Toby Litt

The 1970s. Summer. Deep in the English countryside. Four of us - Gang. Waiting for war against the Russkis. But our war, when it came, wasn't with them. And it didn't take place in the streets and fields, where we thought it would, but in our homes, our kitchens, our bedrooms. And there were no marvellous explosions, medals or cheering. There was glory, though. More than enough glory for all, had all been inclined to take it. And by the time it was over, two of us would be dead . . .

Deadkidsongs

"In these stories from issues #1-6, Charles and Edwin begin to unravel the mysteries of their own demise while trying to protect tech-savvy sleuth Crystal from a similar fate. Also includes the short stories 'Run Ragged' from WITCHING HOUR #1, GHOSTS #1 and TIME WARP #1."--

Schoolboy terrors

Dead boy detectives

Everything Toby Litt touches turns to gold.

Corpsing

Adventures in Capitalism

Writer's Diary

This novel is a journey into the dark heart of boyhood, as four boys play wargames deep in the English countryside. With the death of one of them, the war games escalate, directed now against the adults they hold responsible for the loss.

Journey into space

Kumiko saw it first. A heart � a human heart � slithering down outside the window of a train travelling between London Bridge and Blackfriars. Someone must have thrown it out from a carriage in front. Kumiko is determined to find out who � and why. But Skelton was sitting next to Kumiko on the train and he saw it too, so he also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Or he says he does, but really he just wants Kumiko back, because she�s walked out on him, just like that, and left him heartbroken. Each for their own reasons, Kumiko and Skelton set out � separately � on a bizarre trail of discovery. Darting between dingy student pubs, the roofs of Borough Market and the corridors and car-parks of Guy�s Hospital, they become embroiled in the seedy world of young medical students, until eventually the gossip and the stories lead them both to the hospital�s infamous dissection lecturer � known behind his back as �King Death� �

King Death

Finding Myself

Always hated liner notes - always hated anykinda writing about rock'n'roll - I mean, why don't ya just shut up & listen to the music?- but here I am now, with a pen in my hand & a limo waiting outside & 13 minutes to catch in words what I think & feels about my good friend Clap & about these fine & dandy tales he's spun - tales of a life on & off the road with a band called okay - a band in which (just in case you didn't know, hosehead!) I am the lead singer - & in which (as the title helpfully informs you) Clap is drummer - not the worlds greatest, technically, even he'd admit to that, but solid & deep & swingin' & truth-full- if I'd written itm it would be all about high times & honeys - & Clap has gotten down that wild stuff - lots of it - but he's also told the cold truth about the things you lose along the way, the sweet soul damage - & I think he's done it just about as well as it coulda been done - & believe me, I should know - I wasn't there for most of it.

A Novel in Short Stories

I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay

1995, and at a party in Bedford, Mary meets Jack and Neal, a pair of hipsters and self - confessed 'Beats' stuck (un)squarely in the sixties. After a 'Beat (not - quite) Happening' at the local library, the three of them (and Neal's cat Koko) set off in Mary's Vauxhall on a road trip to Brighton in search of literary fame and fortune. But, this is neither the time nor the place for free love, uncomplicated sex and unrestrained cool - this is 1990s Britain and everything comes with a price . . .

An English Road Movie

Beatniks

The end of the world doesn't come with a bang or a whimper, but with the chukka-chukka of a helicopter coming into land WELCOME TO HOSPITAL! Hospital is about blue murder and saving lives, having sex and surgery, falling in love and falling from a great height, crazy voodoo and hypnotic surveillance ; it's about the last days and the first days. And the Rubber Nurse knows you've been very naughty and is going to teach you a well-deserved lesson. It's the story of a lost boy wandering the corridors of a strange, antiseptic building, looking and hoping for a chance to get home. And also of a man who won't wake up despite the best efforts of the hospital staff ; and while he sleeps, a threatening darkness settles over everything...

A Dream Vision

Hospital

Toby Litt's ancestor, William Litt, was a champion Cumberland Wrestler but also almost certainly a smuggler - and definitely published poet and novelist. A huge and fascinating man, William was also troubling: he ended his life in poverty and exile. Using the nineteenth century as a guide, Wrestliana asks vital questions about modern-day masculinity, competition, and success. It is a beautiful portrait of two men and their different worlds, full of surprises and sympathy, and a wonderful evocation of a lost place and time.

Wrestliana

Dear Friend, How would you like to come � this August � and stay, completely free, in a lovely seaside house I�ve rented? Good food and plenty of alcohol will also be provided, gratis. But (you knew there�d be a but) afterwards you must allow me to write up the events of the month in a semi-fictionalized form. (In other word: you promise not to sue.) At the end of the book, you will have three full pages to say exactly what you like. If you think I�ve distorted things, told outright lies, etc., you can contradict me. I promise not to interfere editorially with your text in any way. Even if it is terribly libellous of me. I am inviting ten other people along, as well. Some of them you know; some of them you don�t. I do so hope you can come. Love, Victoria

Sara Maitland

Simon Ings

Sarah Schofield

Gregory Norminton

Sean O'Brien

Justina Robson

Jane Rogers

Jane Feaver

Adam Marek

Dilys Rose

K.J. Orr

Annie Kirby

Simon van Booy

Programmable memories, fatherless reproduction, nano-tech implants, amphibian-powered scar treatment, full body modification, brain-scanning lie-detectors, inter-species reproduction, self-determining synthetic ‘green goo’… Which of these would you wager is pure science fiction, and which currently being developed in the lab? Such is the speed and excitement of today’s bio-medical research – sprinting from the starting gun that was the Human Genome Project – it’s sometimes hard to tell. In a unique collaboration, fourteen short story writers have been invited to explore the increasingly grey area between the fantastical and that which is already within our reach. Closely collaborating with scientists and ethicists working at the forefronts of their respective fields, each writer has been tasked with predicting some of the potential ‘ethical side-effects’ of this ground-breaking work. Not all progress, after all, is progressive. And dark forces are afoot that threaten to hi-jack what many declared would be ‘the century of biology’. 'Fascinating reading.' - Financial Times 'An exhilarating read.' - The Short Review Toby Litt's Bio-Punk story 'Call it ''The Bug'' Because I Have No Time to Think of a Better Title' short-listed for the 2013 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

Bio-Punk

'I blame Literature. All those f*cking lovely writers who made me want to be a writer. Toby Literature.' A Writer's Diary is a year in the life of a man called Toby Litt. Day by day, Toby offers intimate details about his family and well-being, insights into creative writing, and other fascinating reflections, ranging from the immediate surroundings of his desk and study out into the world and on to infinite possibility. As the year unfolds an increasingly urgent narrative starts to build. A Writer's Diary becomes a compulsive page-turner, full of stories and characters we have grown to love – and full of questions we need answered. W ill Toby Litt find the perfect pencil sharpener? Will everyone he loves make it through the year? And will he be the same person at the end of it? Blending fact and fiction, invention and memoir with joyful creativity and remarkable ambition, A Writer's Diary is a year in a life and a life in a year. .

A Writer's Diary

Adam Roberts

Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Lucy Caldwell

Julian Gough

Claire Dean

Stuart Evers

Robin Yassin-Kassab

Martyn Bedford

Margaret Wilkinson

Zoe Lambert

Joanna Quinn

Andy Hedgecock

Dinesh Allirajah

Computers are changing. Soon the silicon chip will seem like a clunky antique amid the bounty of more exotic processes on offer. Robots are changing too; material evolution and swarm intelligence are creating a new generation of devices that will diverge and disperse into a balanced ecosystem of humans and ‘robjects’ (robotic objects). Somewhere in between, we humans will have to change also… in the way we interact with technology, the roles we adopt in an increasingly ‘intelligent’ environment, and how we interface with each other. The driving motors behind many of these changes will be artificial life (A-Life) and unconventional computing. How exactly they will impact on our world is still an open question. But in the spirit of collective intelligence, this anthology brings together 38 scientists and authors, working in pairs, to imagine what life (and A-Life) will look like in the year 2070. Every kind of technology is imagined: from lie-detection glasses to military swarmbots, brain-interfacing implants to synthetically ‘grown’ skyscrapers, revolution-inciting computer games to synthetically engineered haute cuisine. All artificial life is here. Featuring scientific contributions from: Martyn Amos, J. Mark Bishop, Seth Bullock, Stephen Dunne, James Dyke, Christian Jantzen, Francesco Mondada, James D. O'Shea, Andrew Philippides, Lenka Pitonakova, Steen Rasmussen, Thomas S. Ray, Micah Rosenkind, James Snowdon, Susan Stepney, Germán Terrazas, Andrew Vardy and Alan Winfield. Supported by TRUCE (Training and Research in Unconventional Computation in Europe).

Stories From an A-Life Future

Beta-Life

Meet Elliott. Elliott is hugely intelligent. He's an incredible observer. He has a beautiful and unusual imagination. To know him is to adore him. But Elliott is also stuck. He lives in an orphanage in 1979. He spends his days in a wheelchair, in an empty corridor, or wherever the Catholic Sisters who run the ward have decided to park him. So when Jim, blind and mute but also headstrong, arrives on the ward and begins to defy the Sisters' restrictive rules, Elliott finally sees a chance for escape. Together, they could achieve a magnificent freedom – if only for a few hours. But how can Elliott, unable to move or speak clearly, communicate all this to Jim? How can he even get Jim to know he exists? Patience is a remarkable story of love and friendship, courage and adventure. It is also about finding joy in the most unlikely of settings. Elliott and Jim are going to have fun.

Patience

Edwin Paine and Charles Roland have a lot in common - they're both English schoolboys who love a good detective story, and they've been known to dabble in mystery-solving themselves. They're also both dead, a condition which has proven to be less of a hindrance than one might think. From the pages of THE SANDMAN, Neil Gaiman's intrepid dead schoolboys head back to the horror that is St. Hilarions School; the place where they both were murdered. This volume collects Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham's Dead Boy Detectives #1-12, as well as well as the short stories "Run Ragged" from Witching Hour #1, Ghosts #1 and Time Warp #1.

Toby Litt

Books

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