David Almond was a virtually unknown author when Cullercoats publisher IRON Press issued his first two collections of stories, Sleepless Nights (1985) and A Kind of Heaven (1997).

In 2013, as part of IRON’s 40th birthday celebrations, a selection of these short stories for adults, alongside two previously unpublished tales. were collected in Nesting.

The stories draw deeply from the Tyneside estate of Almond’s childhood, exploring the themes that would inform his later work, and displaying all the rhythm, lyricism and drive for which he is acclaimed today.