Stuart Evers

Computers are changing. Soon, the days of silicon-based logic-gate computing will seem like a quaint and distant memory from a charmingly clunky past. Likewise, robots--once designed by mere mortals--will be soon be devised solely by the ultimate designing agency, evolution (with the help of computer modeling of natural selection). Meanwhile, A-Life (artificial life) and mathematical biomimicry--algorithm-based virtual models that map the collective intelligence of nature onto manmade systems--will become as big as genetics is right now. What this future will look like, exactly, is beyond even the scientists. But this book attempts to start the process of imagining it, by pairing researchers at the cutting edge of A-Life and Unconventional Computing with some of the most exciting writers working in English.

A spellbinding family saga spanning six decades of British history, shortlisted for the prestigious RSL Encore Award.As the 1950s draw to a close and the Cold War escalates, the shape of Drummond Moore's life is changed beyond measure when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with James Carter, a rich and well-connected fellow national serviceman. Carter leads him to Doom Town – an army base that seeks to recreate the effects of a nuclear war – where he meets Gwen, a barmaid with whom he shares an instant connection.Set against the backdrop of Britain from the post-war era to the present day, The Blind Light is a compelling story of love, family, and the far-reaching consequences of personal and political decisions. This extraordinary novel from Stuart Evers follows one family as they navigate the joys, sorrows, and complexities that echo across generations, capturing the essence of a nation in transition. Hailed as ‘powerful’ by the Guardian and ‘extraordinary’ by the Spectator, The Blind Light is a spellbinding work of literary fiction that will resonate long after the final page.

England, 1959: two young soldiers--Drummond and Carter--form an intense and unlikely friendship at "Doom Town," a training center that recreates the aftermath of atomic warfare. The experience will haunt them the rest of their lives. Years later, Carter, now a high-ranking government official, offers working-class Drummond a way to protect himself and his wife, Gwen, should a nuclear strike occur. Their pact, kept secret, will have devastating consequences for the families they so wish to shield. The Blind Light is a grand, ambitious novel that spans decades, from the 1950s to the present. Told from the perspectives of Drum and Gwen, and later their children, Nate and Anneka, the story brilliantly captures the tenderness and envy of long relationships. As the families attempt to reform themselves, the pressures of the past are visited devastatingly on the present, affecting spouses, siblings, and friends.Stuart Evers writes with literary flair and intellect without ever abandoning the pleasures and emotional intensity of great storytelling. He explores the psychological legacy of nuclear war and social inequality yet finds a delicate beauty in the adventure of making a life in the ruins of the one you lived before.

Shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award 2021‘The Blind Light reads like a British Don DeLillo, telling the social history of Britain through two generations of a family.’ – Alex Preston, Observer‘A powerful and affecting novel’ – Jim Crace, author of HarvestIn the late 1950s, during his National Service, Drummond meets the two people who will change his life: Carter, a rich, educated young man sent down from Oxford; and Gwen, a barmaid with whom he feels an instant connection. His feelings for both will be tested at a military base known as Doom Town – a training ground where servicemen prepare for the aftermath of an Atomic Strike. It is an experience that will colour the rest of his – and his family’s – life. Told from the perspectives of Drum and Gwen, and later their children Nathan and Anneka, The Blind Light moves from the Fifties through to the present day, taking in the global and local events that will shape and define them all. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the War on Terror, from the Dagenham strikes to Foot and Mouth, from Skiffle to Rave, we see a family come together, driven apart, fracture and reform – as the pressure of the past is brought, sometimes violently, to bear on the present. The Blind Light is a powerful, ambitious, big yet intimate story of our national past and a brilliant evocation of a family and a country. It will remind you how complicated human history is – and how hard it is to do the right thing for the right reasons.

'An impressive line-up of established and emerging names' Sunday Times 'These eerie, unsettling stories are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine' Daily Express A rich collection of unnerving ghost stories and sinister histories conjured from the imaginations of bestselling authors: Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Michael Hurley, Sarah Perry, Stuart Evers, Kate Clanchy, Kamila Shamsie and Max Porter. From medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker, locations are inspired by rumours of hauntings on English Heritage sites*. Let these immersive stories transport you to the past - the perfect book for the haunting season. *Also includes a gazetteer of EH properties which are said to be haunted.

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.

'An impressive line-up of established and emerging names' Sunday Times 'These eerie, unsettling stories are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine' Daily Express A rich collection of unnerving ghost stories and sinister histories conjured from the imaginations of bestselling authors: Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Michael Hurley, Sarah Perry, Stuart Evers, Kate Clanchy, Kamila Shamsie and Max Porter. From medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker, locations are inspired by rumours of hauntings on English Heritage sites*. Let these immersive stories transport you to the past - the perfect book for the haunting season. *Also includes a gazetteer of EH properties which are said to be haunted.

The twelve unforgettable stories in Your Father Sends His Love explore the complex, baffling, and vital relationship between parents and their children. Set in the past, present and future, they are unified by their compassion, animated by the unsaid, and distinguished by how beautifully they extract the luminous from the ordinary. With wit, subtllety, and uncommon sensitivity, Evers captures the powerful emotions of family life: joy, fear, vulnerability, duty, betrayal, loss, anger, and unconditional love. While his characters often feel more than they can express, they are in the hands of a masterful story teller who gives time to what might otherwise seem incidental. Your Father Sends His Love is a powerful, haunting, and deeply felt work about the most important relationships we will ever know.

Mark Wilkinson has three names. He left his own behind in the rainy north of England. U.S. immigration know him as Joe Novak. And at the Valhalla, the mysterious complex in Vegas where he sells lofty ambition and dark desires, he goes by Mr Jones. Since the age of eighteen, Mark has been running away, and hard. Away from everything that is flat and dull and ordinary: his market town. Away from disappointment: his vanished mother, his broken father. And away from heartbreak. Bethany Wilder, beautiful goth, carnival queen, partner in dreams, tragic ghost, never made it with him to America. He’s thirty now and again it’s time to flee – in the opposite direction, towards home. With shades of JG Ballard, Murakami, and Joseph O’Neill, this is an inventive and emotional novel about the power of dreams to destroy, of memory to distort, and of courage, ultimately, to heal.

‘Touching, true and shocking. Here is a book that not only makes more sense of life, it delights the mind’ Irish Times These stories find dignity in quiet lives and beauty in dark corners. They tell of allure, betrayal, nostalgia, solitude, seduction, damage and desire. They are stories of youth mislaid and love lost, and of recovery. They go to the heart of things. ‘Original and quietly devastating’ Daily Telegraph ‘Raymond Carver and Alice Munro echo throughout. Exquisite’ New Statesman ‘Brilliantly restrained and emotionally mature’ Scotland on Sunday ‘Writing sequined with sparkling descriptions’ Independent on Sunday ‘Inhaling each story is a hauntingly wonderful experience’ Easy Living ‘Reminds us that the short story is perfect for bringing some colour and imagination into a day’ Guardian