Sex & Death : and Other Stories

A gardener reaps a whirlwind from the wings of a butterfly. The author Stan Barstow explains why he never left Wakefield. A group of data analysts embrace religion. An artistic genius performs a miracle on a hard-hearted Pope. A motivational speaker takes her motivation one step too far. Hunters become the hunted when their African adventure takes a turn for the worse. A young boy makes plans to conquer time.

These are just a few of the scenarios explored in the twenty-four stories of this book. Each story describes the universal from the particular and each story carries a payload of considerable power.

Sex & Death and Other Stories, plays with the unsayable. It ventures into territory many people would rather not find themselves. It explores the human condition in a way that slips under the radar of pretence and affectation. The characters in the stories are recognisably human: flawed, damaged, greedy.

These stories will stay with you long after you’ve put down the book — you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, maybe shout with indignation but the one thing you’ll never be, is bored.

Ivor Tymchak is an outsider. He was born to Ukrainian parents in a northern town in England and went to various schools that tried to inculcate him into a particular way of thinking. He rejected their indoctrination and went to art school in Liverpool, Huddersfield, Portsmouth and Sheffield where he learned that nothing in life is as it seems.

His career spans film making, rock music, strip cartoons, caricaturing, stand up comedy, presenting and now, writing. He still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.