Mark Connors
Mark Connors is an award winning writer from Horsforth near Leeds. He has won prizes and received commendations at various Literature Festivals. His poetry and short fiction has been published widely in the UK and overseas. His debut poetry pamphlet, Life is a Long Song, was published by Otley Word Feast Press in 2015. Stickleback is his first novel. For more information about Mark Connors, please visit his website at
www.markconnors.co.uk.
Also by Mark Connors
Poetry:
Life is a Long Song (Otley Word Feast Press, 2015)
Alan Siddall, a young 68-year-old Black Sabbath fan who wears shades from dusk till dawn, has outstayed his welcome at his local Mental Health Unit. He’s about to be shipped off to Willowbeck Gardens to see out the rest of his troubled days. But when he bumps into Cassandra, “the one that got away” years ago before his disastrous marriage to Babs, Alan refuses to go gently into residential care.
He wants Cassandra back.
At the heart of this angry, moving and often hilarious novel is the message that, however hard it is to live in this world, hope will always survive.
“Connors is the P.G. Wodehouse of the working class, almost every sentence an elegant expression of comic vulgarity.” John Lake (author, Amy and the Fox)
“The characters written by Mark Connors never drop a note.” Barrie Sherwood (author, Escape from Amsterdam)
When Tom Wilkins started writing a book about his life, he thought he'd be writing about fun stuff, like birdwatching or messing about in the woods. Not finding his grandad dead, his mother going mad, or his increasing obsession with the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.
He's been spending so much time with mad people he's starting to fear he might be going a bit mad himself.
Set in the Yorkshire village of Horsforth in 1980, Tom Tit and the Maniacs tells the story of a ten-year-old boy trying to come to terms with death, madness and the fact that the threat from the Yorkshire Ripper is getting ever closer to home.
'Connors is that valuable commodity; an author who can make you laugh out loud, and play a powerful chord with your heartstrings. Tom Tit...is a wonderous novel.'
Nathan O'Hagan
'Wry, quirky, splendid. I expected nothing less from the author of Stickleback.'
Michael Yates
'Mark Connors is a witty, challenging and bold writer. It's hard to shake off his memorable, defiant characters. Always an enjoyable read.'
Helen Mort