First printing

£12 plus shipping

88 pages. Format approx. Format approx. 7"/170mm wide x 10"/240mm tall. Acid-free card covers and text paper; full colour title page; acid-free endpapers colour tbc. Printed & bound in England. ISBN: 978-1-910691-68-7

Front cover photo by Sophie Gibson

100 Numbered/signed copies

£45 plus shipping

88 pages. Pinched Crown format, approx. 7”/175mm wide, 10”/250mm tall. Handbound at the Tangerine workshop with cloth-covered acid-free boards, conservation glue and hemp cord; foil embossed front cover artwork; colour title page. ISBN: 978-1-910691-69-4

Quarterbound with Fabriano Tiziano 'oatmeal' paper covered boards and red cloth spine; acid-free text paper; Fabriano Tiziano dark grey endpapers; front cover artwork embossed in black, past down spine label.

Includes bound in print of specially commissioned artwork by Julia Soboleva.

Signed by Jim Gibson

26 Lettered/signed/signed artwork copies

£150 plus shipping

88 pages. Pinched Crown format, approx. 7”/175mm wide, 10”/250mm tall. Handbound at the Tangerine workshop with cloth-covered acid-free boards, conservation glue and hemp cord; foil embossed front cover artwork; colour title page. ISBN: 978-1-910691-69-4

Quarter bound with Fabriano Tiziano pale green paper covered boards and textured cloth spine; front cover artwork embossed in black; acid-free text paper; artwork by Julia Soboleva Indigo printed onto Mohawk Superfine paper and forms part of the 3-page ‘stepped’ Fabriano Tiziano front endpapers — the other page colour being pale grey; Fabriano Tiziano red endpapers.

SIGNED ARTWORK BY JULIA SOBOLEVA
Specially commissioned full colour artwork printed onto acid-free Mohawk Superfine paper.

All lettered copies are SIGNED by Jim Gibson and Julia Soboleva.

LETTERED COPIES SENT OUT WITH A COMPLIMENTARY 'READING COPY' OF THE FIRST PRINT PAPERBACK

"When you’ve been reading fiction for years and years the influences on contemporary authors are often all too obvious, so you know that even the most apparently trailblazing stuff has been done before. With the case of Jim Gibson, there’s no such obvious influence. He has a unique voice. These stories are like the finest lean meat, so have a glass of red with them and treat yourself."
—The Lonely Crowd 'Book of the Year 2022' (Neil Campbell)

"A terrific new, first collection of short fiction which grips you from the start in an almost visceral way."
—Bookmunch

"The Bygones comprises a stunning set of nightmarish slices of grim, gruesome reality that read like a terrifying docudrama about a real life dystopia. The stories hit home because of the credible and crushing mundanity depicted on every page. This is absolutely outstanding work. I can't recommend it highly enough."
—Glove magazine

"These assembled stories bring the reality of life in the former Nottinghamshire coalfields to the reader. Short, sharp and gritty."
— Trip Fiction

"The writing is seriously impressive. The author’s imagination and willingness to test boundaries makes for vivid and engaging reading. There are thought-provoking metaphors in many of the stranger narratives, but also a sense that accepted reality should not be hemmed in by staid convention. A varied and satisfying collection from a fine storyteller. A depiction of ordinary lives that mines their layers with aplomb."
— Never Imitate

"The Bygones are waiting for you to enter them. Here you will find sharpness, laughter, community, sadness and understanding — all through the perspective of those so often considered misfits."
— Leftlion

ADVANCE PRAISE:

“Above gritty reality in fiction sits gritty reality in life; the moments between the moments where teabags turn heavy and cold, where real stories gather under the stories we tell, and are stranger – The Bygones is a dance down that street, so present and bright you can feel it underfoot.”

— DBC Pierre is an Australian born writer whose debut novel Vernon God Little won the Booker Prize in 2003, going on to be successfully adapted for the stage two years later. In 2006 he recorded the part history/part road movie The Last Aztec for Channel 4. Pierre has since published novels, short stories and, most recently, the typically idiosyncratic Big Snake Little Snake (“Dangerous, smart, ridiculous and very funny” The New York Times) via Cheerio Publishing.

"Gibson brings a modern and bittersweet edge to his renderings of The-mostly-Midlands; The Bygones is an electric debut collection, and a spellbinding departure from the norm."

— Arianna Reiche is a Bay Area-born writer based in London. She was nominated for the 2020 Bridport Prize and the 2020 PANK Magazine Book Contest. She won first prize in Glimmer Train’s 2017 Fiction Open and Tupelo Quarterly’s 2021 Prose Prize. Her stories have appeared in Ambit, Joyland, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, Berlin’s SAND Journal and Popshot. Her chapbook Warden/Star was published by Tangerine Press in 2021. Her debut novel, At The End of Every Day, is forthcoming from Atria/Simon & Schuster (2023).

Jim Gibson grew up in the feral plains of an ex-mining village, Newstead. In the shadow of Lord Byron’s grandeur, he was part of an existence that was (and is) ignored by the media. Editor and co-founder of Hi Vis Press, he tries to encourage the lesser voiced truths of our society. The Bygones is his first full length collection.

Julia Soboleva is a Latvia born, UK based mix-media artist. Her process involves painting and collage on found photographic imagery, creating mysterious narratives with ominous overtones and absurd humour. Ms Soboleva has illustrated book covers for Bloomsbury, British Film Institute, amongst others. Witty Books published a book of her artwork in 2021. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Illustration at Manchester School of Art in 2018, and is now working as an educator and freelance designer.