Carlo Gebler

After her father's death in exile, Antigone returns to Thebes determined to set the record straight and restore her father's reputation. Tracing the histories of Oedipus and his parents Laius and Jocasta, as well as the peripheral characters of the plays who had a central role in him fulfilling his destiny, Antigone's 'biography' causes us to re-evaluate the extent to which any of us can be entirely blamed for the actions by which we will be defined. Ending with Antigone making a conscious choice to reclaim her brother's corpse from the battlefield, an act of defiance which will guarantee her own death, the book ultimately meditates on the illusion of free will, and the warning that context is everything, I, ANTIGONE will be a major contribution to the reclaimed classics.

The Late King of Thebes

Stephanie Racine (Narrator)

"I, Antigone, have closed my eyes.

My voice is deep and quiet, dark and slow, like a river moving over rocks, never stopping, never ceasing, endless. 

He was wholly at fault, and he was entirely innocent. 

This is true of us all if we only knew it. His fate is everyone’s.

I, Antigone, have opened my eyes."

The mythical Greek king, Oedipus, is no stranger to tragedy. As a baby, he is left to die on the mountainside of Thebes by his royal parents after the Oracle of Delphi prophesies that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Pitied by the shepherd tasked with leaving him, Oedipus is given to another royal family and grows up ignorant of his past as a foreign prince.

Returning to Thebes by chance many years later, he defeats the Sphinx terrorising the city by answering her riddle and becomes king. From here on a series of tragic events begin to unfurl...

Many years later, his daughter Antigone takes on the role of biographer and is determined to set the record straight about her father's life and death. 

In a beautiful retelling of the popular myth, Antigone meditates on the illusion of free will, the power of fate, and her powerful family's demise. An astonishing contribution to the reclaimed classics, I, Antigone is perfect for fans of Madeleine Miller, Jennifer Saint and Elodie Harper.

I, Antigone

Patrick Maguire

The intensely moving memoir of Patrick Maguire, one of the 'Maguire Seven', wrongly imprisoned as a teenager for making bombs for the IRA. On the night of October 5 1974, an IRA unit left bombs in two Guildford pubs: five people were killed. On the night of December 3 1974, on the strength of fabricated testimony extracted under duress from Paul Hill and Gerard Conlon (whom the police mistakenly believed had planted the Guildford bombs), Anne and Paddy Maguire, two of their four children, Vincent and Patrick, plus other family members and friends, a total of seven in all, were arrested at their home in West London. On 22 October 1975, the Guildford Four were wrongfully convicted of bombing the two pubs in Guildford. On 4 March 1976, the Maguire Seven, as they had become known, were found guilty of possession of the nitro-glycerine used in those bombings. On 19 October 1989, the verdicts on the Guildford Four were quashed. On 26 June 1991, the convictions against the Maguire Seven of handling explosives were quashed and just over a year later, Sir John May, after producing a report on the Maguire Seven case, described it as the worst miscarriage of justice he had ever seen. Behind these dates lie human stories - 'My Father's Watch' tells that of Patrick, who was the youngest of the accused, at fourteen years old. He was sentenced to four years and when he came out he had no home and no family, as both of his parents were still in jail. This book takes us through Patrick's entire life, from his working-class childhood in West London to the difficult life he has led since prison, the roots of which go back to the wrongful convictions and the destruction of the family that followed. Patrick Maguire and the novelist Carlo Gébler have written 'My Father's Watch' jointly. It is not a ghosted work - told in Patrick's own voice, it is a lucid and inspiring account of one individual's experience of an appalling injustice, as well as a reminder, as the war against terror ratchets up, of just how much harm a state can do to its own innocent citizens in the name of security.

The Story of a Child Prisoner in 70's Britain

My Father's Watch

THE GREATEST COLLECTION OF FABLES EVER WRITTEN, UPDATED FOR OUR TURBULENT TIMES A witty illustrated version of the world's greatest collection of fables, allegedly written by a slave in the 5th century BC. A book for our times: as Gebler notes, Aesop has two subjects--the exercise of power and the experience of the powerless who endure life and all that it inflicts on them. This retelling of the Fables makes them relevant and richly enjoyable. Large and fierce animals kill and butcher weaker creatures; gods play games with the hopes and fears of lesser species, including men and women; and occasionally the weak turn the tables on the strong, exposing their pretensions. This is a stunning new version of a book that was often bowdlerized and used to teach moral lessons to children. Gebler's Aesop is darker and more realistic, and compulsively readable.

The Cruelty of the Gods

Aesop's Fables

THE SIEGE OF DERRY is one of the key flash points in the troubled history of Ireland and Britain. In 1688 William of Orange had claimed the English throne, forcing the catholic James II to flee to Ireland. From there he hoped to mount his comeback. In December of that year James' troops attempted to take over the protestant city of Derry. To the now-famous cry of 'No Surrender' the apprentice boys closed the city gates to James' army and the 105-day siege begun. The besiegers effectively used cannon and mortar to shell the defenders - with terrifying results - and conditions became desperate as the city began to run out of food. Carlo Gebler's book thrillingly describes both the events leading up to the siege and the heroic struggles within and outside Derry as the five-month battle waged.

A History

The Siege Of Derry

Ernest Gebler, the writer of such international bestsellers as The Plymouth Adventure and Call Me Daddy (which became the film Hoffman), led a remarkable life. In this unauthorized biography, Carlo Gebler, Ernest's estranged son, tells the many stories of his father's life, from Ernest's turbulent personality and strict disciplinary attitude to his staunch socialism and his stormy marriage to Carlo's mother, writer Edna O'Brien, and his final struggle with Alzheimer's disease. In The Projectionist, Carlo Gebler explores and interprets his father's life in the hope of understanding why their relationship was such a difficult and emotional one, and which things from his own upbringing made his father the elusive man he was. [Subject: Biography, Literature]

The Story of Ernest Gebler

The Projectionist

How much would you sacrifice to get what you most wanted in the world? Your friends? Everything you have? Could a dream be worth that? Read the story of how one boy warrior—part human, part god—took his place in irish legend. In a time of magic, immortals, and terrible war, a prophecy foretells a new king, the death of countless men, and a strange curse that will give rise to a hero. This story has existed for 3,000 years: it is the ancient story of Cuchulainn, the boy warrior, and the war that made him an Irish hero.

The Bull Raid

The story spans nearly a hundred years. In Carlo Gebler's early childhood, his relationship with his father, Ernest, was a disaster. A man of the left, Ernest's politics had been 'hammered out in the nineteen thirties'. His early life as the son of a Jewish immigrant was spent working as a rat catcher in a cinema, snatching moments alone to educate himself, but the one with the literary talent was his second wife, Edna O'Brien - Gebler's mother - who left after Ernest claimed authorship of her work. As his father saw it, Carlo and his brother Sasha were over-fed members of the bourgeoisie, and toys and sweets were banned from their lonely childhood, filled with memories of abuse and neglect. Years later, on hearing his estranged father was now senile, Gebler made the journey to southern Ireland and through his past, through diaries that confirmed Ernest's hatred for his sons, yet also revealed the abuse Ernest in turn suffered as a young man, a life of extreme poverty and the abandonment of his first wife. This not a story that ends in hate; by the time Carlo Gebler reached their final years together, he no longer felt the anger that had dogged their relationship.

A Memoir

Father And I

Bernie McGill

Michelle Gallen

Ian McDonald

Jan Carson

Ian Sansom

Jo Baker

Sam Thompson

Moyra Donaldson

An anthology of specially commissioned short stories exploring the weird, surreal, and dream-like. Bringing together some of the best of Northern Ireland's literary talents as well as new and exciting voices, this collection is dark, funny, and unsettling.

Carlo Gebler

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