Celebrated trumpeter Joss Moody has died and the jazz world is in mourning. But in death, Joss can no longer guard the secret he kept all his life, and Colman, his adoring son, must confront the truth: the man whom he believed to be his father was, in fact a woman.

Trumpet

Literature & Fiction

KAY, JACKIE

Contemporary

Picador

The long awaited collection of stories from award-winning Jackie; Kay Following on from Jackie Kay`s award-winning first novel, Trumpet, comes a collection of superlative stories. In true Kay style these small masterpieces cover a great deal of emotional and narrative terrain, from an immaculate observation of the female physiognomy to the bewilderment of the elderly; from silent hidden love to a lifetime reminiscence of an immigrant`s England, these stories are warm and tender, frightening and funny. They confirm the arrival of a major storyteller.

Why don't you stop talking

`How do you know my name?` Maybe asked Strawgirl. She was thrilled out of her tiny mind. The pleasure she felt was so intense, the roof of her head could have flown open and three beautiful birds soared out. Molly `Maybe` MacPherson has always felt that she doesn`t quite fit in. Her dad is from Nigeria, which makes Maybe different to everyone else in her Scottish farming community. If only she could forget about her embarassing roots. If only she could stop getting bullied. Then Maybe`s father is killed in a car accident. Struggling with grief and loneliness, she must fight to keep the farm she loves. But a strange magic is at work, and when Maybe most needs a friend, her wish comes true in a way she could never imagined... `An out of the ordinary tale of enchantment` Daily Telegraph

Strawgirl

Teen & Young Adult

Macmillan Children`s Books

Jackie Kay’s new collection is a lyric counterpart to her memoir, Red Dust Road, the extraordinary story of the search for her Nigerian and Highland birth-parents; but it is also a moving book in its own right, and a deep enquiry into all forms of human friendship. Fiere – Scots for ‘companion, friend, equal’ – is a vivid description of the many paths our lives take, and of how those journeys are made meaningful by our companions on the road: lovers, friends, parents, children, mentors – as well as all the remarkable and chance acquaintances we would not otherwise have made. Written with Kay’s trademark wit and flair, and infused with both Scots and Igbo speech, it is also a fascinating account of the formation of a self-identity – and the discovery of a tongue that best honours it. Musical and moving, funny and profound, Fiere is Jackie Kay’s most accomplished, assured and ambitious collection of poems to date.

Fiere

Poetry

Jackie Kay's mesmerizing and powerfully moving first novel is about the extraordinary life and seeming dissolution of a family -- about the boundaries of identity and the essential nature of love. At its center is Joss Moody, a celebrated jazz trumpeter who created music that convinced everyone who heard it that they knew the man who made it. But Joss's death has proved them all wrong: Joss Moody lived his life inside a stunning secret. His wife, Millie, had known about it. But their adopted son, Colman, now in his thirties, has just learned of it. With everything he understood about himself and his family thrown into question, Colman forms an uncomfortable alliance with a journalist intent on telling Joss's story her own way. Millie, grieving and besieged by the press, secludes herself in their home in a small Scottish village, sinking into the aching solace of memory. Their two brilliantly realized voices -- one revisiting the past for comfort, the other for answers -- are interwoven with the equally evocative voices of Joss's drummer, of the doctor who discovered Joss's secret, of the funeral director who hid it for the last time, of the registrar of death certificates, and of the journalist. Together they reveal the startling and poignant story of Joss and Millie: how a complex, dazzling lie became the foundation for a family, a life, and a rare, unshakable love. Starkly beautiful, emotionally charged, and wholly unexpected, Trumpet delves into the most intimate workings of the human heart and mind. It is a bravura performance and a triumphant debut.

Trumpet: A Novel

Literary

Pantheon

"Supremely humane.... Kay leaves us with a broad landscape of sweet tolerance and familial love." —The New York Times Book Review In her starkly beautiful and wholly unexpected tale, Jackie Kay delves into the most intimate workings of the human heart and mind and offers a triumphant tale of loving deception and lasting devotion. The death of legendary jazz trumpeter Joss Moody exposes an extraordinary secret, one that enrages his adopted son, Colman, leading him to collude with a tabloid journalist. Besieged by the press, his widow Millie flees to a remote Scottish village, where she seeks solace in memories of their marriage. The reminiscences of those who knew Joss Moody render a moving portrait of a shared life founded on an intricate lie, one that preserved a rare, unconditional love.

British & Irish

Vintage

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK\nBessie Smith: singer, icon, pioneer.\nScotland's National Poet Jackie Kay brings to life the tempestuous story of the greatest blues singer who ever lived.\n'A gem of a book . . . beautiful.' BERNARDINE EVARISTO 
'A wonderful writer on a magnificent singer.' ROBERT WYATT 
'Kay's book is the amplifier that Smith's voice deserves.' SUNDAY TIMES 
'The most vivid evocation of Bessie Smith I have ever read.' IAN CARR, BBC MUSIC\nBESSIE SMITH was born in Tennessee in 1894. Orphaned by the age of nine, she sang on street corners before becoming a big name in travelling shows. In 1923 she made her first recording for a new start-up called Columbia Records. It sold 780,000 copies and made her a star. Smith's life was notoriously difficult: she drank pints of 'bathtub gin', got into violent fist fights, spent huge sums of money and had passionate love affairs with men and women. She once single-handedly fought off a cohort of the Ku Klux Klan.\nAs a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, Jackie Kay found in Bessie someone with whom she could identify and who she could idolise. In this remarkable book Kay mixes biography, fiction, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life.\n'Biographies don't usually bring the subject to life again. This one did. I finished the book then started it again immediately.' 
PEGGY SEEGER\n'What a life! What gulpable storytelling! Exactly the kind of writing about music we need: personal, ardent, playfully confrontational, questioning, undogmatic. A love song to a complicated idol.' 
KATE MOLLESON\n'Pure joy: one trailblazing woman pays tribute to another. Jackie Kay finds the music in the short, dazzling, capricious life of Bessie Smith.' 
HELEN LEWIS

Bessie Smith: A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

Humor & Entertainment

Faber&Faber

A beautiful genre-bending tribute to the larger-than-life blues singer Bessie Smith. Scotland’s National Poet blends poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction to create an entirely unique biography of the Empress of the Blues.\nThere has never been anyone else like Bessie Smith. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1894 and orphaned by the age of nine, Bessie Smith sang on street corners before becoming a big name in traveling shows. In 1923, she made her first recording for the newly founded Columbia Records. It sold 780,000 copies and catapulted her to fame. Known for her unmatched vocal talent, her timeless and personal blues narratives, her tough persona, and her ability to enrapture audiences with her raw voice, the Empress of the Blues remains a force and an enigma.\nIn this remarkable book, Kay combines history and personal narrative, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life, and to capture the soul of the woman she first identified with as a young Black girl growing up in Glasgow. Powerful and moving, Bessie Smith is at once a vivid biography of a central figure in American music history and a personal story about one woman’s search for recognition.\nA VINTAGE ORIGINAL.

Bessie Smith: A Poet's Biography of a Blues Legend

Drawing together the work of 12 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology celebrates highlights from 21 years of the Connections festival with a retrospective selection of plays. 
Featuring work by some of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries, and together in one volume, the anthology offers young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study.
Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department over the years, with the young performer in mind. In 2016, these plays were then performed by approximately 500 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional partner regional theatres at which the works were showcased. 
The anthology contains all 12 of the play scripts; notes from the writer and director of each play, addressing the themes and ideas behind the play; and production notes and exercises for the drama groups.
This year's anniversary anthology includes plays by Snoo Wilson, Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt; Simon Armitage; Jackie Kay; Patrick Marber; Mark Ravenhill; Bryony Lavery &amp; Frantic Assembly; Davey Anderson; James Graham; Katori Hall; Carl Grose; Stacey Gregg; and Lucinda Coxon.

Connections 500: Blackout; Eclipse; What Are They Like?; Bassett; I'm Spilling My Heart Out Here; Gargantua; Children of Killers; Take Away; It Snows; The Musicians; Citizenship; Bedbug

Lavery, Bryony

Armitage, SImon

Graham, James

Marber, Patrick

Hall, Katori

Ravenhill, Mark

Gregg, Stacey

Wilson, Snoo

Grose, Carl

Anderson, Davey

Coxon, Lucinda

Dramas & Plays

Methuen Drama

Bantam

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