Autobiography: writers Books
University of Alberta Press Blue Portugal and Other Essays
Book SynopsisUsing the richness of braided essays, Theresa Kishkan thinks deeply about the natural world, mourns and celebrates the aging body, gently contests recorded history, and considers art and visual phenomena. Gathering personal genealogies, medical histories, and early land surveys together with insights from music, colour theory, horticulture, and textile production, Kishkan weaves a pattern of richly textured threads, welcoming readers to share her intellectual and emotional preoccupations. With an intimate awareness of place and time, a deep sensitivity to family, and a poetic delight in travel, local food and wine, and dogs, Blue Portugal and Other Essays offers up a sense of wonder at the interconnectedness of all things.Trade Review"...Kishkan’s writing is lyrical and free-ranging, a true pleasure to read.... In Blue Portugal the essays’ themes are allowed to slip their boundaries; a topic addressed in one essay recurs in later essays, a recognition, perhaps, that thoughts and interests develop over time, shifting slightly as they are put in the company of other thoughts, are seen from different perspectives. The essays in Blue Portugal seem to talk to each other; they interlace in interesting and thought-provoking ways. The book is a fine example of the personal essay at its best." Michael Hayward, The British Columbia Review, August 2, 2022 [Full review at https://thebcreview.ca/2022/08/02/1533-hayward-kishkan]"Kishkan is a prolific, perceptive and gifted writer. Never forgetting her poetic roots, her mind works metaphorically—linking disparate but connectable things in revealing ways…. Blue Portugal and Other Essays is a book to be savoured…” Gene Walz, Winnipeg Free Press, August 13, 2022 [Full review at https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/2022/08/13/lyrical-essays-bring-musings-on-family-travel-and-more]“Rivers meander but with purpose. So too do the ten loosely connected pieces that make up Theresa Kishkan’s Blue Portugal and Other Essays…. These elegantly braided essays reveal a lifetime of curiosity and contemplation in ways that invite the reader to come along…. Blue Portugal and Other Essays is part of the University of Alberta Press’s literary travel series, Wayfarer—and a poetic journey very much worth booking.” Literary Review of Canada, September 2022"Much pleasure awaits the reader of Blue Portugal, Theresa Kishkan's collection of ten essays that sing individually and re-engage with each other throughout the volume. It is not simply a matter of rebounding colours among 'The Blue Etymologies,' 'Blue Portugal,' and 'Blueprints,' nor the recurrence of journeys dark and light; rather, Kishkan's poetic phrasing and rhythms thread these braided essays with originality of perception, reflection, and a lyric sensibility." Michael Greenstein, Miramichi Reader, September 3, 2022 [Full review at https://miramichireader.ca/2022/09/blue-portugal-by-theresa-kishkan/]"To those of us who’ve been following Theresa Kishkan on her blog for many years, the preoccupations of her latest book, the collection Blue Portugal & Other Essays, will be familiar, the quilts, the homesteads, the memories, the blue. But it’s the stunning craftsmanship of the book, the fascinating threads that weave the pieces together and also recur throughout the text, that make this book such a pleasure to discover. " Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This, September 9, 2022"...[with openness,] Theresa Kishkan, a poet-cum-essayist, tackles the many subjects that make up her new collection: rivers she has known and loved, age-old methods of dyeing textiles, medical problems, the inspiration to be found in Dante, the joy of antique buttons.... Our enjoyment of essays, I believe, depends very much on our sense of the person behind the pen, and Kishkan’s sensibility is an appealing one." Merna Summers, Alberta Views, December 1, 2022 [Full review at https://albertaviews.ca/blue-portugal-essays]"Kishkan’s writing in this collection will be enjoyed by those who appreciate a particular poetics of contemporary creative nonfiction, one that is fragmented, interlaced with visual images, possibly experimental and hybrid in style. It will be equally enjoyed by those who like watching rivers, listening to Janáček, travelling by train, and drinking wine!" Martina Horáková, Central European Journal of Canadian Studies, 2022Table of ContentsPreface 1. A Dark Path 2. The Blue Etymologies 3. We Are Still Here 4. Blue Portugal 5. How Rivers Break Away and Meet Again 6. Blueprints 7. Anatomy of a Button 8. Love Song 9. The River Door 10. Museum of the Multitude Village Acknowledgements Sources"
£17.99
University of Alberta Press Next Time There's a Pandemic
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Unbound My Mother, The Bearded Lady: The Selected Letters
Book SynopsisA journalist, columnist, humorist and musician, Miles Kington began his writing career at Punch, where he created Franglais, a hugely popular fictional language, before going on to write a daily column for The Times, followed by the Independent. He wrote over thirty thousand newspaper columns in his lifetime, as well as contributing to countless magazines and other publications. When he died in 2008, he left behind an enormous archive of correspondence. Effortlessly funny and entertaining, this collection is full of Kington's inimitable style. He had kept copies of every letter he had sent or received for the best part of fifty years, letters to and from the great and the good of the arts - Terry Jones, Melvyn Bragg, Joanna Lumley, John Cleese, Andre Previn, Philip Larkin, Alan Coren, Kenneth Williams, and many more. My Mother, The Bearded Lady is a selection of these captivating letters, chosen and edited by his wife, Caroline Kington.
£23.75
Arcturus Publishing Ltd A Drinking Life
Book SynopsisCome. Your glass is empty. Fill and forget.In one of the great works of American literature, Jack London tells a poignant tale of the power of addiction through his alter-ego, John Barleycorn. With alcohol as his sole companion, John travels across North America, living as a sailor, gold prospector, unemployed vagabond, and struggling novelist. Written with elegance and intelligence, and never shying away from the addiction that bedevilled him, A Drinking Life presents its author''s arduous transformation from hard-bitten adventurer to renowned writer.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.
£9.79
Auckland University Press You Have a Lot to Lose: A Memoir, 1956-1986: 2:
Book SynopsisNew Zealand's most extraordinary literary everyman - poet, novelist, critic, activist - C. K. Stead told the story of his first twenty-three years in South-West of Eden. In this second volume of his memoirs, Stead takes us from the moment he left New Zealand for a job in rural Australia, through study abroad, writing and a university career, until he left the University of Auckland to write full time aged fifty-three. It is a tumultuous tale of literary friends and foes (Curnow and Baxter, A. S. Byatt and Barry Humphries and many more) and of navigating a personal and political life through the social change of the 1960s and 70s. And, at its heart, it is an account of a remarkable life among books - of writing and reading, critics and authors, students and professors. From Booloominbah to Menton, The New Poetic to All Visitors Ashore, from Vietnam to the Springbok Tour, C. K. Stead's You Have a Lot to Lose takes readers on a remarkable voyage through New Zealand's intellectual and cultural history.Table of ContentsNote by Way of Introduction ix Part One - Getting There 1. Booloominbah and Beyond 2. Woodbines with Lionel Knights 3. London and Dr Johnson's Stone 4. In and Out of Auckland Part Two - The Professor 5. Poetry & Politics, Children & Vietnam 6. Allez Mansfield! Allez Menton! 7. Critic, Editor, Poet . . . 8. Wellington, Sydney, and the End of a War 9. UCL, ASD & Menton Again 10. The Fellowship and a Taste of Freedom Part three - Edging towards the Exit 11. 1981 - and Farewell Frank 12. Cross-Eyed with the Effort of It 13. All Visitors Ashore, Allen Curnow, and Mermaids 14. Sligo, Gateway to the World
£37.46
Otago University Press What Lies Beneath: A Memoir
Book SynopsisWriter Elspeth Sandys was born during the Second World War, the result of a brief encounter between two people who would never meet again. The first nine months of her life were spent in the Truby King Karitane Hospital in Dunedin, where she was known by her birth name, Frances Hilton James. This would change with her adoption into the Somerville family. A new birth certificate was issued and Frances James became Elspeth Sandilands Somerville. Tom and Alice Somerville, Elspeth''s new parents, lived with their son John in Dunedin''s Andersons Bay. While Elspeth was happy among the ebullient and welcoming Somerville clan, she had a difficult relationship with her adoptive mother, who was frequently hospitalised with mental health problems. Elspeth''s search for her birth parents did not begin until much later in her adult life. What she discovered after an exhaustive search provided answers that were both disturbing and, ultimately, rewarding. What Lies Beneath is a searing, amusing, and never less than gripping tale of a difficult life, beautifully told.
£14.72
Otago University Press Charles Brasch Journals 19451957
Book Synopsis
£31.95
Massey University Press Raiment: A Memoir
Book SynopsisPioneering New Zealand poet Jan Kemp's memoir of her first 25 years is a vivid and frank account of growing up in the 1950s, and of university life in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It tracks from an innocent Waikato childhoodto the seedy flats of Auckland, where anarchic student life, drugs, sexual experimentation and a failing marriage could not keep her away from poetry. She became one of the few young women poets of her era to be allowed into the then male poet club.Weaving its own patterns and colours, Raiment shines a clear-eyed light on the heady, hedonistic hothouse of our literary community in the 1970s and reveals what it took, back then, to be an independent woman.
£24.29
HarperCollins Publishers Other Side of Me
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£13.60
HarperCollins Publishers THE KENNETH WILLIAMS LETTERS
Book SynopsisFollowing the bestselling publication of THE KENNETH WILLIAMS DIARIES, the devastating self-portrait of one of our most loved and complex performers is completed with this marvellous selection of his letters.Trade Review‘Endlessly absorbing… all the letters can be read and reread with such pleasure… scintillating’A. N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement ‘His superb instinct for comedy is revealed time and again’Jonathan Coe, Spectator ‘Fascinating… the camp fire crackles merrily’George Melly, Sunday Times ‘A big dipper, full of acid drops and high rises, and it doesn’t matter where you start or finish - that’s the joy of it… rarely have I read a collection of letters of such broad scope in terms of their content and the diversity of their recipients’Barry Cryer, Mail on Sunday
£12.34
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Tell Me a Story
Book Synopsis“Tell Me A Story is breathtakingly tender, heartbreakingly true...The best memoir I’ve read.” — Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author of The Beach House Reunion Bestselling author Cassandra King Conroy considers her life and the man she shared it with, paying tribute to her husband, Pat Conroy, the legendary figure of modern Southern literature.Cassandra King was leading a quiet life as a professor, divorced “Sunday wife” of a preacher, and debut novelist when she met Pat Conroy. Their friendship bloomed into a tentative, long-distance relationship. Pat and Cassandra ultimately married, ending Pat''s long commutes from coastal South Carolina to her native Alabama. It was a union that would last eighteen years, until the beloved literary icon’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2016.I
£16.14
Penguin Putnam Inc Travels with Charley in Search of America
Book Synopsis
£15.30
Oxford University Press, USA The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield Volume 5 19221923 Mansfield Collected Letters Series
Book SynopsisKatherine Mansfield's letters are as finely written as her stories and prized by ordinary readers as much as by literary critics and feminists. The fifth and final volume of this celebrated edition reveals Mansfield's courage, wit, independence, and honesty in the final year of her life.Trade ReviewThis fifth volume of the Collected Letters brings a satisfying completeness * Stephen Barkway, Virginia Woolf Bulletin *Its completion is a triumphant achievement... The editors' labours throughout have been meticulous yet unobtrusive * Trev Broughton, Times Literary Supplement *Top of my wishlist... plangent, wishful and determined even at the end with O'Sullivan's learned and sensitive introduction. * Kirsty Gunn, The Scotsman Books of the Year *...her last year has never appeared as vibrant as in this elegantly produced and unobtrusively edited volume, filled with previously unknown material. * Christopher Hawtree, Telegraph on Saturday *The editors deserve our gratitude for publishing these letters * A. Banerjee, English Studies *Table of ContentsTHE LETTERS
£150.00
Oxford University Press The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh Personal Writings 19031921 Precocious Waughs
Book SynopsisThis volume is part of the Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh critical edition, which brings together all of Waugh's writings for the first time. The first of twelve volumes in the Personal Writings sequence, it covers the years 1903 to 1921, and presents a rich anthology of unusual and entertaining letters and diary entries by the future novelist.Trade ReviewExpertly edited [..] The editor's notes to the new volume of early letters and diaries are not only extremely thorough and informative, but also, as one might expect from the grandson of Evelyn Waugh, very witty [...] If these initial offerings (Volumes two, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-six and thirty) are an indicator of things to come, then the edition will justify its grandiose claim to "revolutionize Waugh studies" [...] It will indeed become one of the great monuments of twenty-first-century literary scholarship. * Paula Byrne, Times Literary Supplement *a welcome opportunity to look again at [Waugh's] evolution as a writer and thinke...These volumes reveal different aspects of Waugh's youthful plasticity and show how his adult persona developed as he tested himself as a write [...] a major event in Waugh scholarship, and...an essential research resource for many years to come. * Lisa Mullen, Worcester College, Oxford, Essays in Criticism *If these initial offerings are an indicator of things to come, then the edition will justify its grandiose claim to "revolutionize Waugh studies" ... It will indeed become one of the great monuments of twenty-first century literary scholarship. * Paula Byrne, The Times Literary Supplement *As scholarship the new editions cannot be faulted. * Matthew Walther, The Week *As a scholarly treatment of a modern British novelist, The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh looks as if it will stand in a class of its own, not only for its presentation of definitive texts but also for its patient accumulation of large amounts of personal material that have hitherto escaped the biographers' gaze. * D.J Taylor, Literary Review *A must read. * David Sexton, Evening Standard *
£112.50
Yale University Press The Memoirs of Ernest A. Forssgren
Book SynopsisIncluding an introduction and annotations by the distinguished Proust scholar William C Carter, this book presents the memoirs of Ernest A Forssgren, the young Swede who served as Marcel Proust's last valet. It includes documents relating to the Proust household and to Forssgren, and aims to contribute to Proust scholarship.Trade Review"To have this memoir and the ancillary materials made available is important for Proust scholarship, and of considerable interest for a general public endlessly fascinated by Proust. It should also attract those interested in American immigrant history and sociology, and those who enjoy variations of the 'Upstairs-Downstairs' theme."—Katherine Kolb, Southeastern Louisiana University -- Katherine Kolb
£53.80
Random House USA Inc Elsewhere
Book Synopsis
£13.56
Little, Brown Book Group Graham Greene A Life In Letters
Book SynopsisOne of the undisputed masters of English prose in the twentieth century, Graham Greene (1904-91) wrote tens of thousands of personal letters. This substantial volume presents a new and engrossing account of his life constructed out of his own words. Meticulously chosen and engagingly annotated, this selection of Greene''s letters - including many to his family and close friends that were unavailable even to his official biographer - gives an entirely new perspective on a life that combined literary achievement, political action, espionage, travel, and romantic entanglement. The letters describe his travels in Mexico, Africa, Malaya, Vietnam, Haiti, Cuba and other trouble spots, where he observed the struggles of victims and victors with a compassionate and truthful eye. The book includes a vast number of unpublished letters to Evelyn Waugh, Auberon Waugh, Anthony Powell, Edith Sitwell, R. K. Narayan, Muriel Spark and other leading writers of the time. Some letters reveal the agonies ofTrade Review** 'Graham Greene: A Life in Letters will offer the most important contribution to studies of the writer since the completion of Norman Sherry's epic, three-volume biography * BOOKSELLER *** 'A triumph of judgment and judicious selection that offers a vivid new picture of Greene the man: his pleasures, foibles and, above all, his generosity... Now, perhaps for the first time, he emerges whole from the shadow of his biographers, as distinctiv * Ian Thomson, SUNDAY TIMES *** 'Impeccably edited by Richard Greene, it succeeds admirably in it's declared purpose: to bring together for the first time in one volume letters "that are engaging to read and that reveal Greene's personal, literary, religious and political concerns over a period of 70 years." * Nicholas Shakespeare, DAILY TELEGRAPH *** 'A condensed portrait of the successful literary life in the 20th century. * Craig Brown, MAIL ON SUNDAY *
£25.50
St. Martins Press-3PL Cutty One Rock Low Characters and Strange Places Gently Explained
£10.44
Faber & Faber A Book of Untruths
Book SynopsisA Book of Untruths is a family story told through lies. This is a book about love, marriage, childhood, ageing, and the terrible acts we commit, remember and forget. It is about how we build a sense of ourselves through the stories we tell and the memories we shape. Shocking, invigorating and revelatory, A Book of Untruths shows that with every breath we take, another untruth may come out.
£8.99
Faber & Faber Sleeping on Islands
Book SynopsisAndrew Motion has been close to the centres of British poetry for over fifty years.Sleeping on Islands is his clear-sighted and open-hearted account of this remarkable career. It takes us from scenes of a teenage home-life coloured by tragedy and silence where writing was as much a refuge as an assertion to the excruciations of early public appearances, to the decade he spent as Poet Laureate, promoting and ensuring the central place of poetry in a nation's character. Along the way, we hear about the risks and sacrifices involved, as well as the difficulties of sustaining a commitment to writing within a helix of other obligations. We see in close-up the significance of Motion's formative relationship with W. H. Auden and his subsequent friendship with Philip Larkin. And during his time as Laureate, we witness memorable encounters with Royalty and Prime Ministers, and discover the costs and complications that accompany such a high-profile role.
£18.00
Tough Poets Press Those Drinking Days
£12.99
iUniverse American Dreamers Charmian and Jack London
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£19.56
iUniverse Letters from Henry Miller to Hoki Tokuda Miller
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.61
iUniverse Starting From Home A Writers Beginnings
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£15.60
iUniverse Hemingways Paris and Pamplona Then and Now A Personal Memoir
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£20.54
iUniverse A Month of April Firsts
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£16.59
iUniverse Streaking At Harvard
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£15.60
iUniverse Hollywoodaholic Confessions of a Screenwriter
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£19.56
iUniverse Jack
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£20.54
iUniverse The Average American Son
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.30
£11.29
iUniverse The Price We Paid A Life Experience in the Khmer Rouge Regime Cambodia
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.70
iUniverse Odyssey of an Indian Bureaucrat
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£12.73
iUniverse BEYOND PSYCHOSIS
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.84
iUniverse What I Saw at the Fair
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.16
iUniverse Love And Labor
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£16.17
iUniverse 11 Years in the Life of an Immigrant
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£10.44
iUniverse Vartanoosh My Grandmothers Story
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£14.72
iUniverse The Chronicles of My Life
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£9.80
iUniverse The Average American Son
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£19.59
iUniverse Vartanoosh My Grandmothers Story
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£19.72
iUniverse 11 Years in the Life of an Immigrant
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£15.63
NB Publishers, DIV of Media 24 Boeke Pty Ltd My jaar van vrees en vryheid
£13.39
Random House USA Inc The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas
Book SynopsisStein's most famous work; one of the richest and most irreverent biographies ever written.
£15.26
Xlibris Dont Call Me Clarence
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£17.59
Xlibris The Secret Opinions of Irving B. Gerson
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£17.59
Broadway Books (A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc) Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid A Memoir
Book SynopsisFrom one of the world's most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s.Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century—1951—in the middle of the United States—Des Moines, Iowa—in the middle of the largest generation in American history—the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as The Thun
£16.15
Farrar, Straus and Giroux The Dark Child
Book SynopsisThe Dark Child is a distinct and graceful memoir of French author Camara Laye's youth in the village of Koroussa, French Guinea. Long regarded as Africa's preeminent Francophone novelist, Laye (1928-1980) herein marvels over his mother's supernatural powers, his father's distinction as the village goldsmith, and his own passage into manhood, which is marked by animistic beliefs and bloody rituals of primeval origin. Eventually, he must choose between this unique place and the academic success that lures him to distant cities. More than an autobiography of one boy, this is the universal story of sacred traditions struggling against the encroachment of a modern world. A passionate and deeply affecting record, The Dark Child is a classic of African literature.
£15.30
