The questions which face us as we move into a new millennium are many, but answers are in short supply. Nothing could be more arbitrary than our calendar and the milestones that it generates, yet we can use them as moments at which to draw breath and reflect on some of the issues which concern us. Why 2K? brings together some of the finest writing of our times to provoke and inspire us as we cross over into a new time zone.
The 39 writes assembled here have their origins right across the planet, coming from the Caribbean and the Far East, Africa and Australia, Central Europe and the Indian subcontinent, Northern Ireland and the Home Counties. They are from different generations and social contexts, but all focus on the spirits central to British life and experience. They stare unpleasant truths in the eye, laugh and confront the pain of exile and loss, but they also sing out the pleasures of love, food and of the natural world.
Poetry and autobiography rub shoulders with historical essays and travel-writing: short stories, scientific essays and political polemic confront sports-writing, recipes and garden-writing.
