Autobiography: writers Books

Book Synopsis''Fascinating, hugely entertaining, instructive in the best sense. I always thought that writing could not be taught, only reading, but this book made me reconsider. I read it in one sitting'' Alberto Manguel''Both extremely funny and deeply sad, The Writing School examines how and why we tell our own stories. It''s beautifully written and structured, compelling, wise and fabulously readable'' Lissa Evans''The Writing School is an extraordinary book. It is funny, exhilarating, heart-breaking and passionate. Its delicate pulsing themes are held like a bird in the writer''s confident, gentle hand'' Katharine Norbury''Life, with its unexpected troughs and highs, the disciplines of teaching a creative writing course and the shadow of a family tragedy provide the focus for a memoir that brims with humour, honesty and intelligence. The Writing School taught me a lot'' Elizabeth BuchanWhen author Miranda Fran

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Book Synopsis''The most detailed, amusing and accurate account ever of the post-war world of the English Establishment'' William Shawcross, Daily Telegraph''Extremely entertaining'' Jane Ridley, Literary ReviewKenneth Rose was one of the most astute observers of the establishment for over seventy years. The wry and amusing journals of the royal biographer and historian made objective observation a sculpted craft. His impeccable social placement located him within the beating heart of the national elite for decades. He was capable of writing substantial history, such as his priceless material on the abdication crisis from conversations with both the Duke of Windsor and the Queen Mother. Yet he maintained sufficient distance to achieve impartial documentation while working among political, clerical, military, literary and aristocratic circles. Relentless observation and a self-confessed difficulty ''to let a good story pass me by'' made Rose a legendTrade ReviewIntimate with the highest levels of society, politics, the arts and the Royal Family, Kenneth Rose has left us one of the most vivid, full and revealing records of the post-war era -- Andrew RobertsA huge treat ... [T]he first volume of Rose's journals, covering 1944-79, will also delight anyone who enjoys the great English diarists - Samuel Pepys, Chips Channon, Harold Nicolson, James Lees-Milne, Alan Clark. Who's In, Who's Out offers a feast of the choicest gossip from highest society -- Lewis Jones * Sunday Telegraph *A fascinating insight into postwar society at the highest level and an intimate view of many of the key players ... Dip into the book at random and you often pull out a plum -- Patrick Kidd * The Times *[A]n astonishing and enjoyable collection of anecdotes, observations and judgements ... D.R. Thorpe, himself a gifted biographer and a friend of Rose for 40 years, has edited the raw materials tactfully and with a light touch ... Thorpe, like Rose, has a well-tuned ear for anecdote; and one can open this volume almost at random and be sure to find a jolly story ... [A]nyone who wants to understand the British establishment in the decades after the war should treat these diaries as their primer. The reader moves effortlessly through embassies and drawing rooms, not to mention palaces ... It is a spectator's diary, albeit written from the best possible seats in the ground -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *An insider's account, this gossipy and acute diary will become the indispensable guide to the Establishment in the years between 1944 and 1979 -- Jane Ridley * The Spectator Books of the Year *The diaries, chronicling the events of previous generations, give a unique glimpse of the personalities and preoccupations of the statesmen of that time. Harold Macmillan, Rab Butler, amongst other figures, are shown in a different and more informal way than their biographers have done and the differences in their approach to politics and each other are amusingly revealed -- Lord Carrington, Foreign Secretary 1979–82The most detailed, amusing and accurate account ever of the post-war world of the English Establishment -- William Shawcross * Daily Telegraph *[S]o full of riveting detail that you can't help wondering how much of the juiciest gossip was left out of the Albany column and saved for the journals -- Andrew M. Brown * Catholic Herald *[G]reat fun to read ... Rose has a good eye for colourful detail ... [The diaries] illuminate history and give it life. If one cannot be there oneself then Rose provides as good an apparatus for eaves-dropping as can well be conceived. He deserves our gratitude -- Philip Ziegler * The Spectator *As a history of the Establishment in the second half of the 20th century, these journals will become indispensable and definitive. They are the equivalent for that period of the journals of Harold Nicolson and Chips Channon for the first half, combining sharp observation and anecdote with political and social insights. They are also extremely entertaining. Rose was right to think that they were his most important and lasting contribution. D. R. Thorpe has done a great job of editing them. He has a light touch. In spite of being an authority on the period, having written great biographies of Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home, he makes no attempt to fill the page with footnotes, but allows Rose to speak directly to the reader -- Jane Ridley * Literary Review *Rose was an impeccably connected biographer and gentleman journalist ('Albany' in the Sunday Telegraph for many years) and the joys of his diaries are choice anecdotes, pithily recounted, and plenty of culinary detail -- Gyles Brandreth * The Oldie *These journals kept by the royal biographer and journalist Kenneth Rose - who liked nothing so much as to dine in a London club with someone in the know about the world of high politics or royalty - make highly amusing and enlightening reading. Rose jotted down the juiciest gossip and the best anecdotes ... The journal entries are never more than a short paragraph long: ideal bedtime reading for anyone who relishes the unguarded utterances of the rich and well-connected -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *What is so good - and is so well brought out in D.R.Thorpe's edition - is that [Kenneth Rose] was master of his material. This was the British establishment ... his diaries compose accurate, fair-minded history ... As Kenneth's editor in the later years of his Albany column, I was irritated by his fault (quite the opposite of most of us journalists) of putting into his articles less than he knew. This is corrected in his Journals. He knew a lot and he put it in; and now we can read it. -- Charles Moore * THE SPECTATOR *

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Book SynopsisTwo magnificent memoirs by Aleksandar Hemon, presented together in a glorious single edition: together they make a major work from one of our major writers.In My Parents, Aleksandar Hemon tells the story of his parents’ immigration to Canada – of the lives that were upended by the war in Bosnia and siege of Sarajevo, and the new lives his parents were forced to build. He portrays both the perfect, intimate details – of his mother’s lonely upbringing, his father’s fanatical beekeeping – and a sweeping, heartbreaking history of his native country. It is a story of his family and of German occupying forces, Yugoslav partisans, royalist Serb collaborators, singing Ukrainians, and a few confused Canadians.This Does Not Belong to You is the exhilarating, freewheeling, unabashedly personal companion to My Parents. It shows Hemon at his most dazzling and untempered in a series of beautifully distilled memories and observations about his family, friends and childhood in Sarajevo, presented as explosive, hilarious, poignant miniatures.‘Not only is Hemon's book a masterpiece in literary terms, it is also a repudiation of the idea of the immigrant as a singular and infantilized creature, a human of lesser depth and complexity than everyone else’ – Rafia Zakaria, TLSTrade ReviewAleksandar Hemon is, quite frankly, the greatest writer of our generation. -- Colum McCann, author of TransAtlanticHemon at his most contemplative, whimsical, and personal . . . a joy * Los Angeles Times *Gorgeous . . . The writing contains both immediacy and a thrillingly historical long view . . . There is all the love and frustration here that anyone feels for their aging parents . . . [and] some of the best writing about what it really feels like to be a child that I can recall reading. * Newsday *Not only is Hemon's book a masterpiece in literary terms, it is also a repudiation of the idea of the immigrant as a singular and infantilized creature, a human of lesser depth and complexity than everyone else. -- Rafia Zakaria * TLS *Hemon’s recollections unite his dazzling prose style with a captivating personal narrative. * Publishers Weekly *Hemon’s newest, most delving nonfiction work . . . Bracing candor, gruff tenderness, righteous anger, and political astuteness, all conveyed with Hemon’s signature intensity, mordant wit, and creative bite. * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisClive James, a true polymath, became a generation-defining voice as a broadcaster, a critic, a poet and an author. Among his greatest achievements, his five hilarious, heartwarming books of autobiography are collected now in two volumes: his Complete Unreliable Memoirs.'It is one of the most tender, frank and, above all, funny accounts of growing up I have ever read' – Michael ParkinsonWith his trademark humour and self-deprecating style, Clive James proves a hugely entertaining and erudite guide to his own remarkable life. In this first volume, James explores his childhood adventures in the suburbs of post-war Sydney, his excited arrival in Sixties’ London as a young man and aspiring poet, and his time at Cambridge University where he neglected his studies in favour of poetry, the stage, the music business and the film industry.From a true national treasure, this is a collection of one of the most well-loved and acclaimed memoirs of our times.I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment, that did not affect me . . .'A comic triumph' – London Review of BooksThe Complete Unreliable Memoirs: Volume One collects the first three books of autobiography from Clive James: Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, and May Week Was In June.The final two books, North Face of Soho and The Blaze of Obscurity, are available in Volume Two.Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.Trade ReviewIt is one of the most tender, frank and, above all, funny accounts of growing up I have ever read -- Sir Michael Parkinson, on Unreliable MemoirsYou can’t put it down once started. Its addictive powers stun all normal, decent resistance within seconds. Not to be missed (Unreliable Memoirs) * Sunday Times *Clive James is an intellectual as well as a joker, a wise man as well as a wit * Observer *All that really needs to be said to recommend Unreliable Memoirs is that James writes exactly as he talks, which is all his millions of fans could wish (Unreliable Memoirs) * Evening Standard *Nobody writes like Clive James; he has invented a style * Spectator *A comic triumph, full of terrific jokes and brilliantly sustained setpieces (Falling Towards England) -- Ian Hamilton * London Review of Books *James’ wickedly funny jokes and jibes make you laugh out loud and feel warm to the man. No wonder women wanted to feed him greens, and men lend him money (Falling Towards England) * The Times *

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Book SynopsisThis is the great Martin Amis's autobiography. INTRODUCED BY ZADIE SMITHIt is a writer's self-portrait both a candid memoir and intimate insight into the process of writing itself. As the son of a famous writer, the comic novelist Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis explores his relationship with his father and writes about the various crises of Kingsley's life, including the final one of his death. Amis also reflects on the life and legacy of his cousin, Lucy Partington, who disappeared without trace in 1973 and was exhumed twenty years later from the basement of Frederick West, one of Britain's most prolific serial murderers. **ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**'Martin Amis is a seriously good writer, and never on better form than now. Experience, the book of his life, may be the book of his life' Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisA new edition of an evergreen back-to-nature book in the tradition of Thoreau. For nearly twenty-five years, poet Baron Wormser and his family lived in a house in Maine with no electricity or running water. They grew much of their own food, carried water by hand, and read by the light of kerosene lamps. They considered themselves part of the “back to the land” movement, but their choice to live off the grid was neither a statement nor a protest: they simply had built their house too far from the road and could not afford to bring in power lines. Over the years, they settled into a life that centered on what Thoreau would have called “the essential facts.” In this graceful meditation, Wormser similarly spurns ideology in favor of observation, exploration, and reflection. “When we look for one thread of motive,” he writes, “we are, in all likelihood, deceiving ourselves.” His refusal to be satisfied with the obvious explanation, the single thread of motive, makes him a keen and sympathetic observer of his neighbors and community, a perceptive reader of poetry and literature, and an honest and unselfconscious analyst of his own responses to the natural world. The result is a series of candid personal essays on community and isolation, nature, civilization, and poetry. Lovely and rich, The Road Washes Out in Spring is an immersive read. A new preface by the author rounds out this new edition. Trade Review“It’s a particularly poetic attention to detail that makes this book an especially memorable read. . . . ‘No one can count all the microcosms at work inside the macrocosms that are the living, breathing world,’ Wormser writes late in the book. That could serve as an apt description of the task he’s set for himself here—this is a book that both evokes a life and is full of life. It’s a difficult book to read without longing for a home with a root cellar and a view of tall trees—power and plumbing optional.” * Portland Press Herald *“All in all, this is the best book about rural New England life since Jane Brox’s Here and Nowhere Else. Its scope is narrow, but its reach is vast. Its short but wide-ranging essays seem like the dozens of jars of canned tomatoes Wormser and his wife put up each year to provide the base of their winter meals, each one carefully, thoughtfully, and lovingly prepared. The order in which they are taken off the shelves does not really matter, but it is evident that each is part of the same impulse of mind and heart and body, and each in return nourishes all three. As such, the book asks to be read slowly, savored, because, as Wormser says of the entire enterprise of living off-grid, ‘There was no sum. Only infinite entries.’” * Boston Globe *“His ruminations on crafting poems and thoughtful considerations of the value of literature will be of great interest to readers and fellow writers. Wormser counters any comparisons to Thoreau, and, in fact, has a far greater sense of humor than the iconic backwoodsmen, but his endearing memoir about living simply, yet richly, in woods he clearly loves certainly does extend the tradition Thoreau exemplifies.” * Booklist *“What separates this memoir from the often clichéd back-to-the-land life story is that the author’s choices are always seen through the lens of language, especially poetry. As he describes the characters who reside in his small community in Maine, the demands of keeping up with kerosene lamps and wild gardens, the dashed hopes for the community library lost to fire, the wear and tear of time, roads, wells, and woods—he never loses the context of literary history. Wormser’s authorial consciousness is permeated with Frost, Keats, Shelley, and the force of Romanticism—the individual’s journey toward and examination of what life ought to be in light of what is.” * ForeWord *“Intelligent and engaging, following no chronology, [The Road Washes Out in Spring] rambles and wanders its way in an almost Byronic fashion, slowly and modestly revealing the making of a poet.” * Down East *

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Book Synopsis'Searingly honest... gripping... fascinating and hugely entertaining.'- Sunday Times'Moving and frank ... A story of a childhood defined by loneliness, the absence of a father and the grim experience of a Quaker boarding school. It is also one of the most perceptive accounts of Britain in the 1970s.'- Misha Glenny'A crisp, unself-pitying memoir of a 'trainwreck' youth ... I've always likes Webb on the radio. But I like him much more after reading this book. He offers precisely the kind of brisk honesty and considered analysis he expects from his interviewees. Our politicians should all read it, and step up their game.' -Telegraph.........................................................................................................................................................Justin Webb's childhood in the 1970s was far from ordinary.Between his mother's un-diagnosed psychological problems, and his step-father's untreated ones, life at home was dysfunctional at best. But with gun-wielding school masters and sub-standard living conditions, Quaker boarding school wasn't much better.Candid, unsparing and darkly funny, Justin Webb's memoir is as much a portrait of a troubled era as it is the story of a dysfunctional childhood, shaping the urbane and successful radio presenter we know and love now.........................................................................................................................................'I thoroughly enjoyed Justin Webb's bonkers childhood. He captures the middle class of the age with a tenacity only possible in one of its victims.' -Jeremy PaxmanTrade ReviewOne of my books of the year: beautifully written. -- Alan Johnson * New Statesman *A gripping memoir ... fascinating and hugely entertaining. It's extremely thoughtful and shockingly honest. -- Christina Patterson * Sunday Times *A crisp, unself-pitying memoir of a 'trainwreck' youth ... I've always likes Webb on the radio. But I like him much more after reading this book. He offers precisely the kind of brisk honesty and considered analysis he expects from his interviewees. Our politicians should all read it, and step up their game. -- Helen Brown * The Telegraph *[Justin Webb's] affability and easy manner seems even more remarkable after reading [his] memoir, The Gift Of A Radio. The subtitle is My Childhood And Other Train Wrecks, which is apt: the experiences of his formative years would have driven most children completely off the rails * Daily Mail *Moving, darkly hilarious ... In his mother, Gloria Crocombe, Webb records a great tragicomic character. -- Melanie Reid * The Times *

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Book SynopsisTHE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'With brutal, beautiful honesty, Clover articulates how bereavement shocks and dislocates - and in all the pain, there's SO much life.' MARIAN KEYES'MUST READ ... A remarkable acount of love and grief.' - DAILY MAIL'She is a vigorous and fearless writer, grabbing us by the throat to describe life's horrors and her responses to them, filling her pages with the magnetic force of her own life as wife, lover and mother of five which somehow has to go on.' SPECTATOR...............................................'Can death bring something good to my life?'A few weeks before Christmas, Clover's sister died of breast cancer, aged forty-six. Just days before, she had been given years to live. Her sudden death split Clover's life apart. The Red of My Blood charts Clover's fearless passage through the first year after her sister's death.It is a book about what life feels like when death interrupts it, and about bearing the unbearable and describing an experience that seems beyond words. Lyrical, hopeful, it is also about the magical way in which death and life exist so vividly beside one another, and the wonder of being human.'A beautiful addition to the literature of loss. It will serve as a lit match, to be passed from one person to the next in the darkest moments.' THE SUNDAY TIMESTrade ReviewA beautiful book. I loved every word. -- Fearne Cotton * Happy Place Podcast *Stroud's beautiful new memoir, The Red of My Blood, is studded with agonising moments ... This is a colourful blast of feeling that picks up on the hallucinogenic oddness of grief, along with the importance of honouring death as an unavoidable part of life. -- Gwendolyn Smith * i newspaper *Like a magician, she puts her grief into a hat and pulls out 70,000 perfect words to describe what it is like when language fails you. Courageous and utterly compelling, this is a book that will wring you out, wear you down and leave you filled with wonder. -- Francis Wilson * The Oldie *Clover writes with visceral honesty about the lived experience of her grief for her sister Nell - in all its hues; moving swiftly between darkness and light whilst her love for Nell remains powerfully alive and present. -- Julia SamuelThe Red of my Blood is one of the most haunting, gripping books I've read in recent memory. Stroud's writing about overwhelming loss is knife-sharp, beautiful, and profound. This is a masterful memoir, which will echo with its readers for a long time. -- Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe

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Book SynopsisAt the age of fifty, towards the end of the First World War, W. H. Davies decided that he must marry. Spurning London society and the literary circles where he had been lionised since the publication of his Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, he set about looking for the right partner on the streets of London. Young Emma is a moving and revealing memoir told with disarming honesty and humour. Davies records his life with three women: from his affair with Bella, the wife of a Sergeant Major, to his year-long liaison with the gentle Louise, to the turbulent brushes with a society woman who fears for her own life at his hands. He finally meets Emma, then pregnant, at a bus-stop on the Edgware Road. This is the story of their love affair.Trade Review"Young Emma is a masterpiece, and stranger than any fiction" Sunday Telegraph "Classic... remarkable... an extraordinary manuscript" The Observer "An extraordinary memoir destined to become a classic" Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisGrove chronicles not only his own fascinating Anglo-Argentinian background growing up in Buenos Aires but also the political history of the tango. He writes, In the troubled times of Juan and Evita Peron, the middle classes detested the music and dance so adored by porteños, the ordinary people of Buenos Aires. Too proletarian, sexy and subversive. These days the tango has enthusiasts worldwide, from Finland to Japan, but I didn't see anyone dance it until I was 18 and didn't attempt it myself until I was nearly 60.' He also details the terrifying moment his father was kidnapped by urban guerrillas and his anguish over the Falklands war.

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Book SynopsisA revelatory meditation on class and consumer culture, from 2022 Nobel laureate Annie ErnauxTrade Review“Translated from the French with great intelligence and sensitivity by Alison Strayer. . . . Ernaux’s diary is a provocation: to accept these life scenes as worthy of our time and attention.”—Kate Briggs, Washington PostA New Yorker Best of the Week Pick“[Ernaux’s] chief mode is curiosity, translated with perfect, inquisitive casualness by Alison L. Strayer. She peeks into shopping carts, eavesdrops on conversations, notices the gender dynamics of salesmanship.”—Laura Marris, Times Literary Supplement“[Ernaux] studies the ‘great human meeting place’ of the big-box superstore, keeping a diary of her visits to a mall near Paris and analyzing what it means to confront our desires and those of others in the marketplace.”—New Yorker“A fascinating read. . . . Ernaux provides an ensemble of potent subtexts dealing with practices and people linked through commerce and commodities.” —Sharmila Purkayastha, The Telegraph (India)“The subject at the heart of Look at the Lights, My Love is what we reveal of ourselves in the strange sterility of the store. . . . Ernaux’s singular style conveys both the soullessness and the dreamlike charm of the place.”—Tess Little, Literary Review“What makes Look at the Lights a work of art, rather than a manifesto, is the sheer sensuousness of Ernaux’s language . . . the subtle visual, auditory, and tactile details that fill the pages and lend firsthand credibility to the argument. . . . [Ernaux] reanimates a shared humanity that consumerism has flattened out.”—J. Howard Rosier, The Atlantic“Look at the Lights, My Love plays a formal sleight-of-hand in the best way, with the feel of a dashed-off journal but the felt experience of a deeply philosophical meditation on the nature of shopping, voyeurism, late-stage capitalism, class, race, and desire.”—Adrienne Raphel, Paris Review DailyA World Literature Today Notable Translation of 2023Praise for the French Edition: “A wonderful addition to Annie Ernaux’s life writings . . . [and] a fascinating contribution to contemporary literature.”—Geneviève Alvarado, World Literature Today “[A] beautiful book. . . . With rigor and tenderness, Annie Ernaux shows herself. . . . If she says ‘I,’ it is to hear others better. From the margins of a suburban superstore, she illuminates the heart of our lives.”—Jean Birnbaum, Le Monde

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay""One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of the Year""One of VULTURE'S 49 Books We Can't Wait to Read""A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""Wonderful. . . . Through language, we come to know ourselves: Lahiri’s work shows how it is always possible to expand that knowledge."---Erica Wagner, Harper’s Bazaar UK"[Lahiri’s] observations are as plentiful as they are enlightening."---Juliana Ukiomogbe, Elle"[In this book] a vision emerges of translation as a site where the physical and the textual, the extraordinary and the ordinary, intersect."---Polly Barton, Times Literary Supplement"[Lahiri] is excellent. . . . Translating Myself and Others is a reminder, no matter your relationship to translation, of how alive language itself can be. In her essays as in her fiction, Lahiri is a writer of great, quiet elegance; her sentences seem simple even when they're complex. Their beauty and clarity alone would be enough to wake readers up."---Lily Meyer, NPR"[Translating Myself and Others] is about the consequences of the apparently simple act of choosing one’s own words. . . . [The] book also contains a hope for the liberating power of language."---Benjamin Moser, New York Times"[A] series of passionate [and] thoughtful essays."---Frank Wynne, The Spectator"[Translating Myself and Others] movingly describes [Lahiri’s] history with translation from her experiences as an immigrant child . . . to her early literary-translation efforts and her eventual decision to move to Rome and learn Italian." * Vulture *"Poetic." * New York Magazine *"A wry collection."---Adam Rathe, Town & Country"[Lahiri’s] voice is a strong one in the current campaign to give translators more recognition. Her candidness about the hardships of translation and her enthusiasm for its rewards make you want to hear more from these fascinating figures, who spend so much time in others’ voices but have not lost the use of their own."---Camilla Bell-Davies, Financial Times"Digestible and approachable. . . . The thought-provoking collection makes for a sharp and luminous exploration of Lahiri’s relationship to language, translation, and literature and made me want to finally tackle my goal of learning a second language."---Jordan Snowden, Apartment Therapy"[A] memoir of the experience [of learning Italian], recounted with passion and insight."---Gregory Cowles, New York Times"Lahiri explores her relationship with literature, translation, and the English and Italian languages in this exhilarating collection. . . . Lucid and provocative, this is full of rewarding surprises." * Publishers Weekly, starred review *"A scrupulously honest and consistently thoughtful love letter to ‘the most intense form of reading…there is.'" * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *"The collection is singular for Lahiri’s ability to integrate the personal and the theoretical, drawing her examples from literature and from life. . . . Lahiri writes so beautifully that this collection will have broad appeal for anyone interested in literary essays."---David Azzolina, Library Journal"[An] absorbing new collection of essays. . . . Translating Myself and Others is a subtle yet ultimately engrossing work, somewhat academic at times, yet infused with the kind of understated, often startling capacity for observation that has always been Lahiri’s literary superpower." * Bookpage *"Translating Myself and Others is a thought-provoking collection of essays about the art of modern translation." * Foreword Reviews *"Anyone interested in the art of translation will be engrossed by Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri."---Martin Chilton, The Independent"Lahiri’s ruminations on translation are relatable and luminous. . . . This book embraces simplicity-in-complexity, making it appropriate for both the Lahiri devotee and the uninitiate."---Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Christian Century"[Lahiri] explores [translation] with her customary rigor and candidness in this new essay collection, featuring several pieces originally written in Italian and translated into English by Lahiri for the first time, an act of metamorphosis as dazzling to her as it is to the reader." * Chicago Review of Books *"Throughout these essays, it’s as if Lahiri, feeling misunderstood, were hoping to build a literary home for herself that is ample enough to accommodate her lives as author, translator, academic, and language learner. A home in which she can write, on her own terms, in whatever language she wants, and think, on her own terms, about whatever subject she wants."---Julia Sanches, Astra"The essays . . . are master classes in translation theory and in critical writing about translation. . . . Fascinating and insightful writing."---Lauren Elkin, American Scholar"These essays . . . demonstrate the depths of [Lahiri’s] love for her adopted language. . . . Readers will have a newfound appreciation of the translator's ability to illuminate."---Michael Margas, Shelf Awareness starred review"In this collection of essays, Lahiri gives insights into her processes, as well as penetrating and perceptive thoughts on the act of translating that will be especially illuminating for readers who enjoy translated works."---Joe Rubbo, Readings"This cool, detached book bristles with life and love."---John Self, Observer New Review"There is great joy and intrigue to be found in Lahiri’s ruminations on self-translation. . . . [Translating Myself and Others] is a love letter to not only translation, but to literary criticism as a whole.”—Malavika Praseed, Chicago Review of Books"---Malavika Praseed, Chicago Review of Books"[A] portrait of intelligent, sensitive and deeply humane curiosity . . . inspiring."---James Kidd, South China Morning Post"[T]his latest set of essays proves [Lahiri’s] skill lies in the craft of experimenting with what language can do, both in Italian and English, and both as a writer and as a translator."---Anandi Mishra, Frieze"Translating Myself and Others feels at once ambitious and safe, playful and formulaic, variegated and quasi-myopic."---Carolina Iribaren, Hopscotch Translation"[In Translating Myself and Others] Lahiri achieves the task of portraying her profound love for linguistics and the ways languages give new life to one another in translation. . . . Lahiri’s writing is impeccably strong."---Amanda Janks, Zyzzyva"Readers . . . will find themselves immersed in a voyage of discovery not just of what makes Lahiri the writer and the translator tick, but of how these two facets or ‘containers’ inform, extend, challenge and ultimately re-create her, while at the same time providing much food for thought for the reader."---Lilit Žekulin Thwaites, Sydney Morning Herald"These deeply thoughtful meditations . . . illuminate the art of literary alchemy." * Saga Magazine *"Eloquent. . . . [Lahiri] explores what it means to be a translator, how translating enhances her identity as a writer and vice versa, and how these multiple identities are mutually enriching"---Hayley Armstrong, In Touch"A lyrical meditation on translation and a manifesto establishing translation as an artistic pursuit as creative and authentic as writing in the original language."---Lopamudra Basu, World Literature Today"Anyone interested in the challenges of translating literary works from one language to another will find this book fascinating. . . . It’s certainly a richly rewarding [read]."---Terry Freedman, Teach Secondary"A deep meditation on the art of translation. . . . Lahiri offers a straightforward but profound and lyrical theory of translation."---Lucky Issar, Economic & Political Weekly"A lucid and engaging reflection not only on what it means to translate a text and to properly acknowledge that work, but also what translation signifies beyond the act of individual words being noted down in another language."---Franklin Nelson, Wasafiri Magazine"Rich, deep and, above all, beautifully written, Translating Myself and Others exemplifies the power of words, language, art, ‘‘to explore the phenomenon and the consequences of change itself’’."---Cushla McKinney, Otago Daily News

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Alberto Manguel is a kind of global Reader Laureate: he is reading’s champion, its keenest student and the most zealous proselytiser. . . if you value these particular pleasures already, you may find yourself the ideal reader for Alberto Manguel.”—Daniel Hahn, Spectator“Packing My Library [alternates] intimate chapters that make up an ‘elegy’ for his library with 10 masterly digressions on his life as a reader and lover of books. . . . Manguel’s intellect and enthusiasm are on full display as he cites a dazzling number of books in many languages, dilating on an astounding number of topics.”—Ernest Hilbert, Wall Street Journal“The enviably multilingual Alberto Manguel . . . reflects on his peripatetic life in Packing My Library, . . . an excellent [book] about books.”—Michael Dirda, Washington PostBBC BOOK OF THE WEEK, SPRING 2018“Slight but poignant. . . In its exploration of the symbiotic relationship between life and literature, the biblio-memoir would appear to be a rallying cry in the affirmative.”—Lucy Scholes, Financial Times“One of the world’s greatest readers, whose finest work has often been about the writing of others. . . has produced a book —a slim, fragmentary meditation on the power of reading and the importance of libraries.”—Claire Armitstead, The Guardian“Books jump out of their jackets when Manguel opens them and dance in delight as they make contact with his ingenious, voluminous brain. He is not the keeper of a silent cemetery, but a master of bibliographical revels.”—Peter Conrad, The Observer“A labyrinth of intellectual thought intermittently dispersed amid 144 pages of pure literary appreciation – the likes of which, one really doesn’t come across every day”—David Marx Book Reviews"The area which Alberto Manguel has mapped for himself is that of the eros of reading. . . . He is a Don Juan of libraries."—George Steiner, The Guardian"Manguel vaults over the traditional fences of genre, literary history, and discipline with breathtaking virtuosity. He is the Montaigne de nos jours and, as regards this latest effort, if they put another rover on Mars they should call it 'Manguel.'"—John Sutherland, University College London"Alberto Manguel is a wanderer among books, immensely curious in such an intriguing way that he lets his readers easily discover the fruits of his curiosity."—Roberto CalassoAlberto Manguel is a great reader. His entire oeuvre testifies to this. In Packing My Library, Manguel continues his celebration of the book as object, conduit, and talisman. This elegy for his library, including digressions on citizenship, dictionaries, god’s speech, and creativity, shows a profound appreciation for the shibboleths and affinities of the bibliophile. A joyful testament!—Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-op

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Book Synopsis''Every deep feeling a human is capable of will be shaken loose by this short, but profound book'' David Sedaris''I wanted what we all want: everything. We want a mate who feels like family and a lover who is exotic, surprising. We want to be youthful adventurers and middle-aged mothers. We want intimacy and autonomy, safety and stimulation, reassurance and novelty, coziness and thrills. But we can''t have it all.''Ariel Levy picks you up and hurls you through the story of how she lived believing that conventional rules no longer applied - that marriage doesn''t have to mean monogamy, that aging doesn''t have to mean infertility, that she could be ''the kind of woman who is free to do whatever she chooses''. But all of her assumptions about what she can control are undone after a string of overwhelming losses.''I thought I had harnessed the power of my own strength and greed and love in a life that could contain it. But iTrade ReviewEvery deep feeling a human is capable of will be shaken loose by this short, but profound book. Ariel Levy has taken grief, and made art out of it -- David SedarisLevy is a fantastic writer and reporter, cool-headed, witty and without self-pity -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *By chapter three of The Rules Do Not Apply I was ordering copies for every woman I love . . . Levy's honesty and grief are dazzling * Sunday Times *Levy is a fearless, original journalist, now on the New Yorker, and she uses these same qualities to scrutinise her own life . . . Levy's prose is dynamic, molten with verbs and with images of light, movement and change . . . breathtakingly good . . . -- Nicci Gerrard * Observer *Her narrative rattles along at the breakneck pace of a gripping thriller, yet her writing is never anythingshort of crystal clear. She's particularly good at describing love and loss . . . a brilliant memoirist * Independent *Brutally honest yet ultimately uplifting * Vogue *In this heartwrenching memoir, the journalist reveals how her desire to have it all - the partner, the lover, the adventurous career and the happy family - was painfully blown apart * Stylist *A memoir that will change the way you think about monogamy and motherhood . . . we defy you not to read it in a single sitting * Elle *It's become a truism that feminists are living out our mothers' unlived lives. But Ariel Levy seems to be living out the unlived lives of an entire generation of women, simultaneously. Free to do whatever she chooses, she chooses everything. But this is no mindless primer on having or not having it all. While reinventing work, marriage, family, pregnancy, sex, and divorce for herself from the ground up, Levy experiences devastating loss. And she recounts it all here with searing intimacy and an unsentimental yet openhearted rigor -- Alison Bechdel, author of Fun HomeI read The Rules Do Not Apply in one long, rapt sitting. Unflinching and intimate, wrenching and revelatory, Ariel Levy's powerful memoir about love, loss, and finding one's way shimmers with truth and heart on every page -- Cheryl StrayedThis is more than simply a tale of a life undone . . . Levy's articulation of grief is also beautifully, frighteningly real * i *A great memoir is not a trip through someone else's life, but a series of long looks into your own life. Ariel Levy's book - grieving, hopeful, painful, funny - is that -- Amy BloomA talented journalist - a staff writer at the New Yorker - she knows how to tell a story and keep it brief . . . gripping * Tablet *A searing and poignantly honest memoir . . . Her story of resilience becomes an unforgettable portrait of the shifting forces in our culture * Sunday Post *Think heightened senses and heady in-the-moment intensity. She's crisscrossed the globe in search of theseunique experiences as a staff writer for The New Yorker since 2008, and now turns her interrogative eye on herself. What results isprofound, and lasting * Esquire *The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy is simultaneously the personal story of a dramatic miscarriage, a frank, powerful look at shifting gender roles and how we make a life for ourselves, and an inside glimpse into Levy's work as a journalist for the New Yorker -- Curtis Sittenfeld * Observer *A gut punch of a book as she explores the dilemmas of professional women who work hard then find they want children -- Jessie Burton, author of The MiniaturistA dazzling insight into the mind of one of the New Yorker's most prolific writers, Ariel Levy's memoir will seem relatable to all those who have at one time or another felt a startling sense of dissociation from their life * Independent *Ariel Levy is a writer of uncompromising honesty, remarkable clarity and surprising humor, gathered from the wreckage of tragedy. Her account of life doing its darnedest to topple her, and her refusal to be knocked down, will leave you shaken and inspired. Her ersatz brand of zen wisdom is one we all need in our lives. I am the better for having read this book -- Lena DunhamA great memoir is not just a trip through someone else's life, but a series of long looks into your own life. Ariel Levy's book - grieving, hopeful, painful, funny - is that -- Amy Bloom

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Book Synopsis''I hated the office. I hated my work...the only career in life within my reach was that of an author.''The only autobiography by a major Victorian novelist, Trollope''s account offers a fascinating insight into his literary life and opinions. After a miserable childhood and misspent youth, Trollope turned his life around at the age of twenty-six. By 1860 the ''hobbledehoy'' had become both a senior civil servant and a best-selling novelist. He worked for the Post Office for many years and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament. Best-known for the two series of novels grouped loosely around the clerical and political professions, the Barsetshire and Palliser series, in his Autobiography Trollope frankly describes his writing habits. His apparent preoccupation with contracts, deadlines, and earnings, and his account of the remorseless regularity with which he produced his daily quota of words, has divided opinion ever since. This edition reassesses the work''s distinctive qualities and incTrade ReviewTrollope is one of my favourite authors & his autobiography is a portrait of a lovable man who survived a miserable childhood & created a happy life for himself, both personally & professionally as a novelist. * I Prefer Reading *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; NOTE ON THE TEXT; CHRONOLOGY; AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY; TROLLOPE ON JANE AUSTEN; 'ON ENGLISH PROSE FICTION AS A RATIONAL AMUSEMENT'; FROM THACKERAY; FROM 'THE GENIUS OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE; FROM 'A WALK IN THE WOOD'; APPENDIX: PASSAGES OMITTED FROM THE MANUSCRIPT; EXPLANATORY NOTES; INDEX

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Book SynopsisPart reminiscence, part meditation, Reveries of the Solitary Walker is Rousseau's last great work, the enduring testimony of an alienated person seeking self-knowledge. As he records his walks round Paris, he finds happiness in solitude and nature. The new translation includes an introduction and notes that explore the work and its contexts.

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Book SynopsisThe new series of Ngaio Marsh editions concludes with a new edition of her autobiography.What sort of person was Ngaio Marsh, whose detective novels made her name known throughout the world? With all the insight and sense of style her readers have come to expect of her, her autobiography reveals the influences and environment that have shaped her personality.Widely acclaimed when first published in 1965, Black Beech and Honeydew is a sensitive account of Ngaio Marsh's childhood and adolescence in Christchurch and the establishment of her theatre and writing careers both there and in the UK. It captures all the joys, fears and hopes of a spirited young woman growing up and transmits an artist's gradual awareness of the special flavour of life in New Zealand and the individual character of its landscape.Fully revised and updated in 1981, this new edition is reissued 21 years later as a commemoration of Ngaio Marsh's life and work. It is a sanguine, poised, unpretentious, thoughtful and oTrade Review‘Still, quite simply, the greatest exponent of the classical English detective story.’Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisAt the outset of his career Ted Hughes described letter-writing as ''excellent training for conversation with the world'', and he was to become a prolific master of this art which combines writing and talking. This selection begins when Hughes was seventeen, and documents the course of a life at once resolutely private but intensely attuned to other lives (including a readership comprising both adults and children); a life pared down to essentials and yet eventful, peripatetic, at times publicly controversial.Trade Review"'This is a book, like the letters of Keats, which will be read in 200 years' time.' Philip Hensher, Spectator 'This year's most surprising and rewarding book.' Blake Morrison, Guardian 'Reid's succinct annotation allows the full, unique personality to blaze out unimpeded, and the result is magnificent.' John Carey, Sunday Times"

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Book SynopsisThis is a memoir as wry, funny, moving and vivid as its inimitable subject himself. This book will be a joy for both lifelong fans and for a whole new generation.John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and radio presenter, social and cultural commentator. At 5 feet 11 inches (32in chest, 27in waist), in trademark dark suit, dark glasses, with dark messed-up hair and a mouth full of gold teeth, he is instantly recognizable. As a writer his voice is equally unmistakable and his own brand of slightly sick humour is never far from the surface. I Wanna Be Yours covers an extraordinary life, filled with remarkable personalities: from Nico to Chuck Berry, from Bernard Manning to Linton Kwesi Johnson, Elvis Costello to Gregory Corso, Gil Scott Heron, Mark E. Smith and Joe Strummer, and on to more recent fans and collaborators Alex Turner, Plan B and Guy Garvey. Interspersed with stories of his rock and roll and performing career, John also reveals his boggling encyclopaedic take on popular culture over the centuries: from Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe to Pop Art, pop music, the movies, fashion, football and showbusiness – and much, much more, plus a few laughs along the way.Trade ReviewThis is not a ‘ponderous trudge through the turgid facts of an ill-remembered life’ but the kind of autobiography Rimbaud might have written if he had been a Mancunian stand-up comedian. -- Graham Robb * Spectator Best Books of the Year *The bookshop shelves have been clogged up for years by musicians and artists who made their debuts in the sulphurous days of 1976-7, but I Wanna Be Yours, the autobiography of the "punk poet" John Cooper Clarke, aka "the Bard of Salford", knocked most of the competition into a cocked hat. * TLS 'Books of the Year' *Any autobiography that features both Bernard Manning and Nico is unlikely to disappoint; even less so when it’s written with such brilliantly Dickensian vigour by the Bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke . . .this fast, funny book catches his life in its lines * Sunday Times 'Music Books of the Year' *Manchester punk poet John Cooper Clarke takes a rather different approach to heroin addiction, treating it as a source of humour in his sharply observed, entertaining memoir . . . “Relentless tragedy is always hilarious,” he notes of his eventual recovery. “At some point the laughter has to stop.” * Daily Telegraph, Best Music Books of 2020 *[I Wanna Be Yours] might be the funniest book published this year. Few memoirists have had better material to work with: heroin addiction, years living in a squat with Nico, endless love affairs and a TV appearance with the Honey Monster. Talk about getting the most out of life. * The Times, Best Music Books of the Year 2020 *The godfather of British performance poetry * Daily Telegraph *John Cooper Clarke is one of Britain’s outstanding poets. His anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades and his no nonsense approach to his work and life in general has appealed to many people including myself for many years. Long may his slender frame and spiky top produce words and deeds that keep us on our toes and alive to the wonders of the world. -- Sir Paul McCartneyI say to people, have you heard of John Cooper Clarke and if they say, yes, yeah he's an absolute genius and you just go, 'oh - ok, you've saved me a lot of time -- Steve CooganJohn Cooper Clarke uses words like Chuck Berry uses guitar riffs melody and anger, humour and disdain in equal measure. He's the real deal, really funny and really caustic, the velvet voice of discontent. -- Kate Moss...nothing short of dazzling -- Alex TurnerThere are a legion of new young poets who rightly pay homage to Cooper Clarke -- Julian Hall * Independent *It’s impossible not to hear Clarke’s voice, rhythmic & deadpan, while reading his memoir. Like his poetry,his prose style is wry and dry . . . Mad anecdotes & whimsical gags abound, but wisdom often lurks beneath the wordplay. * Guardian *I Wanna Be Yours is fantastically entertaining . . . As a writer of comic prose Clarke is the match of anyone alive, and his turns of phrase are as sharp as his suits (the view over 1950s Manchester from the fire escape behind his house was 'Coronation Street for a million miles'). His drawl is as much a part of his peculiar ars poetica as the words of the poems themselves. Every sentence he writes, you read in his voice. By the end of the nearly 500 pages of I Wanna be Yours I felt I’d not so much read a memoir as listened to an outrageous confession from a psychoanalyst’s couch * The Times *Riveting * The Observer 'Book of the Week' *An immensely engaging memoir that fizzes with wit . . . Though he needs no such affirmation, it cements Clarke’s status as one of the most distinctive voices in pop cultural history – it’s impossible not to hear him read every word aloud in your head with that unforgettable Manc drawl – and reveals much about a remarkable life and career * NME *The most amusing autobiography of a literary aesthete you are ever likely to read * Telegraph *An exuberant account of a remarkable life * New Statesman *A naturally splendid tell-all * I newspaper *John Cooper Clarke’s life story has been stranger than most and it is told with great humour and penetrating honesty in his autobiography, I Wanna Be Yours * Choice Magazine *The most entertaining and certainly the most culturally revealing book I have read this year -- D. J. Taylor * Literary Review *Clarke’s primordial gift for language is everywhere in this book. It is almost impossible not to read passages out loud — a meta reminder of his contribution to the joy of spoken-word performance. As Clarke puts it: 'Wherever people gather for amusement, that’s where I’ll be.' * Financial Times *He became the first big-time performance punk poet – a warm-up act for the Sex Pistols, with famous fans ranging from Sir Paul McCartney to Kate Moss. And his life has been as chaotically unpredictable as his next line . . . Now clean and, to his own surprise, a happily married family man at 71, the bard of Salford has written his memoirs. * Sunday Mirror *One of the most magnificent and hysterically funny memoirs of modern times * Irish Times *Crafted, entertaining and educative * Mojo Magazine *A compelling read with highs and lows aplenty, in every sense of the phrase . . . They say that every picture tells a story. Clarke takes that concept and turns it on its head as, from start to finish throughout the book, the words paint pictures so vivid you can see the Salford streets and smell the hair pomade. Take a dip into the weird and wonderful world of Dr John Cooper Clarke, he’ll be there if you want him, ninety degrees in his shades * Breaking Glass Magazine *Elegantly sardonic . . . His writing remains spry and sparkly, sweary but sweet, with this book testament to how 'a half-arsed grafter with a rich vocabulary' became a kind of British institution * Uncut Magazine *A poet who writes about darkness and decay but makes people laugh, a human cartoon, a gentleman punk, a man who has stayed exactly the same for thirty years but never grown stale. John Cooper Clarke is an original -- Claire Smith * Scotsman *One of the most entertaining autobiographies of the year. Hilarious and inspirational in equal measure, it’s the perfect panacea to the misery of 2020 * The Quietus *I Wanna Be Yours could not be more entertaining, charming and optimistic . . . Its immense spirit-lifting qualities will do the despairing – and everyone else – the world of good * Strong Words Magazine *I telephoned hardworking entertainer and poet Dr. John Cooper Clarke to tell him how much I’m enjoying his memoir, I Wanna Be Yours . . . a buxom read and a highly entertaining one. -- Martin Newell * East Anglian Times *

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Book SynopsisIn the 1980s, Clive James found his way into full-time television. In The Blaze of Obscurity, his fifth book of memoir, he delivers the inside story. A hilarious, thoughtful, warts and all account of a life in the public eye.'Clive James is an intellectual as well as a joker, a wise man as well as a wit' – ObserverAs his fame grew, Clive James was never alone – except in the toilet. But there, cubicle walls provided little protection against young men, standing at urinals, talking behind his back:Jesus, he's looking rough.And it's only Monday.Taking it in his stride and batting away accusations of selling out, Clive James was in television for the adventure. And an adventure it was. Rollicking through the end of one century and the beginning of the next, he interviews Hefner and Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Françoise Sagan, Peter Ustinov ('even his nose could act') and Ronald RTrade ReviewClive James is an intellectual as well as a joker, a wise man as well as a wit. * Observer *

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Book SynopsisAnnie Proulx, one of America''s finest writers, invites us to share her experience in the building of her new home on a rich plot of untouched, unspoilt prairie and her pleasure in uncovering of the layers of American history locked beneath the topsoil.Bird Cloud' is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and 400 foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She knew she had to purchase the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she would build on it a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen.Proulx''s first non-fiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of building that house solar panels, a Japanese soak tub, a concrete floor, elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets and an enthralling natural history and archeology of the region, inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians. It is also a family history, going back to nineteenth century Mississippi river boat captains and Canadian settlers, and an illuminating autobiography. Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation and compassion, turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time.Trade Review‘Proulx’s prose is monumental’ Observer 'Magic … Books are like homes and within 10 pages of crossing the threshold of this one readers will put up their feet, secure in the knowledge that they won’t be moving on to another any time soon ' Geoff Dyer, Observer ‘A love letter to place…which interweaves details of the land’s daily upkeep with her own equally evocative history’ Vogue A masterpiece’ A. N. Wilson

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Book SynopsisAutobiographical without being an autobiography, confessional without disclosing his private self, The Summing Up, written when Maugham was sixty-four, is an inimitable expression of a personal credo.Trade ReviewIn what Somerset Maugham has written readers have found fascinating tales, sharply revealed characters, a fine narrative craft, and an author who has always been completely, honestly himself -- J.B. PriestleyOne of the finest short-story stylists Britain has ever produced * Economist *One of the most cosmopolitan English writers * Washington Post *

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Book Synopsis''The water slips over me like cool silk. The intimacy of touch uninhibited, rising around my legs, over my waist, up to my collarbone. When I throw back my head and relax, the lake runs into my ears. The sound of it is a muffled roar, the vibration of the body amplified by water, every sound felt as if in slow motion . . .'' Summer swimming . . . but Jessica Lee - Canadian, Chinese and British - swims through all four seasons and especially loves the winter. ''I long for the ice. The sharp cut of freezing water on my feet. The immeasurable black of the lake at its coldest. Swimming then means cold, and pain, and elation.''At the age of twenty-eight, Jessica Lee, who grew up in Canada and lived in London, finds herself in Berlin. Alone. Lonely, with lowered spirits thanks to some family history and a broken heart, she is there, ostensibly, to write a thesis. And though that is what she does daily, what increasingly occupies her is swimming. So she makes a decision that she Trade ReviewI loved this beautiful book. It's an attentive meditation on the pleasures and lessons of swimming in lakes, particularly in winter. Jessica Lee wears her bravery lightly and shares her knowledge with generosity. I recommend for outdoor swimmers or those who would like to be -- Amy Liptrot, author of The OutrunA brilliant debut . . . there is clarity and pleasure in the swim's afterglow * Times Literary Supplement *A sublime, philosophical slipping into the deep. Her book, Turning, is filled with a wonderful melancholy as she swims through lakes laden with dark histories -- Philip Hoare * New Statesman *Lee is intelligent and controlled, her writing clean and accurate . . . Turning is many things: a snapshot of Berlin seen through the prism of its lakes; the story of a broken and healing heart; a contemplation of identity; a coming-of-age story -- Katharine Norbury * Observer *Bold and brave, she approaches her watery pilgrimage with a minimum amount of fuss. She doesn't, for instance, allow the ice on Brandenburg's lakes to get in her way, but takes a hammer to it . . . Lee writes like a siren, her silken prose blending with softly worn scholarship to enchanting effect. I challenge anyone to write more compellingly about Slavic suffixes or the formation of ice * Literary Review *The redemptive power of these wild landscapes, the changes in the water, and in Jessica, combine to create an inspiring story * Daily Telegraph *A lovely, poetic, sensuous and melancholy book * Irish Examiner *Turning is about the joys of swimming through the year . . . Jessica brilliantly takes us into the water with her, even on those freezing mornings when she had to use a hammer to smash through the ice to get her fix. It's as much about loss and recovery as it is swimming. The water helps soothe Jessica's heartbreak and depression - a lesson for the rest of us about the healing power of nature -- Sun (Fabulous)

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Book SynopsisMichael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Manhood for Amateurs and Moonglow, returns with a collection of heartfelt, humorous and insightful essays on the meaning of fatherhood.You are born into a family and those are your people, and they know you and they love you and if you are lucky they even, on occasion, manage to understand you. And that ought to be enough. But it is never enoughWhat are you allowed to talk about with your children? When to step in with advice, when to let them make their own mistakes? It's more complicated than you think. Somehow you muddle through.In this heartfelt, humorous and wise book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon attempts to weigh in on difficult conversations with his children, on everything from texting girls to death. But it is when he hangs back that he catches them transforming into their own people. What emerges is a father's deep respect for his children's passions and for their bravery in the face of conformity.Whether you know the joy and struggles of being a father, or were shaped by one, you will find a home in these stunning essays.Trade ReviewPraise for Pops: ‘Pops is not about what we should be teaching our children but the ways in which our children teach us. That, contrary to the edict of his would-be mentor in the opening chapter, they can also provide the writer with a book’s worth of material is, one imagines, merely a bonus’ Guardian ‘Chabon’s book feels like a late-night talk with a friend about how much we love our kids and how hopeful we are that we’re better dads than we fear’ Judd Apatow, New York Times ‘Fashion also takes centre stage in the essay ‘Little Man’, in which Chabon describes taking his clothes-obsessed 13-year-old son Abe to Men’s Fashion Week in Paris. It’s both a fascinating take on its subject and brilliantly written, but what’s more, the care Chabon takes with his subject – that where Abe’s heart lies, not Chabon’s own – ensures it’s steeped in parental love without ever being gushing. Read the book for this gem of a piece alone. It’s that good’ Independent ‘Brillaintly written’ Evening Standard ‘Packs a big emotional punch … a brilliantly evocative piece of reportage, funny and engaging ’ Big Issue Praise for Michael Chabon: ‘Chabon is one of contemporary literature’s most gifted prose stylists’ New York Times ‘Poignant, affecting, witty, wrenching, a terrific writer’ Washington Post ‘Chabon is a language magician, turning everything into something else just for the delight of playing tricks with words…Chabon's ornate prose makes (Raymond) Chandler's fruity observations of the world look quite plain…he writes like a dream’ Guardian ‘The natural exuberance and extravagance of Chabon’s writing is matched by dazzling wit’ Sunday Telegraph ‘His talent is indisputable…Chabon’s novels are warm, witty, a little whimsical, always beautifully written…he is that rare and precious beast: a literary writer with crossover appeal…’ GQ ‘He is the most wonderful vaudeville performer’ Philip Hensher, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’

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Book SynopsisThe final work of Nobel Prize-winning writer Günter Grass – a witty and elegiac series of meditations on writing, growing old, and the world.Suddenly, in spite of the trials of old age, and with the end in sight, everything seems possible again: love letters, soliloquies, scenes of jealousy, swan songs, social satire, and moments of happiness.Only an ageing artist who had once more cheated death could get to work with such wisdom, defiance and wit. A wealth of touching stories is condensed into artful miniatures. In a striking interplay of poetry, lyric prose and drawings, Grass creates his final, major work of art.A moving farewell gift, a sensual, melancholy summation of a life fully lived.Trade ReviewAs subtle and as delicate as the many feathers depicted through its pages, Of All That Ends is a glorious gift, a final salute true to the singular creativity of the most human, and humane, of artists. * Irish Times *There is a lovely diversity to these pieces… His intelligence and intellectual engagement remain fiercely undimmed. -- Catherine Taylor * Financial Times *This beautiful, ironic and often funny final collage of asides and meditations sums up the fabulist’s genius. -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times, Book of the Year *Autumnal, elegiac and tinged with a twilight charm -- Boyd Tonkin * The Arts Desk *Of All That Ends radiates a burst of his primitive energy and his subtle shrewdness, using words and pencil lines as a remedy, an antidote to the factual world that we objectify and iconise… Laced with black humour. -- Julian Evans * Daily Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis'The master storyteller of our times' Hillary Rodham Clinton'The whole story of his truly astonishing life' Bob Woodward'The book was damn near addictive. I loved it' Ron Howard'At times his poignant narrative will bring you to tears' Patricia Cornwell'A compelling account of the life events that shaped an extraordinary man' Nicholas Sparks'So much content and inspiration from one of the world's most successful authors' Sir David Jason'This is a poignant, funny and inspiring account of a phenomenally successful career from a master storyteller' Jake Humphrey______________________________HIS BEST STORIES ARE THE STORIES OF HIS LIFE· His father grew up in a New York poorhouse called the 'Pogie'.· He worked at a psychiatric hospital where he met the singer James Taylor and the poet Robert Lowell. Both were patients.· He was at Woodstock and was also an usher at the Fillmore East.· He was CEO of advertising agency J. Walter Thompson North America when he was thirty-seven. He wrote the ad jingle, 'I'm a Toys 'R' Us Kid'.· He once watched Norman Mailer and James Baldwin square off to fight.· He's played golf with three US presidents and has nine holes-in-one.· Dolly Parton sang Happy Birthday to him over the phone. She calls him Jimmy James.James says, 'I always wanted to write the kind of novel that is read and re-read so many times the binding breaks, and the book literally falls apart, pages scattered in the wind. I'm still working on that one.'______________________________More praise for The Stories of My Life'A masterpiece of storytelling! Funny, poignant, brutally honest' Admiral Willam H. McRaven'Will delight fans, and even non-fans, of America's storied storyteller' Ben Bradlee Jr.'James Patterson makes his own life as addictively enjoyable as his novels' Nadine Dorries'Jim Patterson's life is a thriller itself . . . This book is a pure joy to read' Stephen A. Schwarzman'Always entertaining . . . You will enjoy the read' Phil Knight'James Patterson's first rule of storytelling is "be there". And that's the genius of his autobiography' Mike Lupica'Anyone who has ever started a James Patterson thriller knows how damned difficult it is to put down. And the same is true of this vivid, invigorating memoir' Daily MailTrade ReviewI felt I was interviewing James Patterson under the highest permissible dose of sodium pentothal, the truth serum, for hours - and he spilled the whole story of his truly astonishing life and experiences and the absolute unlikelihood that he would become the best-selling fiction author of all time. -- BOB WOODWARDJames Patterson does it again. The master storyteller of our times takes us on a funny, poignant, and ultimately triumphant journey through his own life. If you are among the many millions of us who enjoy reading Patterson's books, or if you haven't discovered him yet, you'll love reading this one too. -- HILLARY RODHAM CLINTONOne of the greatest storytellers of all time, Patterson has led an amazing life. James Patterson By James Patterson brings to mind Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. I love the pithy, bright anecdotes, and at times his poignant narrative will bring you to tears. -- PATRICIA CORNWELL, New York Times bestselling authorThe book was damn near addictive. I loved it. Patterson recounts turning points and life-shaping lessons in short, riveting bursts that inform, entertain, and satisfy-then propel you into the next story. That Patterson guy can write! -- RON HOWARDAs the author of more than two hundred novels James Patterson has shown considerable potential as a writer. He reveals how he is working on that potential in his memoir. The book is always entertaining. You will enjoy the read. -- PHIL KNIGHT, creator of Nike and author of Shoe DogA masterpiece of storytelling! Funny, poignant, brutally honest, filled with life and love and heartbreak; it is the most entertaining book I have read in the past fifty years. Patterson reminds us all that even in our smallest moments, there are great stories to be told. -- ADMIRAL WILLIAM H. McRAVEN, author of Make Your BedA compelling account of the life events that shaped an extraordinary man - combining elements of a tragic love story, counterculture youth, and cutthroat corporate success, this memoir will be a fascinating read for fans of his thrillers and beyond. -- NICHOLAS SPARKS, bestselling author of The NotebookIn this breezy and revealing autobiography, James Patterson packs his narrative with scores of personal stories that will delight fans, and even non-fans, of America's storied storyteller. -- BEN BRADLEE JR., author of The ForgottenJames Patterson's first rule of storytelling is 'be there.' And that's the genius of his autobiography. You're right there with him as he's growing up in Newburgh, New York; then on Madison Avenue; and as he begins to sell more books than anybody else on the planet. -- MIKE LUPICA, New York Times bestselling authorJim Patterson's life is a thriller itself. From his hardscrabble upbringing as a great athlete from a small town in upstate New York, to his time as a hippie in the 1960s and a great ad copywriter in the 1970s, Jim became the bestselling author of all time. This book is a pure joy to read. -- STEPHEN SCHWARZMAN, cofounder, chairman and CEO of BlackstoneThis is a poignant, funny and inspiring account of a phenomenally successful career from a master storyteller. -- JAKE HUMPHREY, creator of the High Performance podcastAnyone who has ever started a James Patterson thriller knows how damned difficult it is to put down. And the same is true of this vivid, invigorating memoir. * DAILY MAIL *

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Book SynopsisAn iron-willed mother, an ageing grandmother, a pair of mismatched dogs and 90 mu of less-than-ideal farmland: these are Li Juan’s companions on the steppes of the Gobi Desert.Writing out of a yurt under Xinjiang’s endless horizons, she documents her family’s quest to extract a bounty of sunflowers amid the harsh beauty and barren expanses of China’s northwest frontier. Success must be eked out in the face of life’s unnegotiable realities: sandstorms, locusts and death.While this small tribe is held at the mercy of these headwinds, they discover the cheer and dignity hidden in each other. But will their ceaseless labours deliver blooming fields of green and yellow? Or will their dreams prove as distant as they are fragile?Trade ReviewDistant Sunflower Fields is like Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain ... you unconsciously forget the daily hubbub and sink silently into the embrace of the world her words have brought to being.Xinran | author of The Good Women of China

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Book SynopsisJ. G. Ballard was, for over fifty years, one of this country''s most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, Empire of the Sun', this revelatory autobiography charts the course of his astonishing life.Miracles of Life' takes us from the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai, to the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of Lunghua Camp, to Ballard's arrival in a devastated Britain. Ballard recounts his first attempts at fiction and his part in the social and artistic revolutions of the 60s. He describes his friendships with figures as diverse as Kingsley Amis, Michael Moorcock and Eduardo Paolozzi alongside recollections of his domestic life in Shepperton raising three children as a single father following the unexpected and premature death of his wife.Miracles of Life' is both a captivating narrative of the experiences that have shaped this extraordinary writer's works, his distinctive outlook and his original visions of the future, and is alsTrade Review‘Superb. Mr Ballard, you are wonderful’ Sunday Times ‘Exquisitely written … ‘Miracles of Life’, a subtle, restlessly enquiring work of touching humanity, is Ballard’s crowning achievement’ Financial Times ‘Brief, modest and occasionally shattering, in a way that elevates it to a level of greatness’ Observer ‘A jewel. As a writer, he can simply take the breath away’ Independent

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Book SynopsisWith superb skill and feeling, Graham Greene retraces the experiences and encounters of his extraordinary life. His restlessness is legendary; as if seeking out danger, Greene travelled to Haiti during the nightmare rule of Papa Doc, Vietnam in the last days of the French, Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion. With ironic delight he recalls his time in the British Secret Service in Africa, and his brief involvement in Hollywood. He writes, as only he can, about people and places, about faith, doubt, fear and, not least, the trials and craft of writing.Trade ReviewInspiring...provides the best possible introduction to the novels but also the portrait of a dedicated artist * Observer *Ways of Escape is as good as the best of its kind...marvellously rich -- William Trevor * Guardian *Excellent reading...wonderfully good * Sunday Telegraph *The writing is suffused with melancholy regret, not for what he writes, one feels, but for what he has left out * Independent *Greene is unrivalled in his ability to evoke location and the human condition -- Carol Drinkwater * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisIn this series of moving recollections involving both his childhood and his work as a mature artist, John Fowles explains the impact of nature on his life and the dangers inherent in our traditional urge to categorise, to tame and ultimately to possess the landscape. This acquisitive drive leads to alienation and an antagonism to the apparent disorder and randomness of the natural world. For John Fowles the tree is the best analogue of prose fiction, symbolising the wild side of our psyche, and he stresses the importance in art of the unpredictable, the unaccountable and the intuitive. This fascinating text gives a unique insight into the author and offers the key to a true understanding of the inspiration for his work.Trade ReviewA text of unusual beauty and perception * Publishers Weekly *Magnificent... Mystical * Daily Telegraph *Gritty and entertaining * Sunday Telegraph *Fowles' language is strong, green, discursive, related throughout to his own life and memories * Vogue *

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Book SynopsisA hilarious collection of the many articles written by Stephen Fry for magazines, newspapers and radio. It includes selected wireless essays of Donald Trefusis, the ageing professor of philology brought to life in Fry''s novel The Liar, and the best of Fry''s weekly column for the Daily Telegraph.Perfect to dip into but just as enjoyable to read cover to cover, this book, perhaps more than any other, shows the breadth of Fry''s interests and the depth of his insight. He remains a hilarious writer on whatever topic he puts his mind to.Trade ReviewI do more than invite you to read Stephen Fry. I urge you to. Fry is by turns observer, humourist, reviewer, philosopher, parodist, autobiographer, academic, scourge, clown and, as often as not, an antic amalgam of all these and more, and his variant style conforms flawlessly with each selected role.Huge, crammed, wise, hilarious and utterly captivating * Literary Review *A joyous collaboration of winging humour and sarcasm * Mail on Sunday *Naughty but terribly nice * Sunday Times *Appallingly funny * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisIn 1939 Christopher Isherwood and W. H. Auden emigrated together to the United States. In spare, luminous prose these diaries describe Isherwood''s search for a new life in California; his work as a screenwriter in Hollywood, his pacifism during World War II and his friendships with such gifted artists and intellectuals as Garbo, Chaplin, Thomas Mann, Charles Laughton, Gielgud, Olivier, Richard Burton and Aldous Huxley.Throughout this period, Isherwood continued to write novels and sustain his literary friendships - with E. M. Forster, Somerset Maugham, Tennessee Williams and others. He turned to his diaries several times a week to record jokes and gossip, observations about his adopted country, philosophy and mystical insights. His devotion to his diary was a way of accounting for himself; he used it as both a discipline and a release.Trade ReviewA major literary event...an essential part of his oeuvre * Guardian *There is not a page that does not contain a good joke, original insight, deadly accurate description or delicious nugget of gossip... A major literary work, the diaries round off the writer both as man and artist. They are intimate and intensely personal * Independent on Sunday *There is plenty to enjoy in this first volume...Isherwood's is an exemplary twentieth-century life: assured and neurotic, fearless and fretful, generous and small-minded, forgiving and remorsefully judgemental * Financial Times *A pleasure to read... No word is wasted, and the casual-looking sentences create the impression that we are overhearing what is being said * Scotsman *Enthralling...Isherwood...struggles with his demons in spare, luminous and merciless prose -- Benjamin Evans * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY JAMES FENTONSubtitled ''An education in the twenties'', this work blends autobiography and fiction to describe the inner life of a writer evolving from precocious public school boy to Cambridge drop-out at large in London's Bohemia. It contains thinly veiled portraits of Isherwood's contemporaries Auden, Upward, and Spender, whose intimate friendships and cult of rebellion shaped the literary identity of England in the 1930s. Witty and outrageous, Isherwood pokes fun at the stars of his generation, above all himself, even as he testifies to their unique early gifts.Trade ReviewThe best prose writer in English * Gore Vidal *The writing is, as always, very clear, very moving and very funny * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''Darkly angelic prose... a joy to read, with the final part in particular recalling David Foster Wallace at his best'' Alex Preston, Observer ________________________________ Will''s mother''s hokey homily, Waste not, want not... hisses in his ears as he oscillates furiously on the spot, havering on the threshold between the bedroom and the dying one... all the while cradling the plastic leech of the syringe in the crook of his arm. Oscillating furiously, and, as he''d presses the plunger home a touch more... and more, he hears it again and again: Waaaste nooot, waaant nooot..! whooshing into and out of him, while the blackness wells up at the periphery of his vision, and his hackneyed heart begins to beat out weirdly arrhythmic drum fills - even hitting the occasional rim-shot on his resonating rib cage. He waits, paralysed, acutely conscious, that were he simply to press his thumb right home, it''ll be a cartoonish death: That''s all folks! as the aperture screws shut forever. ________________________________________ ''Self''s writing has the same technicolour velocity, malign comedy as his best novels'' Evening Standard ''Refreshing . . . Self is never happier than when frolicking in the hinterland between sincerity and performative, winking hyperbole'' TLSTrade ReviewDarkly angelic prose... a joy to read, with the final part in particular recalling David Foster Wallace at his best * Alex Preston, Observer *Refreshing . . . Self is never happier than when frolicking in the hinterland between sincerity and performative, winking hyperbole * TLS *One of Britain's most inspired writers offers a no-holds-barred tale of his fascinating life. Spectacular . . . Self delivers a hallucinatory, confessional version of his life * Kirkus *Self's writing has the same technicolour velocity, malign comedy as his best novels * Claire Allfree, Evening Standard *Who else is writing with this much freedom and verve right now? * Metro *One of the most significant literary works of our century * New Statesman on Phone *Intellectually dazzling and emotionally frazzling * Guardian on Shark *Unstoppably entertaining * The Times on Umbrella *

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Book SynopsisIncludes five autobiographical meditations that delves into the author's past, remembering awkward childhood walks with his father, a lifelong obsession with the cinema and fighting in the Italian Resistance against the Fascists.Trade ReviewThese autobiographical essays marvellously reconstitute different strata of his past in all the pristine, warm stir of immediacy * Sunday Times *In these personal essays, Calvino dives into his memory and childhood with great warmth -- John SelfI propose a new adjective, calvinoid - as in a calvinoid construct, an impossible and beautiful structure spun out of the detritus of the quotidian . . . the scientific precision of his imagination and his carnivalesque delight in irony and absurdity . . . His legacy is an atlas full of calvinoid constructs, invisible cities, that will dazzle the lucky explorer -- Clive Sinclair * Independent *

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Book SynopsisMORE ABOUT BOYcontains a wealth of new photos, facts and writings about Roald Dahl and his childhood, together with the original text and illustrations from his much-loved memoir.As a boy, all sorts of unusual things happened to Roald Dahl.There was the time he and four school friends got their revenge on beastly Mrs Prachett in her sweet shop.There are stories of holidays in fishing boats, African adventures and the days of tasting chocolate for Cadbury''s.You''ll hear tales of horrible school bullies and the car accident when Roald''s nose was nearly sliced clean off . . Now you can discover even more about Roald Dahl''s childhood, including some secrets he left out. Some are painful, some are funny, but all of them are TRUE.Listen to Roald Dahl audiobooks read by some very famous voices, including Kate Winslet, David Walliams and Steven Fry - plus there are added squelchy soundeffects from Pinewood Studios! Look out for new Roald Dahl apps

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Book Synopsis''It will be seen in these pages that I have lived several lives in one: first, the life of slavery; secondly, the life of a fugitive from slavery; thirdly, the life of comparative freedom; fourthly, the life of conflict and battle; and, fifthly, the life of victory, if not complete, at least assured.''First published in 1892, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass Written By Himself is the final autobiography written by Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), a man who was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. Securing his self-liberation at twenty years of age in 1838, he went on to become the most renowned antislavery activist, social justice campaigner, author, orator, philosopher, essayist, historian, intellectual, statesman, and liberator in U.S. history. A powerful literary work, Douglass'' final autobiography shares the stories of his ''several lives in one.'' Beginning with his war against ''the hell-black system of human bondage,'' Douglass bears witness to his personal experieTable of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Frederick Douglass LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS Appendix: Lessons of the Hour Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisWhat is The Tiger Who Came to Tea really about? How is Meg and Mog related to Polish embroidery? And why does death in picture books involve being eaten? Fierce Bad Rabbits explores the stories behind our favourite picture books, weaving in tales of Clare Pollard''s childhood reading and her re-discovery of the classic tales as a parent. Because the best picture books are far more complex than they seem - and darker too. Monsters can gobble up children and go unnoticed, power is not always used wisely, and the wild things are closer than you think.''A gem . . . hard to put down. Thoroughly enjoyable'' Spectator''Essential reading for every thinking parent'' Penelope Lively''An enlightening, perceptive analysis of the books that build us'' Sunday Telegraph, 5 star review''A happy way to reconnect with old friends'' TimesTrade ReviewWhen I read Fierce Bad Rabbits, I thought, why has no one written this book before? But Clare Pollard has done so superbly - it is perceptive, illuminating, scholarly but at the same time entertaining. It should be essential reading for every thinking parent * Penelope Lively *This book is a happy way to reconnect with old friends * Times *An enlightening, perceptive analysis of the books that build us * Sunday Telegraph, 5 star review *A gem . . . hard to put down. The combination of vast scholarly research and witty writing makes for a thoroughly enjoyable book. Pollard has managed to dissect all our favourite stories with her scalpel, while leaving their magic intact * Spectator *Pollard is a poet, and her prose is stunning . . . she writes with a joy that is luminous. Essential reading for anyone with a child, or who ever was a child * i *Most people's primal cultural memory is that of being read to by a parent. This is a phenomenon most sensitively and intelligently explored in Fierce Bad Rabbits * Daily Telegraph *Pollard so delicately enters into the world of [picture books] that the reader feels they are rediscovering once-loved landscapes * New Statesman *Delightful. As good a guide as you could hope for. It will make you think again about why you loved the children's stories that mean so much to you, and it will lead you to new discoveries too. . . A happy reconnection to the serious joys of childhood * Harper's Bazaar *Excellent * Daily Mail Book of the Week *A celebration of picture books and their artists to spark your own childhood memories * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller In this remarkable memoir of love, loss and literature, acclaimed biographer Claire Tomalin turns her eye to another fascinating literary life: her own. She tells of a wartime childhood, Cambridge friendships and an early marriage to a brilliant journalist. After his sudden death in a war zone, Claire is left to raise their four children alone - all while leading a trail-blazing career in literary London. A Life of My Own is the tale of a woman overcoming obstacles both rare and routine to live not only a good but also a meaningful life.''A dramatic and absorbing survivor''s tale'' Hilary Spurling, Spectator''Unexpectedly moving. Tomalin''s story filled me with a kind of awe. Every page is valiant, every paragraph full of pluck'' Rachel Cooke, New Statesman''She has been tested in ways few women are. This memoir is a triumph'' Valerie Grove, Literary ReviewTrade ReviewYou will find it hard not to be amazed and impossible not to be moved by the indomitable spirit which drives this memoir...She comes across like the heroine of a great novel...a hugely entertaining book -- Anthony Quinn * Guardian *Absorbing, moving and marvellously written -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *Her memoir is peppered with fascinating pen portraits and anecdotes... she has tried, as Pepys did in his life, to give the 'texture' of a life. This she has achieved quite brilliantly * Sunday Times *She should be a heroine to modern snowflakes who melt at the first hurdle. Tomalin is like a glacier: unstoppable, inexorable, gathering resolve as she goes... The book is poised and beautifully paced * Times *I loved Claire Tomalin's memoir and ate through it in a day when I was supposed to be doing other things. So interesting and delightful and charming. I loved how she weaves the big dramatic events with the everyday - which is so much of what life is. -- Cathy Rentzenbrink, bestselling author of The Last Act of LoveShe has been tested in ways few women are. Her ability to overcome adversity may seem discreetly, even austerely handled, but for Claire Tomalin this memoir is another triumph * Literary Review *It is not Tomalin's professional life that impresses most in this memoir but her survival through personal tragedy, or rather , her remarkable ability to articulate its bleakness... She speaks from the heart but retains a sort of privacy, and is all the more powerful for it * Evening Standard *As well as her adventures in literary London as a hack, we also see a private life of contentment and heartbreak -- Robbie Millen * The Times Books of the Year *Ambushingly poignant * Observer Books of the Year *There is a truth to every chapter of her recollection -- Tim Adams * Observer New Review, Books of the Year *As one of the best biographers of her generation, Claire Tomalin had written about great novelists and poets to huge success: now, she turns to look at her own life * Guardian Books of the Year *In this triumph of clear sightedness, Tomalin turns her biographers searchlight on herself * Sunday Times Culture Books of the Year *

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Book Synopsis''One of Britain''s most celebrated contemporary novelists'' Sunday TimesIn this probing series of exclusive interviews, Alistair Owen talks to William Boyd about his works and the life which has inspired them. The conversations which emerge are a deep-dive into film, art, theatre, literature and the life of a writer. This is one of Britain''s most beloved authors on what it is to write in a variety of forms.''William Boyd has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries'' Daily Telegraph ''Arguably one of Britain''s finest living writers'' Sunday ExpressTrade ReviewWilliam Boyd has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries * Daily Telegraph *One of Britain's most celebrated contemporary novelists * Sunday Times *Arguably one of Britain's finest living writers * Sunday Express *Boyd is back on a form few of his contemporaries can match. This fine, touching and clever book is the best thing he's written since [Any Human Heart] and deserves similar adulation * Observer on Love Is Blind *A finely judged performance: a deft and resonant alchemy of fact and fiction, of literary myth and imagination * Guardian on Love Is Blind *Boyd on form is the ultimate in immersive fiction, and Love is Blind is Boyd at the top of his game . . . magnificent * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisAn accessible and personal “confession” of the creative process of the award-winning Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard

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Book SynopsisA memoir of the author''s decades-long friendship and spiritual journey with the late singer, songwriter, novelist, and poet Leonard Cohen Leonard Cohen passed away in late 2016, leaving behind many who cared for and admired him, but perhaps few knew him better than longtime friend Eric Lerner. Lerner, a screenwriter and novelist, first met Cohen at a Zen retreat forty years earlier. Their friendship helped guide each other through life''s myriad obstacles, a journey told from a new perspective for the first time. Funny, revealing, self-aware, and deeply moving, Matters of Vital Interest is an insightful memoir about Lerner''s relationship with his friend, whose idiosyncratic style and dignified life was deeply informed by his spiritual practices. Lerner invites readers to step into the room with them and listen in on a lifetime''s ongoing dialogue, considerations of matters of vital interest, spiritual, mundane, and profane. In telling their story, Lerner depicts Leonard Cohen as a captivating persona, the likes of which we may never see again.

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Book Synopsis'A beautiful, compelling memoir . . . This, Raban's final work, is a gorgeous achievement' – Ian McEwanOn 11 June 2011, three days short of his sixty-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban suffered a stroke which left him unable to use the right side of his body. Learning to use a wheelchair in a rehab facility outside Seattle and resisting the ministrations of the nurses overseeing his recovery, Raban began to reflect upon the measure of his own life in the face of his own mortality. Together with the chronicle of his recovery is the extraordinary story of his parents’ marriage, the early years of which were conducted by letter while his father fought in the Second World War.Jonathan Raban engages profoundly and candidly with some of the biggest questions at the heart of what it means to be alive, laying bare the human capacity to withstand trauma, as well as the warmth, strength, and humour that persist despite it. Father and Son, the fina

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Book SynopsisThe letters between Vera Brittain, author of Testament of Youth, and Winifred Holtby, author of South Riding, tell the story of an extraordinary friendship''Touching and inspiring'' RACHEL COOKE, Observer''Lively, perceptive'' MIRANDA SEYMOUR, Literary Review''A beautiful collection'' DAISY DUNN, Sunday Times''A moving unvarnished chronicle'' Sarah Watling, TelegraphFrom the time when they met at Somerville College, Oxford, until Winifred''s early death at the age of thirty-seven, they wrote constantly, encouraging and advising each other, even through periods as literary rivals as they negotiated envy and self-doubt. Vera decisively influenced Winifred''s passion for feminism and peace and Winifred gave Vera crucial support, fiercely believing in her literary gifts. Their letters, written from 1920 to 1935, kept them ''continuously together''.Trade ReviewThis volume offers a window on an intriguing relationship... [It] delivers Winifred Holtby back into Vera Brittain's ineluctable embrace -- Claudia FitzHerbert * Spectator *The Showalters offer an astute and sympathetic reading of the two women's dynamic, and the result is a moving, unvarnished chronicle of intellectual comradeship -- Sarah Watling * Telegraph *[A] lively, perceptive and immaculately edited selection from the extensive correspondence between Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby... There are many stand-out moments in this engrossing correspondence... The Showalters have triumphantly succeeded in reminding us how fortunate Vera Brittain was to forge a friendship with such a joyous, clear-sighted and selfless individual -- Miranda Seymour * Literary Review *A beautiful collection... The care with which the letters have been selected and introduced becomes increasingly clear as the pages roll on -- Daisy Dunn * Sunday Times *I found these letters completely fascinating... the relationship at their centre is endlessly intriguing, and when these young women outline their burgeoning ideas about their careers, marriage, happiness and freedom, it's touching and inspiring -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Expertly and sensitively edited by Elaine and English Showalter... The authors' intense bond is wonderfully captured... what comes through is a true partnership of two women valiantly, imperfectly, trying to find new ways to live -- Samantha Ellis * Guardian *Fascinatingly, these letters also overturn the sentimental clichés about their relationship * The Oldie *

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Book SynopsisA wonderful read.' Irish TimesSad, gripping and powerful.' Margaret DrabbleSuperbly clear, intimate and evocative.' New York TimesFrom the former poet laureate, Andrew Motion, In the Blood is an unforgettable evocation of family, school and country life. By turns funny, heartbreaking and elegiac, it is also a deeply affectionate portrait of the bond between mother and son.Brilliantly achieved and novel-like . . . Vivid and poignant.' GuardianThe most moving and exquisitely written account of childhood loss I have ever read.' Independent on SundayDeeply engaging. The innocence and the hardness of childhood are beautifully put together . . . A strikingly good book, framed by tragedy but full of intense life.' Helen DunmoreEvery word, sentence and chapter, one drinks down with a joy because it is so artfully and beautifully composed.' Irish TimesTrade Review"'The most moving and exquisitely written account of childhood loss I have ever read.' Independent on Sunday"

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