Holly Pester

Welcome to Cafés! A dream scene to study in. A place to perform at an open mic. A limited paradise with overheads. Where we can eat sausage cassoulet and not think about work. Where we can meet friends and not think about love. Where we can meet lovers and be too nervous to eat. In Holly Pester’s unique lyric, the café space is rendered as a fantastical structure through which to explore pressurised subjectivities in the shape of a worker, a lover, a friend, an artist, and a researcher. At a time when conversations around the decline of the commons and third spaces are heightened, Holly’s book is a stylish and political intervention and call for the necessity of a place for eccentrics, poets, employees and those taking steps towards the rest of their life.

'What it said to me was that I was here again, I was back, back from the great nowhere of somewhere else, returned, all too officially, to the whereabouts of Moffa.' A woman returns to the small English town she grew up in, to live in a new-build sublet flat overlooking her mother's house. Anticipating a visit from the mysterious other resident, she is always on edge, and her thoughts keep returning to the rented room she has just left, now occupied by a new lodger she has never met, but whose imagined navigation within the house become her obsession. The minor dramas of temporary living are prised open and ransacked in this irreverent, experimental and boldly stylish novel which examines a life lived in other people's spaces. A subtly political story about dislocation in contemporary Britain, this is a stunning debut from a writer already hailed as one of the best poets of her generation.

Most Anticipated Books of 2024 mentions in The Telegraph, Guardian, Stylist, and ViceA dark comedy about lodgings, lovers, and mother-daughter bonds that falter across time and tenancies.After a year away, a woman returns to her English hometown to live in a sublet. She is always on edge, anticipating a visit from her landlord, the arrival of her unknown roommate, and an impending reunion with her mother, Moffa. Her thoughts also drift back to the rented room she has just left and the life she imagines its new occupant to be leading.The dramas of temporary housing and the lasting effects of impermanence are turned out in this irreverent and boldly stylish novel that examines a life lived in other people's spaces. A subtly comic novel about Generation Rent, this is a stunning debut from a writer already hailed as one of the most original poets of her generation."It is a rare debut that manages to tell a uniquely personal story while illuminating the problems of a generation. Holly Pester's The Lodgers is such a book, reading more like a modern classic than a first novel."--The Irish Times"Holly Pester is a genius and The Lodgers gets into everything that matters."--Kate Briggs, author of The Long Form

'What it said to me was that I was here again, I was back, back from the great nowhere of somewhere else, returned, all too officially, to the whereabouts of Moffa.' After a year away, a woman arrives back in her hometown to keep an eye on her wayward mother, Moffa. Living in a precarious sub-let, she is always on edge, anticipating a visit from the landlord or the arrival of the other resident. But her thoughts also drift back to the rented room she has just left, now occupied by a new lodger she has never met, but whose imagined navigations within the house and home become her fascination. The minor dramas of temporary living are prised open and ransacked in Holly Pester's irreverent reckoning with those who house us. This is a story about what it means to live and love within and outside of family structures. It is also a stunning first novel from a writer already hailed as one of the best poets of her generation.

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection Comic Timing, Holly Pester's extraordinary debut collection of poems, chronicles the experience of living and working as a radical and resistant act. These poems shunt a reader between the political and personal via unique, fragmentary and illusory turns of phrase. Holly tackles marginal bodies, landlords, bog butter, desire, domestic and civic spaces in an unique and illusory voice. She chronicles the prevailing mood of our times, mining radical and anarchic histories to offer a collection of political resistance with both absurdity and seriousness. These poems interrogate and poke fun at the expectations of people in a commodified culture with a wry humour. Combining a beautifully performed naivety with a profound intellect, this collection is a hugely original approach to a number of pressing issues. Worker's rights, feminisms, reproductive rights and marginalised bodies and their positions are all thought through in this startling and innovative voice.

Whatever happened to British protest? For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power. In this timely and evocative collection, twenty authors have assembled to re-imagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles, offering a streetlevel perspective on the noble art of resistance. In the age of fake news and post-truth politics this book fights fiction with (well researched, historically accurate) fiction.