Distant Sunflower FieldsAn iron willed mother, an ageing grandmother, a pair of mismatched dogs and 90 acres of less than ideal farmland: these are Li Juans companions on the steppes of the Gobi Desert. Writing out of a yurt under Xinjiangs endless horizons, she documents her familys quest to extract a bounty of sunflowers amid the harsh beauty and barren expanses of Chinas northwest frontier. Success must be eked out in the face of lifes unnegotiable realities: sandstorms,

Occasional verse

It uses a range of historical evidence

with an excerpt from his award-winning novel The House of El-Deeb

and explore the nature of war and humanity – as it exists now

is a worthy heir to Beckett' Teju Cole 'A voice so clear

Carmen Tipling

past resident and frequent visitor Tony Curtis roams around south Pembrokeshire

a colonial naturalist seeks an impossible specimen

made national headlines and propelled children's poetry into the curriculum of many schools in London and beyond

Ali al-Domaini Excerpt from the novel The Grey Cloud

Yet throughout this book

He has also had several short plays produced in Los Angeles