Beacons - stories for our not so distant future

26 March 2013

In Beacons - stories for our not so distant future (Oneworld Publications), 21 of our best authors have created a remarkable collection of provocative, funny, sometimes satirical, and at times deeply moving stories that bring an immediate reality to the problems at hand.

From Joanne Harris' powerful vision of a near future where venturing outside becomes a dangerous habit, to Nick Haye's beautifully illustrated tale of the bond between man and nature.

Edited by Gregory Norminton, this collection of short stories supports the work of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition. Every contributing author is donating their royalties from the book.

Climage change - a failure of the imagination?

Lord Stern has called climate change "the greatest market failure the world has seen". Editor Gregory Norminton believes it is also a failure of the imagination. "Because we do not want to look at what we're doing, we retreat into various forms of denial, we cling to hopes of a technofix or minimise the dangers of exceeding our planetary limits. These are zombie stories: undead narratives that have failed us. Our only hope, a thin one, lies in countering them with living stories: fictions that empower us to look our predicament in the face. In Beacons - stories for our not so distant future, some of Britain's finest authors have attempted to do just that."

The incredible literary line-up includes:

Part One: Looking in the Mirror

• A is for Acid Rain, B is for Bee - Joanne Harris
• Mother Moon's Job - Liz Jensen
• Goodbye Jimmy - Alasdair Gray
• Like Canute - Clare Dudman
• We're All Gonna Have the Blues - Rodge Glass
• Meat - A .L. Kennedy
• The Great Consumer - Adam Marek

Part Two: A Strand in the Web

• What is Left to See? - James Miller
• Visitation - Jem Poster
• The Gloop - Toby Litt
• Fittest - Janice Galloway
• The Red Waste - Tom Bullough
• The Weatherman - Holly Howitt
• Take Notice - Adam Thorpe

Part Three: Go Light

• Leaving Frideswide - David Constantine
• Holiday in Iceland - Maria McCann
• The Possession of Lachlan Lubanach - Nick Hayes
• Almost Visible Cities - Gregory Norminton
• Hospital Field - Siân Melangell Dafydd
• Earthship - Lawrence Norfolk
• The Spiral Staircase - Jay Griffiths

Friends of the Earth is part of Stop Climate Chaos, the UK's largest group of people dedicated to taking action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world's poorest communities.

The SCC's combined supporter base of more than 11 million people spans over a 100 organisations, from environment and development charities to unions, faith, community, and women's groups. The coalition demands practical action by the UK to keep global warming as far as possible below the 2ºC danger threshold.

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