his childhood, and of cruelty. He has to face what he has always tried to escape - a mystery, at the heart of which lies Stella. A confession, a journey, an enquiry - embracing the great storm of October 1987, murderous doings, and eccentric characters - this brilliant first novel from Tim Binding is bound to thrill and delight all its readers.

Sylvie Bartram lives alone with Mr Jackson the dog and her eccentric composer father who invents strange and wonderful musical instruments. One day she returns from school to find a message left in toothpaste on the bathroom mirror; her father has been kidnapped. Later that night, the house is visited by a terrifying apparition - a half-man/half-creature who is searching for something and will not rest until he has found it . . .Sylvie uncovers an underground world of magic and evil, and with help from her friends, she must hold off a power that threatens the lives of all beings in the world. The Songman is at large, and is determined to steal music and use it for his own evil ends . . . An exhilarating and magical story that will appeal to all readers aged 9-14.

Tim Binding lived in Ilkley, Yorkshire, until he was seven. The place shaped his imagination and has haunted him ever since. On Ilkley Moor is an imaginative history of a great town, a series of explorations partly factual, partly intuitive and partly personal. It is the tale of Victorian optimism – of faith in hydropathy, in manufacturing, in the railways. It is also an examination of Ilkley’s place on the faultline between the two great forces which have informed English life and culture– its rural heritage, and the industrial revolution. It is a book about the north, about industry, commerce and medicine, and, above all, it is one small story of the England of the fifties, and the lost dreams of that era. Neither a travel nor a history book, this is a moving return home to the place that made the writer what he is.

Lionel 'Buster' Crabb became renowned during the Second World War for his amazing feats of underwater daring. After the war he was celebrated for embodying a particular English ideal – a love for King and Country – that seemed to be dying out. Then, in 1956, during a visit to Britain by Nikita Khrushchev, who had arrived by ship, Commander Crabb disappeared. Some thought he had perished while attempting to inspect the Soviet vessel; others that he had been kidnapped and forced to work for the USSR. Out of this mystery Tim Binding has spun a wondrous piece of fiction. It is the story of a man who has made deep personal sacrifices for the sake of higher ideals and who must, towards the end of his days, measure their meaning and their worth. Praise for Man Overboard: ‘Such an arresting subject for a novel that one wonders why no one ever thought of it before . . . Binding fashions a convincing picture of a restless postwar world . . . a consistently entertaining and resourceful novel’ D J Taylor, Guardian ‘His triumph is to have created a marvellous, anachronistic hero in a novel which not only tries to explain a famous mystery, but takes a hard look at what Britain lost when the war was won’ Daily Mail ‘The dialogue is always a comic delight . . . Man Overboard is one half James Bond story (except more soulful), and one half Ealing Comedy. As such, it is pretty irresistible’ Daily Express ‘Tim Binding has written a historical novel which with a very light touch dramatizes the faint but inescapable foreignness of the past without turning it into a costume drama; its poignancy is the product of conviction. Binding wields a range of linguistic fire-power often missing from contemporary fiction, as much at ease with the visionary set piece as with bar-room banter . . . [Man Overboard] is a remarkable feat of compression, representing a significant artistic advance’ Sean O’Brien, TLS

An English Western inspired by William Faulkner, Beneath the Trees of Eden is Tim Binding's masterpiece: a visionary depiction of England at the twilight of a rebellious era, told through the story of a renegade couple as they travel across the country's motorways. 'Transcends its quotidian English setting with hallucinatory prose and characters that seem restlessly redrawn on every page . . . There's an abundance of pleasures here . . . A novel to cherish for its ambition and its portrayal of a vanished world' Literary Review'Fierce, untamed, animal in its joy. Terrific' Patrick McCabe'A glorious road-trip of novel' Louise KennedyAlice is just twenty when she becomes involved with Louis, a brooding, older man who has spent his life building some of the first motorways to stretch across the landscapes of England. With a child on the way, the couple set off on the road together, determined to carve out a life for themselves off the beaten track.But as their son grows older, he begins to question his parents’ philosophy and the sacrifices they make in order to live on their own terms. Caught between the draw of the past and a dream of new community, their fates are transformed by chance encounters, patterns unfolding like lines across a map.Told in searing, lyrical prose, Beneath the Trees of Eden is a powerful rumination on the possibility for salvation, the people and places we find ourselves tethered to, and the things that get left behind.

An English Western inspired by William Faulkner, Beneath the Trees of Eden is Tim Binding's masterpiece: a visionary depiction of England at the twilight of a rebellious era, told through the story of a renegade couple as they travel across the country's motorways. 'Transcends its quotidian English setting with hallucinatory prose and characters that seem restlessly redrawn on every page . . . There's an abundance of pleasures here . . . A novel to cherish for its ambition and its portrayal of a vanished world' Literary Review 'Fierce, untamed, animal in its joy. Terrific' Patrick McCabe 'A glorious road-trip of novel' Louise Kennedy Alice is just twenty when she becomes involved with Louis, a brooding, older man who has spent his life building some of the first motorways to stretch across the landscapes of England. With a child on the way, the couple set off on the road together, determined to carve out a life for themselves off the beaten track. But as their son grows older, he begins to question his parents’ philosophy and the sacrifices they make in order to live on their own terms. Caught between the draw of the past and a dream of new community, their fates are transformed by chance encounters, patterns unfolding like lines across a map. Told in searing, lyrical prose, Beneath the Trees of Eden is a powerful rumination on the possibility for salvation, the people and places we find ourselves tethered to, and the things that get left behind.