Parthian Books imprint: 86 books

In novella A Thing of Nought, Hilda Vaughan returns hauntingly to the theme of lovers parted by the world. Megan Lloyd's handsome lover Penry Price departs for Australia, to find work and build them a home, but is thwarted at every turn by drought, poverty and illness, and finally begs her to think...

Told completely from the Trans-Siberian and a series of Russian jets, this is the story of a young British poet, who, after becoming engaged to his translator more than 3,500 miles east, embarks on a journey into the very heart of Siberia to marry his fiancée. However, in place of the desolate wasteland...

In 1976, 10-year-old Niall Griffiths and his family immigrated to Australia from Liverpool as part of the Ten Pound Pom, an assisted-passage plan designed to increase the population of Australia and supply workers for its booming industries. Following three years of residence, the family moved coast-to-coast,...

"Portugal is not all that far away, or exotic, or dangerous, but it felt like a huge stretch for me to leave my partner, family, job and home and just go off. An overland solo trip lasting months in an ancient little camper van was not the kind of thing I did. But it was something I was about...

Drawing upon a varied array of sources, many of which were previously unused, this rich biography explores the public achievements and the fascinating private world of one of the most influential people in British society in the first half of the 20th century. The book tells the remarkable tale of...

In this zany new collection of stories, a paid assassin called Krink loads up on viper-spit to tackle some uber-thugs; the governor of a prison ship introduces his inmates to haute cuisine; and a farmer wakes up after an avalanche in north Wales to find he is the last man alive. Ranging from the taiga...

For many in Britain the issue of the country’s membership of the European Union is the biggest political decision of their lifetime. It affects their livelihoods, their communities, the life chances of their children and their grandchildren and, above all, their sense of themselves. The existential...

The stories in this collection circle around women who are either literally missing—a mother in rehab, a daughter never born—or who are missing some metaphorical piece of themselves. A father tries to convince his uncompromising, anorexic daughter to want to live, a single woman lures men to her...

In this classic masterpiece, originally published in 1968, dysfunctional lovers Rees Stevens and Ellen Vaughan must uncover and interpret Ellen's father's journal in order to make sense of their own lives. Faulknerian in its range, hard driven in its narrative telling, singular in style, and fierce...

Aled Isylwyn's award-winning writing is is characterized by emotional concerns underlain by lyrical intensity. In this short story, taken from the collection Out With It, charm and confidence allow Joel to part men with their money in the gym and the gay clubs, but Welsh muscle-boy soon discovers his ability to escape the past is not as developed as his physique.

Embarking on a journey that spans Sri Lanka, Wales, Spain, India, Morocco, and the lives and minds of complex, charming characters, these short stories offer a fresh view on contemporary life in Wales. The stylized prose creates both a sense of familiarity in the exotic and a sense of exotic...

Stranded on the outskirts of Ironopolis — nickname to a lost industrial Middlesbrough — the Burn Council Estate is about to be torn down to make way for regeneration. For the future ... But these streets know many stories, some hide secrets … Jean holds the key to the disappearance...

After an elderly farmer dies, following an accident on a remote Welsh smallholding, he leaves the kingdom over which he had ruled so fiercely to his two daughters, Lucy and Cadi. As they prepare for the funeral, the novel—the last written by the prolific James Hanley—relates the events and experiences...

With recipes, murder, intrigue, and vernacular from another era, this crime novel recaptures the tastes and turbulence of 1960s Calcutta as the city struggles with the changes pressing upon the country. A young, widowed mother, Mrs. D'Silva is eager to be part of the new India, the new Kolkata, and...