The Middle Kid is the story of Alex, an ordinary schoolgirl, and her struggle to be noticeable. With an older brother who is set for Olympic glory in the swimming pool and a younger brother who has emerged as a Latin genius, Alex is the middle child and apt to be ignored. Often, she feels she is the only one in her family who feels a responsibility to hold it together. Feeling unappreciated, she knows she needs a plan. With busy parents and brothers with their own interests she first finds comfort in sleeping dreams. When these fail to deliver, she turns to a daytime dream of her own destiny...

Go-go bars as a cultural asset, dentists, chicken's feet, soapy massage, trousers, being struck by lightning, tattoos, luck, breast enhancements, beards and being a foreigner - these are just some of the aspects of living in Pattaya, Thailand's most exciting city, that come within range of Kuhn Pobaan's seeing eye in this lively and revealing book. Originally published as The View from the Hill in the leading fortnightly Pattaya Today, each chapter takes a light-hearted but incisive look at the quirky side of living in a city that is unusual even by Thai standards. Firmly in the foreground of...

A photographer hired to witness a murder, a colour-blind sperm donor, a ghost who misses his friends, a Canadian who pretends he's from Latvia, and a woman sure her children's will be the last human generation-these are just some of the fascinating characters with leading roles in this poignant collection of short stories. Often amusing, sometimes comical and occasionally sad, these tales are always touching. William Peskett writes with a light touch and brings a sensitive and sympathetic eye to bear on a wide variety of characters and an unusual mixture of relationships. Most of the stories...

A lascivious businessman who prefers ladyboys to ladies, a depressed sea captain who threatens to sink his own ferry, a woman who eats more than food, and a Thai widow finding her late husband's roots in Crete-these are just some of the engaging characters who appear in this original collection of short stories. Often amusing, sometimes comical and occasionally sad, these tales are always touching. William Peskett writes with a light touch and brings a sensitive and sympathetic eye to bear on a wide variety of characters and an unusual mixture of relationships. Most of the stories in the...

Darry Ash is in antiques, but in a small way. He lives in the suburbs with his wife and daughter. He dreams of escaping from his humdrum life by becoming a successful, published poet, but the rejection slips mount up. Against character, he begins a passionate and dangerous affair with his assistant, Janie, which causes Darry's life to nose-dive into chaos. His business is in debt, Janie-vivacious, depressive and determined to wrest Darry away from his family-is a lot more trouble than he thought, and he gets no sympathy from his old friend George, who has troubles of his own. Diving for...

In Sixties Belfast, civil unrest is in the air. Patrick Glennie, whose mother disappeared mysteriously when he was young, is on a quest. Partly, it's to find himself, to discover his identity as an adult, and in this he is guided through the terrors of growing up by his friend, the confident Robert Delgano. All Patrick can offer in return is his knowledge of nature, which suggests an alternative way to live. When they meet again, Robert is in trouble. Patrick fears being pulled into the sordid drug-world inhabited by his friend, only to find that he is already involved and that their youthful...

Limericks are those rhymes that go 'There was a young man from de-dum, Who dum-ditty-dum-ditty-dum'. A form of poetry more commonly used to describe old men with owls nesting in their beards, or perhaps ladies from Ealing who can do remarkable things on the ceiling, than the everyday lives of Pattaya bar girls. Maybe it was a combination just waiting to happen. Wait no longer. Go-Go Girls is a charming collection of Limericks devoted to the unsung heroines of Pattaya night-life, the young women who gyrate around the chrome poles and entertain customers at their little tables and, possibly,...

This is a selection of the best of William Peskett's poetry, most chosen from his two collections of poems with the addition of a number of newer works. Most of the poems date from the 1960s and 1970s, when Peskett was part of a vigorous poetic movement that emerged from politically troubled Northern Ireland. Although few of the poets working in the Province at that time took politics as a major theme, Peskett's work in particular maintains a distance from the Troubles, dealing more commonly with the natural world and our interactions with it, especially through science. Other trained...

William Peskett is the latest and youngest arrival among a brilliant group of recent poets in Northern Ireland. The intent observation and delicate structure of his poems are unusual. They feel their way into situations with both tact and exactness, and move with equal poise through human relationships and the natural world. For the past few years, William Peskett's work has been appearing in periodicals and on the radio, and it attracted special attention when a group of poems appeared in Faber's Poetry Introduction 2. Thisis his first full length book."