True Stories : Collected Short Non-Fiction from the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize - Helen Garner

True Stories : Collected Short Non-Fiction from the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize - Helen Garner

Helen Garner

£18.99
Pre-order

Published 5 November 2026

Order now and we’ll post it on publication day. We take payment today and hold your order until then; if the publisher moves the date we’ll email you, and you can cancel for a full refund at any point before it ships.

  • Pages · 656 pages
  • Publication Date · 05/11/2026
  • Genre · True stories
Collect in store Pick it up free from the shop in Oxford's Covered Market, usually quicker than the post.
Delivery Standard tracked £1.99, free on orders over £20. Express tracked £2.99.
Book Lovers' Happy Hour Three cocktails matched to your taste, three books chosen for you, an hour and a half at the bar. £60 per person. Book a place →
Garner is a fascinating companion on the page' THE TIMES'Her piercing intellect, fearlessness and compassion shine through in every word' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'Helen Garner's work is a thrilling discovery' DUA LIPAHelen Garner is one of Australia's most widely loved and critically acclaimed authors. She has published classic novels, true crime narratives, scripts, diaries, stories and plays. But, between it all, she paid the bills with journalism. True Stories collects the revered Australian writer's short non-fiction written over a period of almost fifty years. In its pages, Garner visits the morgue and goes cruising on a Russian ship. She sees women giving birth, gets the sack for teaching her students about sex, attends a school dance and a gun show. She writes about dreaming, about turning fifty, about days spent in courtrooms following murder trials. The result is an intoxicating, masterly collection of short non-fiction pieces, united by Garner's trademark honesty, humility and humour. A perfect companion to Garner's Baillie Gifford Prize-winning diaries How to End a Story, True Stories gives further insight into the life, mind and notebooks of a brilliant writer. 'A born noticer, someone on whom nothing is lost' COLM TOIBIN 'One of Australia's finest writers' OBSERVER'Garner's unillusioned eye makes her clarity compulsive' NEW YORKER

Only at Gulp Fiction

Book Lovers' Happy Hour

An hour and a half at the bar, with three cocktails matched to your taste and three books chosen for you. Tell us what you like when you book, and we'll have them waiting when you arrive.

  • 1½ hours
  • £60 per person
  • 3 cocktails, 3 books
Book Happy Hour

Up to four of you can come — book a place each and choose the same time slot, then tell us who you're with. For larger groups, email gulpfictionbooks@gmail.com and we'll arrange it.

Three customers at the window table in Gulp Fiction, cocktails in hand beside a stack of books, with Oxford's Covered Market visible through the glass

Collect in store

Order online and pick it up from the shop. It's free, and usually quicker than the post.

Find us

Units 28–29, Covered Market, Oxford OX1 3DU. Mon–Wed 10–5, Thu–Sat 10–10, Sun 11–4.

Book a table

The bar is open late Thursday to Saturday. Reserve a table for a drink among the books.