David Pearce: 11 books

The Hedonistic Imperative outlines how genetic engineering and nanotechnology will abolish suffering in all sentient life. The abolitionist project is hugely ambitious but technically feasible. It is also instrumentally rational and morally urgent. The metabolic pathways of pain and malaise...

In all his seventeen years Henry has operated at a binary level. He conducted relationships in those terms. 0/1, black/white, negative/positive, on/off, yes/no: if the girl said “No” he did not argue or press her to alter her response. Henry was the perfect gentleman. He walked or drove them home...

Timed with precision to ease the pain of your commute "the case of the punt gunner's bollards" is a short story set in the wild sea coast of eastern England. You will be spell-bound. Your journey will evaporate as the tide comes in. The punt gunner focuses on a flock of ducks. He fires his mighty...

From the moment she arrives Isabel is a disappointment. She is not the daughter she was supposed to be and she becomes worse with every passing day. This is not altogether surprising. She has a model father but her mother spoils her. She becomes fat and aggressive not only to her father but to other...

A pistol shot shatters the early morning silence of the Great Hall. A lead ball flies to its target. A miss? The man lowering his pistol has never been known to miss. Decades later Bernard Mollison, master restorer, examines a hole in a family portrait – a hole where the heart is. Beside him stands...

Was it deliberate? Was She the victim of a male conspiracy? So little has been said about Her. So little written. So little credit given. She has been air-brushed out of history. Yet from the beginning She played a quiet, vital, behind the scenes role. The occasional suggestion. A hint here and there....

Frank Prettyman, owner and CEO of Celtic Literary Enterprises, is drowned attempting to locate C.D. Moreclay, a pig-farmer and the author of “The Party at the End of Time”, an unsolicited manuscript that both he and Frank are convinced is a masterpiece. Celtic has traditionally, and profitably,...

Just what my doctor might have ordered – an adventure of my very own. How else could I have interpreted that gesture, the hand drawn across the throat, menacing and made in my direction. They were out to get me. Nothing for it but a headlong dash across Europe, hounds snapping at my heels. No sooner...

Were they invited, or did they gate-crash the party to end all parties – The Party at the End of Time? Henry’s mother feared they might arrive and arrive they did, fresh from the sea and rarin’ to go, Thor the Viking and Nigel, the pirate and do they know how to party! Little old ladies clamour...

Frank Prettyman, owner and CEO of Celtic Literary Enterprises, is drowned attempting to locate C.D. Moreclay, a pig-farmer and the author of “The Party at the End of Time”, an unsolicited manuscript that both he and Frank are convinced is a masterpiece. Celtic has traditionally, and profitably,...

Just what my doctor might have ordered - an adventure. How to interpret that gesture, more subtle than the flat of the hand across the throat but menacing and made in my direction? Nothing for it but a headlong dash across Europe, hounds snapping at my heels - (delete "headlong",...