Bøger af Avril Joy

In From Writing With Love, her inspirational book on writing, Costa Short Story winner Avril Joy shares her writing life - the highs and lows, and everything she learned about writing along the way. 'I came late to writing and after a matter of only months found myself hopelessly in love. I had some modest, early success with publication but then a series of difficult rejections. In 2011 I came dangerously close to falling out of love with the one thing that had changed my life. Writing had brought me a deep and lasting sense of satisfaction and pleasure, it was the only thing I really wanted to do, so if I wasn't prepared to lose it all I had to think again. Much of this new thinking has gone into the pages here. In From Writing With Love, I share with you how I stayed in love with writing, what still inspires me, what helped me cope with success and disappointment in my writing life, how I came to win the Costa short story competition and everything I've learned about the craft of writing along the way.' If you are just starting out on your writing journey From Writing With Love is a book for you. It will inspire and encourage you to find your writer's voice and to grow in confidence. If you are already an experienced writer, From Writing With Love offers hard won advice on writing the short story and the novel as well as outlining routes to publication and helping you re-define and achieve success in your writing life. 'In From Writing With Love I share with you as honestly as I can my writing journey, in the hope that it will inspire you to be the best writer you can be, bring you success and help you celebrate and enjoy this amazing writing life.' This is a book in seven parts: Becoming a Writer, Finding Your Voice, Writing Short Stories, The Novel, How to Succeed, the Writing Life and a Postscript which includes the Costa winning short story, Millie and Bird

When her partner Jack, with whom she's been travelling, drowns on the beach in Sri Lanka, Roma returns to her family in Cornwall and retreats into the arms of orchid- lover Will Trant, Head Gardener on the Russell family estate of Trescombe. Here Roma begins work on illustrations for a new edition of the 1887 Journal of another Head Gardener: the Victorian, Henry Dodson. Still struggling with her grief, Roma begins to find solace in the beauty of the great gardens and in her painting. She comes to admire Henry and his work but finds herself increasingly imprisoned in a world peopled with the ghosts of the Russell family and of another drowning. Into this world, filled with echoes of Roma's own tragedy, comes Max Russell, now owner of the estate and boyhood friend of Will. Max is a dark and dangerous planet in whose orbit others find themselves irresistible drawn, and when Roma embarks on a highly-charged and erotic affair with Max, it results in a painful betrayal, which finally forces Roma to flee her self-imposed exile and to truly confront her grief

In 1875, Simone Gastrell is conveniently committed to Long Meadows Asylum by her adulterous husband. Distraught but not defeated, she meets the silent women whose lives within the institution are ordered and defined by men. Alice Semple, a herbalist and wise-woman, does not speak, but gives testimony in her notebook. Phoebe Baines, a fragile, damaged young woman, lives within the soundless universe of her interior monologue. In a powerless world, relieved only by precious hours spent in the Airing Courts and gardens, the three women come together in unvoiced friendship. When life behind the asylum walls grows even more dangerous and brutal, they find their voices and use them to fight for survival.In their story, readers will hear the echoes of today, of the women locked away in our institutions, often brutalised, still silenced and living invisible lives.

This new collection of stories from Avril Joy bring together her finest published and unpublished work. From the Costa winning Millie and Bird to the recent A Morning Tide, listed for the Fish Short Memoir Prize, she weaves narratives of hope in the face of loss, transformation and redemption, and the enduring power of love. Combining a poet's gift for language with a keen naturalist's eye, she journeys across landscapes from Venice to the East Anglian Fens, from Cape Cod to the shore temples of Mahabalipuram. The novella, this One Wild Place, set on a northern hill farm during the pandemic, echoes the mood of the other stories. Moving and poignant it is told with an unerring compassion. Avril Joy explores first love, families, marriage, childhood, mothering, social class, escape, gardens, birds, seas, tides and stray dogs. These stories are about the wild places we call home.

This new collection of poetry reflects the lives, hopes and fears of women hidden behind walls and bars, lives which few of us can even imagine. Avril has waited until she is absolutely confident that she can capture the complexity of those voices which she does here with extraordinary authenticity, poignancy, and humour. The style is breathtakingly original.