Midsummer Nights [Hardcover]

Lynne Truss's chilling little version of The Turn of the Screw is funny and pointed … Kate Atkinson, who has the quasi-musical ability to write narrative voices in counterpoint, gives us a witty and touching duet between celebrity culture and La Traviata … Atkinson brilliantly combines sentimental appeal and a deadpan tone … Toby Litt's The Ghost raises the hairs on the back of your neck … a varied and enjoyable collection' Times Literary Supplement.

The strongest and wittiest anthology of short fiction to appear for years: a superior selection box of irresistible delights' The Tablet.

Lynne Truss's chilling little version of The Turn of the Screw is funny and pointed Kate Atkinson, who has the quasi-musical ability to write narrative voices in counterpoint, gives us a witty and touching duet between celebrity culture and La Traviata Atkinson brilliantly combines sentimental appeal and a deadpan tone Toby Litt's The Ghost raises the hairs on the back of your neck a varied and enjoyable collection' Times Literary Supplement. The strongest and wittiest anthology of short fiction to appear for years: a superior selection box of irresistible delights' The Tablet.

In 2009, the Glyndebourne Festival of Opera reaches its 75th year. In commemoration of this event, Jeanette Winterson has brought together some of the best loved and most critically acclaimed authors writing today to pen stories inspired by opera. A foreword from Ralph Fiennes and an introduction by Jeanette Winterson are followed by: Alexander McCall Smith on Così Fan Tutte; Ali Smith on Fidelio; Andrew Motion on Peter Grimes; Andrew O'Hagan on Eugene Onegin; Ann Enright on Rusalka; ; Colm Toibin on Pearl Fishers; Jackie Kay on The Makropulos Case; Joanna Trollope on L'Elisir d'Amore; John Mortimer on Così Fan Tutte; Julie Myerson on The Crowning of Poppaea; Kate Atkinson on La Traviata; Kate Mosse on Pelléas et Mélisande; Lynne Truss on The Turn of the Screw; Marina Warner on Dido and Aeneas; Posy Simmonds double page of 'Glyndebourne Midsummer Night'; Ruth Rendell on Theodora; Sebastian Barry on Natoma; Toby Litt on Don Giovanni.

Opera has always needed a story. Some inspirations are direct - like Britten's Turn of the Screw, or Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, and others, like Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, or Verdi's Rigoletto, take a story and shift it. Why not take an opera and shift it? This specially commissioned collection of comedies, tragedies and tales of love won or lost is contemporary British fiction at its very finest. Each story is by one of today's most acclaimed writers, taking their inspiration from an opera of their choice. The result is a book as broad in content as it is deep in atmosphere. The characters are from all walks of life, all parts of the world and are driven by all motivations. All the stories are rich with emotion and written to inspire. And in the midst of the book are brand new illustrations from Posy Simmonds. Written for lovers of fiction and opera alike, Midsummer Nights includes notes explaining on which opera each story is based, with a brief synopsis and a history of where and when it was first performed. The stories have been written to celebrate Glyndebourne's 75th Anniversary.

Kate Atkinson. Paul Bailey. Sebastian Barry. Anne Enright. Antonia Fraser. Jackie Kay. Toby Litt. Alexander McCall Smith. Kate Mosse. Andrew Motion. Julie Myerson. Andrew O'Hagan. Ruth Rendell. Ali Smith. Colm Tóibín. Joanna Trollope. Lynne Truss. Marina Warner. Jeanette Winterson. And a beautiful new illustration from Posy Simmonds.

Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel. Since then she has written eight other novels, including The Passion and been published in 32 countries, as well as adapting her work for TV, film and stage. She lives in Gloucestershire and London.