The breathtaking story of a lost 19th century Geographical Society expedition into darkest Africa. George and Alexandria Lipton must leave their young son behind in England when they depart for the jungles of Gabon. The couple lead a disparate group of academics and mercenaries on an expedition to find the legendary pygmy tribe, the Batwa. They tell their young son that they will be back by the time that there is snow on the Downs, but that is before they actually find the lost tribe and discover the terrible secret of the Monkey Nuts.

Peter Ebsworth is a poet in love with the stage. In Krapp's Last Tape, he treads the line between the audience and the performer, an act of voyeurism and ventriloquism that results in tense snippets of verse only relieved by a tongue in cheek humour that is evident throughout. In his persona poems, he embodies a pantheon of pop culture gods and goddesses such as Marlon Brando, Sticky Vicky, the veteran Benidorm erotic entertainer, and Tony Soprano; in other poems he turns the gaze around to observe them as audience. Selected from literary output ranging over 30 years the tone swings from...