Penguin Books Ltd

When his love for the Baron's daughter is discovered, Candide is cast out to make his own way in the world. And so he and his companions begin a breathless tour of Europe, South America and Asia, as an outrageous series of disasters befall them earthquakes, syphilis, a brush with the Inquisition, and murder, testing the young hero's optimism.

On Mother's Day, 2002, the author was unmarried, addicted to drugs, booze, food and bad love. Her criminal record had grown steadily more muddied in her desperate quest for escapism. But by a strange twist of fate, it was on this day that she discovered she was pregnant. This title tells her story.

Features beautifully worded pieces of work-poems of author that illuminate grand gestures and small glimpses, poems that celebrate the beauty of a life spent chasing the light.

On 26 April 1986, at 1.23am, a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. While officials tried to hush up the accident, the author spent years collecting testimonies from survivors. A chronicle of the past and a warning for our nuclear future, this book shows what it is like to remember in a world that wants you to forget.