A Pair Of Spoons Storycuts

To the untrained eye, married antiques dealers Bonnie and Vivien have grown to become almost identical over the years. However, Vivien secretly struggles to retain her own diminishing identity, as she increasingly defers to Bonnie's actions and attitudes. When Vivien spends a dreamy afternoon wandering the countryside without Bonnie, she rediscovers her independence in a secret hiding place, piquing her partner's fear and jealousy. But ultimately it is their shared passion - and an act of criminality - which brings them back together. Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

Having left his first wife for the then 19-year old Barbara, Ian - now waiting in a cafe for his 18-year old mistress, Laura - clearly has no intentions of breaking the habit of a lifetime. Barbara, meanwhile, burns with feverish guilt at the remembrance of a recent holiday fling with a Jamaican bartender. When Barbara's mother Molly comes to visit her fragile daughter and chaotic grandchildren, it is she who must attempt to plaster over the cracks rapidly widening throughout this family. Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

In 'The Most Beautiful Dress in the World', recovering alcoholic Harriet steps out into the garden of her grey, dilapidated house on an autumn day. It is daughter Miranda's first day at Fashion College, and Harriet is determined to make the most of the peace and quiet. However, when good intentions go awry, Harriet's initial optimism disintegrates into a caustic mixture of despair and self-loathing, building to a terrible and violent crescendo. In 'Cardboard City', Stella and Vanessa are young sisters who live in the shadow of their hated stepfather. They escape his overbearing presence for an afternoon of Christmas shopping in central London, where Stella can't help wistfully searching for their estranged real father in a nearby bar. The crowded streets of the city soon exhaust their money and patience, and they decide to return home, but not before Vanessa spies a familiar face on an escalator at the station . . . Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

In 'Dreams of Dead Women's Handbags', crime writer Susan Vigo ponders death as she travels by train to give a reading of her latest book; specifically, the kind of death awaiting the characters of her next heavily-anticipated novel. But an unpleasant encounter with a fellow passenger sparks a chain of recollections which throws our author's obsession with the macabre into a shocking light. In 'Other People's Bathrobes', Adam is frustrated by his borderline-anorexic girlfriend, and finds himself obsessively reliving childhood memories of tinned soup and spaghetti at inappropriate moments. A compulsive thief by nature, when Barbara goes out to work Adam trawls her apartment looking for hidden fragments which might reveal her deepest secrets. However, when he finds remnants from Barbara's unhappy childhood, it is Adam who undergoes an unexpected transformation. Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

Jamie is just an ordinary boy dealing with ordinary struggles: trying to fit in and avoiding his overbearing mother. However, the discovery of what his friends call a Vampire's Tomb reveals an opportunity for Jamie to prove himself. All he has to do is wait in the graveyard as the church clock strikes midnight. He's not scared - vampires don't exist . . . right? Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales.

Time is integral to human culture. Over the last two centuries people's relationship with time has been transformed through industrialisation, trade and technology. But the first such life-changing transformation – under Christianity's influence – happened in late antiquity. It was then that time began to be conceptualised in new ways, with discussion of eternity, life after death and the end of days. Individuals also began to experience time differently: from the seven-day week to the order of daily prayer and the festal calendar of Christmas and Easter. With trademark flair and versatility, world-renowned classicist Simon Goldhill uncovers this change in thinking. He explores how it took shape in the literary writing of late antiquity and how it resonates even today. His bold new cultural history will appeal to scholars and students of classics, cultural history, literary studies, and early Christianity alike.

Gender and Sexuality in Latin American Horror Cinema explores the different mechanisms and strategies through which horror films attempt to reinforce or contest gender relations and issues of sexual identity in the continent. The book explores issues of machismo, marianismo, homosociality, bromance, among others through the lens of horror narratives and, especially, it offers an analysis of monstrosity and the figure of the monster as an outlet to play out socio-sexual anxieties in different societies or gender groups. The author looks at a wide rage of films from countries such as Cuba, Peru, Mexico and Argentina and draws points of commonality, as well as comparing essential differences, between the way that horror fictions – considered by many as low-brow cinema - can be effective to delve into the way that sexuality and gender operates and circulates in the popular imaginary in these regions.