These seven stories were the last that Carver wrote. Among them is one of his longest, 'Errand', in which he imagines the death of Chekhov, a writer Carver hugely admired and to whose work his own was often compared. This fine story suggests that the greatest of modern short-story writers may, in the year before his untimely death, have been flexing his muscles for a longer work.

Where I'm Calling From, with the author's original introduction, is the essential Raymond Carver story collection. Shortly before he died, America's laureate of the dispossessed made his own choice of his short stories, revised the texts and published them in this authoritative edition. The stories in Where I'm Calling From are selected from the full range of the author's work, including Furious Seasons, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, What We Talk about When We Talk about Love and Cathedral and include all seven stories from his last collection, Elephant.

Raymond Carver said it was possible 'to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language and endow these things - a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring - with immense, even startling power'. Nowhere is this alchemy more striking than in the title story of Cathedral in which a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see. Many view this story, and indeed this collection, as a watershed in the maturing of Carver's work to a more confidently poetic style.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is Carver's most famous collection of short stories and remians one of the most influential pieces of modern literature to date. But the original, unedited manuscript, Beginners – published here for the first time, was almost fifty per cent longer than the published collection. This restored version of Carver's stories reveals what was previously unsaid, filling in the narrative silences that have both inspired and mystified readers for so long. Beginners is a fascinating insight into the aesthetic of a literary great and, in the questions it raises, may just spark off one of the great cultural debates of our times.

This volume comprises the nine short stories and a poem by Carver from which Robert Altman wove his acclaimed film of the same title and it comes with an introduction by the director. Together the stories create an incisive portrait of American life and the American psyche.

With this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed how humour and tragedy dwell in the hearts of ordinary people, and won a readership that grew with every subsequent brilliant collection of stories, poems and essays that appeared in the last eleven years of his life.

This powerful collection of stories, set in the mid-West among the lonely men and women who drink, fish and play cards to ease the passing of time, was the first by Raymond Carver to be published in the UK. With its spare, colloquial narration and razor-sharp sense of how people really communicate, the collection was to become one of the most influential literary works of the 1980s.

This powerful collection of stories, set in the mid-West among the lonely men and women who drink, fish and play cards to ease the passing of time, was the first by Raymond Carver to be published in the UK. With its spare, colloquial narration and razor-sharp sense of how people really communicate, the collection was to become one of the most influential literary works of the 1980s.

Follow along with the adventures of a giant elephant and a mischievous baby in this timeless picture-book story. When an Elephant meets a Bad Baby and offers them a ride, it's the start of a wild adventure - going 'rumpeta, rumpeta, rumpeta' down the road, and helping themselves to ice creams, lollipops, and all manner of sweet treats. But as a long line of disgruntled shopkeepers and salespeople begin to follow them, Bad Baby learns the importance of saying 'please,' and all the trouble you can get into if you forget... Elfrida Vipont worked as a teacher, singer and writer. She wrote over 30 books and won the Carnegie Medal in 1950 for Lark on the Wing. Raymond Briggs has produced wonderful children's books including the classic titles The Snowman, Father Christmas and When the Wind Blows - all made into immensely successful films.

Why were so many authors of the greatest works of literature consumed by alcoholism? In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing takes a journey across America, examining the links between creativity and drink in the overlapping work and lives of six extraordinary men: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever and Raymond Carver. From Hemingway’s Key West to Williams’s New Orleans, Laing pieces together a topographical map of alcoholism, and strips away the tangle of mythology to reveal the terrible price creativity can exert.

The short story that inspired the play at the heart of BIRDMAN starring Michael Keaton, Ed Norton and Emma Stone This powerful collection of stories, set in the mid-West among the lonely men and women who drink, fish and play cards to ease the passing of time, was the first by Raymond Carver to be published in the UK. With its spare, colloquial narration and razor-sharp sense of how people really communicate, the collection was to become one of the most influential literary works of the 1980s.

Raymond Carver said it was possible 'to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language and endow these things - a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring - with immense, even startling power'. Nowhere is this alchemy more striking than in the title story of Cathedral in which a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see. Many view this story, and indeed this collection, as a watershed in the maturing of Carver's work to a more confidently poetic style.

Raymond Carver said it was possible 'to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language and endow these things - a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring - with immense, even startling power'. Nowhere is this alchemy more striking than in the title story of Cathedral in which a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see. Many view this story, and indeed this collection, as a watershed in the maturing of Carver's work to a more confidently poetic style.

The empowering story of little elephant Num-Num, who discovers the importance of simply being YOU! From the creators of international bestseller and much-loved classic Giraffes Can't Dance. It's time for the Elephant Games! One by one, the young elephants compete to impress King Elephant Mighty and earn their Elephant Name. Nina is the strongest, so she becomes Elephant Strong. Norcus is the loudest, so he becomes Elephant Noisy. Little Elephant Num-Num thinks he will never discover his own special talent - until he learns that the very best thing you can be is YOU!

The empowering story of little elephant Num-Num, who discovers the importance of simply being you! From the creators of international bestseller and much-loved classic Giraffes Can't Dance. It's time for the Elephant Games! One by one, the young elephants compete to impress King Elephant Mighty and earn their Elephant Name. Nina is the strongest, so she becomes Elephant Strong. Norcus is the loudest, so he becomes Elephant Noisy. Little Elephant Num-Num thinks he will never discover his own special talent - until he learns that the very best thing you can be is you!

Little children and their grown-ups can poke their fingers through the holes to become the trunks of Big Elephant and Baby Elephant and tell a simple story. Baby Elephant learns to reach for leaves, suck up and squirt water, then takes a walk through the grassland before joining the rest of the family at the end of the day for a big elephant cuddle.