{"title":"Books by Helen Simpson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780091909949","title":"The Ritz London Book Of Afternoon Tea","description":"Taking tea is one of the quintessentially English occasions, and who is a greater authority on the subject than the sumptuous Ritz London Hotel? This charming Edwardian-style book captures the essence of this traditional British pastime, and provides us with all the expertise on the ceremony as well as the recipes. Stories about the legendary afternoon teas at The Ritz and fascinating details about the history of tea drinking are complemented with passages from such diverse writers as Charles Dickens to Oscar Wilde. Over fifty recipes are included for different kinds of afternoon tea specialities, from delicate sandwiches, strawberry shortcake and rose petal jam, to crumpets and muffins for hearty teas in front of a roaring fire. The author gives an infallible guide to the many blends of tea and their suitability to particular occasions. Beautifully presented and delightfully illustrated, this book is the perfect gift for tea drinkers everywhere.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201366196402,"sku":"9780091909949","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780091909949_61b4af09-e57a-4f3f-a3ba-b6495b878c04.jpg?v=1786011611"},{"product_id":"9780008283193","title":"The Anatomy of Murder","description":"A unique anthology for crime aficionados – seven of the world’s most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation.A manipulative murderer who stalked the streets of Paris; a young wife who poisoned her eccentric husband; a bank cashier’s mysterious suicide; a brutal double murder in New Zealand… Seven of the world’s greatest crime writers turn their hand to some of the world’s most spine-tingling mysteries – all of them astonishingly TRUE.This remarkable collection from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Six Against the Yard back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the most accomplished authors of their generation retelling real-life murder mysteries with all the relish of the tastiest crime fiction.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205991563442,"sku":"9780008283193","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008283193.jpg?v=1785658824"},{"product_id":"9780099494188","title":"Constitutional","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA sensational short story collection from Britain's master of the genre.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCharting tantrums, funerals, pregnancy and love affairs, these stories unroll with piercing wit and compassion. One woman finds grief for her lost lover is assuaged when she invests in a new front door. Another grows increasingly frustrated as the grim reaper scythes through her circle, with farcical and tragic results. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eElsewhere, a chain-smoker’s brush with death appears to help him reassess his priorities, a south London builder avenges the duping of his adored mother, and a phlebotomist’s relationship is pushed to it limits by her preoccupation with war. And in the title story, a teacher’s circular walk on Hampstead Heath leads to revelations about mourning, ageing, and new life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A masterful contemporary exponent of the genre. Simpson now deserves to be compared with Flannery O'Connor and Alice Munro’ Robert McCrum, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223016681845,"sku":"9780099494188","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099494188_e29877d3-993f-4edc-b733-443bdde91adf.jpg?v=1786011446"},{"product_id":"9780749391621","title":"Four Bare Legs In a Bed","description":"Brilliant, funny and tragic, \u003ci\u003eFour Bare Legs in a Bed\u003c\/i\u003e is an outstanding and invigorating collection of short stories. In Simpson's singular and opulent voice, we hear of the mixed blessings of independence and marriage, of sex and babies. From a bed that transforms the lives of a struggling couple to a chorus of midwives telling the dramatic story of a birth, this is a playful, unique set of stories to treasure.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298427351413,"sku":"9780749391621","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780749391621_db41019a-28bc-488c-b093-a98c2b0b51d1.jpg?v=1786015089"},{"product_id":"9781784701987","title":"Cockfosters","description":"\u003ci\u003eCockfosters\u003c\/i\u003e is a funny, frank and forceful story collection dealing with ageing, ambition and the patterns of repetition and renewal found in long friendships and marriages.  It opens irresistible new windows onto the world from Arizona to Dubai and from Moscow to Berlin. Turning both a panoramic and a zoom lens on the way we live now, these stories range through hitch-hiking in Bohemian forest-land to cresting the waves of the Aegean to the mending of hearts and the recovery of lost property at the end of the Piccadilly Line.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHelen Simpson writes with great warmth, wit and candour about the complexities of modern life, and this new collection shows why she is hailed as one of the best short story writers at work in the world today.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305227596149,"sku":"9781784701987","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781784701987_57492347-3891-4f7e-8d68-7f40eb4dc47e.jpg?v=1786025911"},{"product_id":"9781784872731","title":"Motherhood","description":"\u003cb\u003eEnjoy Helen Simpson’s sharply funny, humane take on the everyday joys and struggles of motherhood in this perfect Mother’s Day gift.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                                                                                                                                                                              Welcome to motherhood – a land of aching fatigue, constant self-sacrifice and thankless servitude, a land of bottomless devotion, small hands and feet like warm pink roses, and velvet kisses. Here is a land where men and women, once carefree and engrossed in work and sex, now try to solve age-old arguments and search fruitlessly for another hour in the day. Perhaps you know this land well, or perhaps you’re entering it for the first time – either way, you need these honest funny humane stories from an expert guide.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSelected from Helen Simpson’s short story collections Dear George, Hey Yeah Right Get a Life and Constitutional\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlso in the Vintage Minis series:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLanguage \u003c\/i\u003eby Xiaolu Guo\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFatherhood \u003c\/i\u003eby Karl Ove Knausgaard\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eEating \u003c\/i\u003eby Nigella Lawson \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDrinking\u003c\/i\u003e by John Cheever","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305258234229,"sku":"9781784872731","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781784872731_63ad4811-d908-4c95-9511-f22a8975467a.jpg?v=1786025451"},{"product_id":"9781911427254","title":"Same Same but Different Short Stories","description":"'A daring collection written in response to lockdown' Alison MacLeod 'A collection that reminds us what it is to be human. A book for right now' , Angela Readman '18 well-chosen stories, loosely based on the idea of solitude, explore loss, loneliness and love,'DAILY MAIL Brilliantly funny, terrifying, tender and sharp: the best short stories to come out of lockdown.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308961509749,"sku":"9781911427254","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911427254_2dcbe30d-f1b5-456d-a88a-681a9e68972c.jpg?v=1786029717"},{"product_id":"hey-yeah-right-get-a-life","title":"Hey Yeah Right Get A Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHelen Simpson's third collection is a bold, honest exploration of the trials and the rewards of motherhood. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Her stories are - for those who, like me, recognise the truth in every word - like a reprieve... Sharp, poetic and marvellously witty’ Kate Kellaway, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere are tales of a highflyer stuck at an interminable Burns Night celebration, increasingly aware of the babysitter waiting for her at home; an exhausted mother longing for adult conversation but whose son unwittingly precludes it; and a teenage girl whose fraught encounter with a harried mum of one brings newfound appreciation for her own capable mother of four. Most strikingly of all we meet Dorrie, whose efforts to calm her tinderbox of a family leave her struggling to contain her own emotions. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHey Yeah Right Get a Life \u003c\/i\u003eis a singular achievement: relatable, perceptive and utterly poignant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘It's a brilliant, painful, funny and courageous book’ Esther Freud, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466553401717,"sku":"9780099284222","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099284222.jpg?v=1785654611"},{"product_id":"in-flight-entertainment","title":"In-Flight Entertainment","description":"\u003cp\u003ePoignant, funny and perceptive, Helen Simpson's fifth collection of runs the gamut of emotions and deals with birth, death and everything in between. We shift from a diary chronicling the dangers of life as a woman in the bleak 2040s, to two students falling in love then almost talking themselves out of it in an argument about the end of the world, to a heartfelt anti-cancer spell cast in the hope of protecting a friend. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Moving effortlessly between tragedy and comedy and packed with a host of distinctive voices, this is an outstanding collection from a master of the genre.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466828128629,"sku":"9780099546122","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099546122.jpg?v=1785654901"},{"product_id":"dear-george-and-other-stories","title":"Dear George and Other Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this stellar collection of short stories, Helen Simpson explores independence, solitude, marriage, sex and babies with her characteristic blend of comedy and lyricism. Here are tales of young love - successful or thwarted, intense or comic. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e From a wedding day for one, through the knotty problems of babies, their conception, arrival and impact on adult lives, to a Lothario receiving his just deserts, and the title story, where a schoolgirl's erotic daydreams during her Shakespeare homework go on to produce blushes of horror.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481504784757,"sku":"9780749395452","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780749395452.jpg?v=1786089770"},{"product_id":"bunch-of-fives","title":"A Bunch of Fives","description":"Since the 1990 publication of her first collection, \u003ci\u003eFour Bare Legs in a Bed, \u003c\/i\u003eHelen Simpson has been hailed as one of the best short story writers at work in the world today.  These wonderfully funny and penetrating stories take on the full stretch, from birth to death and everything in between, in writing of remarkable originality and clarity.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492162445685,"sku":"9780099561576","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099561576.jpg?v=1786528959"},{"product_id":"bullies-vs-the-bold","title":"Bullies vs the Bold","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2013, European Lifelong Learning and storyteller Chip Colquhoun conducted a study in which learners aged 10–11 outperformed peers by an average of 26% in a standardised test when taught using stories rather than rote methods.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow, Chip Colquhoun and Korky Paul’s \u003cem\u003eFables \u0026amp; Fairy Tales\u003c\/em\u003e Educator Editions give you the chance to harness the power of story-led learning for the benefit of your learners aged 4+ and\/or 7+.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cstrong\u003eThe REAL King of the Jungle\u003c\/strong\u003e, your learners will meet Tenduay, a leopard with an appetite ten times greater than Lion’s – but before Tenduay destroys the jungle, your learners will get to grips with data handling, reflective materials, adjectives, and much, much more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Farmer Rob arrives in the village of Mumby to find all the villagers hiding from a vicious \u003cstrong\u003eBoggart\u003c\/strong\u003e, your learners will also enhance their understanding of fractions, similes, where our food comes from, and again – much, much more!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWith 2 enthralling short stories and 26 engaging lesson plans, here is everything you need to teach in a way that’s memorable, effective, and enjoyable – all at the same time!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492331889013,"sku":"9781915703378","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781915703378.jpg?v=1786529167"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-helen-simpson.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}