Richard Skinner Bücher

Two striking, utterly original novellas, tales of art and devotion told with playful elegance.

The narrative follows Ben Baxter as he documents his experiences with intriguing crimes and mysteries, aided by his friends Johnny, Katie, and Chippy. Reinstated as store detectives by the manager eager to showcase crime prevention strategies, they soon encounter unexpected challenges that bring danger and excitement into their lives. This adventure highlights their teamwork and problem-solving skills amidst the unfolding chaos.

Following Viktor Shklovsky's instruction to make everyday objects seem unfamiliar, Richard Skinner's fourth collection sets out to release 'the potential of inanimate objects'. A marbled egg, white balloons, unopened boxes, a Greek island, numbers, a yellow yo-yo - nothing in this book is quite what it seems. Unsettling, precise and enigmatic, Invisible Sun confirms Skinner's reputation as a poet of playful misplacement and misdirection. It is a book about windows, light, clouds, the 'upside down world' glimpsed through shadows and mists, and always the invisible sun - bright source of all life but also our daily measure of time and loss - illuminating 'the distant glitter of other people's lives'.

Mixing fiction and nonfiction, Skinner breathes new imaginative life into the story of a twentieth century icon. Bewitched by the beauty of a troupe of native dancers and the strange music of the gamelan, Margaretha changes her name to Mata Hari and goes to Paris, where she is drawn into a web of espionage resulting in her death by firing squad.

Pulling together his years of experience as a novelist and a teacher, Richard Skinner covers the basics of writing great fiction - narrators, characters, settings - with charm and rigour.

A strikingly beautiful collection from poet and writer Richard Skinner. Haunting lyrics of great formal skills, packed with poignancy and elegance. A book to be read, and memorised, that will delight this author's extensive readership.