Showing results by author "Julia Dawn" in All Categories

Aggressively Helpful? That seems like a mismatched pair of words. How can one be both 'aggressive' and 'helpful' at the same time? The name may seem like an oxymoron, but that's where its charm lies. Dawn and Julia bring their enthusiastic approach to life with a firm helping hand and a smile... whether you like it or not.

This genre-spanning anthology explores the many ways that we grow, adapt, and survive in the face of our ever-changing global realities. These evocative, often prescient, stories showcase new and emerging writers from across Africa to investigate many of the pressing issues of our time: climate change, pandemics, social upheaval, surveillance, and more. In Disruption, authors from across Africa use their stories to explore the concept of change - environmental, political, and physical - and the power or impotence of the human race to innovate our way through it.

The Future Mother-in-Law Predicament: "Why did we have to let her in? Could we not have just posted her a duvet through the letter-box?" Alice’s Mum comes to stay and Jon is not happy. A house-proud woman with a bosom as pronounced as her carefully annunciated consonants, she cleans, criticises, pokes and potters until not even Alice can take it anymore, forcing her to call on reinforcements with equally masterful diction.

A bitter round of Pictionary ends in a drink-to-the-vomit drinking game after Alice claims she can beat Jon at anything. The rug of Alice and Jon’s host gets in the firing line, rekindling rivalries from the past as well as the present. Jon declares he is not a loser and embarks on a mission to prove it by any means possible.

The dangling testicles of fate have tea-bagged me yet again." Alice and Keren are coming to the end of the three-hour getting-ready ritual, in preparation for a rare big night out with old mates. Jon is trying his best to get out of it with the help of the not-so-bright Grub. As the countdown begins, the wine is drunk, the hair sprayed stiff, and Jon made to change his shirt, but who will make it out of the house in time?

Neither Jon nor Alice feels like they are getting enough and the frustration is tangible. If the other can’t help then who can? Best friends? Colleagues? The corner shop/kebab house owner? Fighting for the remote are Jon and Alice, a twenty-something couple living together in London. Alice enjoys socialising; Jon hates meeting people. While Alice is climbing her career ladder, Jon is quite content on the bottom rung of his.

"God, I need to be bereaved. I could do with losing a few pounds". Jon, Keren, and Grub accompany Alice to the funeral of a uni friend called Boris. Jon wants to know how good a friend the deceased was; Alice wants to know how he died. Will their respective quests for knowledge end in tears or laughter?

I remember when we used to have a life and not just a "Lovefilm" account" Jon and Alice’s latest dinner party attempt results in some guests glad to get away. Alice is nostalgic for the past, but realises some things have always been the same.