Autobiography: writers Books

Book SynopsisMoving and revealing collection of correspondence between Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald - some published for the first time

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Book SynopsisThis is the brilliant memoir of a man who starts out in Manhattan and comes of age in the skies over Korea, before emerging as one of America's finest authors in the New York of the 1960s. Burning the Days showcases James Salter's uniquely beautiful style with some of the most evocative pages about flying ever written, together with portraits of the actors, directors and authors who later influenced him. It is an unforgettable book about passion, ambition and what it means to live and to write.Trade Review'A wise and sensual memoir. Salter writes his self-portrait by focusing on what has shaped him, by showing what he has loved and admired and feared to become in others. You cannot put it down' Michael Ondaatje‘Salter writes wonderfully of a world most of his readers will never have known’ Observer‘A masterwork of memory, deeply impressive and deeply moving’ Time Out One of the great literary memoirs . . . there is nothing better in English about what it is like to fly' * Spectator *A stylish and moving account of his various incarnations as a fighter pilot, rock climber, screenwriter and novelist . . . written in the heroic language of an American memoir * New Statesman *An extraordinarily gifted composer of prose . . . [a] teller of memorable stories. . . . It isn't often that a writer of superlative skills knows enough about flying to write well about it; Saint-Exupérywas one; Salter is another * New York Times Book Review *He can bestow a powerful aura of glamour and heightened significance to even the most casual encounter . . . entertaining, sharply observed . . . pure and ravishing * The Nation *[His] account of air combat in Korea . . . stands as a masterpiece of battle writing in this century . . . His prose is in flight * Los Angeles Times Book Review *A dazzling book . . . so full of splendid writing that at times the overwhelmed reader may blink like a sleeper awaking to hard light * Philadelphia Inquirer *No man who is even remotely honest with himself can read Burning the Days without envy; no woman of similar truthfulness will fail to find Salter's life deeply romantic -- John Irving * Toronto Globe and Mail *A wonderful book by a sensitive author who is romantic, intelligent, and superbly balanced. It is a serene account of a surprising diversity of experiences, but it is also a history of my time -- Joseph HellerA classic memoir, alive with amazing people, fabulous events, and extraordinary stories of war and love and the great wide world. Through the sheer and sensual force of his writing (and nobodywrites more beautifully), James Salter hasn't only recollected the past, he's reclaimed it -- Michael HerrA magnificent tour-de-force, the pressure of Salter's high romantic soul animates his crisp, rich, neo-classical prose to bring us page after page of narrative magic -- Frank ConroyIf you were to mark every section worth remembering you'd end up with folded corners on every page, scrawls in every paragraph * GQ *Every sentence is fantastic * Observer *It is years since I read a sharper, more arresting autobiography * Spectator *Wonderful * Daily Telegraph *He has written three books that everyone should read before they die: A Sport and a Pastime, Light Years and his recollections, Burning the Days * Independent *

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Book Synopsis''An extraordinary writer of the female experience.'' Financial Times''Cusk is startlingly insightful.'' Independent on Sunday''Divorce has been a catastrophe for Cusk but Cusk the writer triumphs.'' MetroIn the winter of 2009, Rachel Cusk's marriage of ten years came to an end. Candid and revelatory, Aftermath chronicles the perilous journey as the author redefines herself and creates a new version of family life for her daughters.

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Book SynopsisAn illustrated edition of Gertrude Stein''s most well-known work, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, bursting with the bright, sophisticated, and fanciful images of artist Maira KalmanConsidered one of the richest and most irreverent biographies in history, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was written by Gertrude Stein in the style and voice of her life partner, Alice B. Toklas. Published in 1933 and narrated by Alice, this autobiography begins with her initial move to France in 1907, the day after which she meets Gertrude, sparking a relationship that lasts for nearly four decades. Recounting the vibrant and literary life the two make for themselves among the Parisian avant-garde, Alice opens the doors to the prominent salons they held in their home at rue de Fleurus, hosting fellow expatriate American writers such as Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound as well as artists Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Man Ray, and speaks of the twilight of the Paris belle epoque. In this edition, the wildly talented Maira Kalman brings this glittering Parisian world to life, and celebrates Stein and Toklas in vivid color. Her whimsical and inimitable illustrations complement the wit and humor of Stein’s narrative, and elevate the exciting intrigues of these famous women and their friends. Inviting readers to experience this book in a completely new way, the illustrated edition of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas will prompt a contemporary reading of this cherished and singular classic.

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Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A VOGUE AND NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF 2024AN OPRAH PICK OF THE YEAR 2024 'Obviously, Grief Is for People is about grief, but Sloane Crosley can't help being funny' GABRIELLE ZEVIN'A stunning investigation into the nature of loss' VOGUE'I am a Crosley fan and, to my mind, this is her best book: subtle, brutal and, amazingly, funny, with twists that made me catch my breath' SUNDAY TIMESFor most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, while Russell is still alive, Sloane's apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place.When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels her on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the

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Book SynopsisThe critically acclaimed author and poet recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums. Reissue.

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Book SynopsisRobert A. Caro is one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, whose landmark biographies are widely hailed as masterpieces.This is the captivating account of his life as a writer, describing the sometimes staggering lengths to which he has gone in order to produce his books and offering priceless insights into the craft of non-fiction writing, be it the pursuit of truth, the writer's process, the art of interviewing or the creation of literature.Including several of Caro's most famous speeches and interviews as well as new material, this is the self-portrait of a man who knows the meaning and importance of great story-telling - and, like all his books, is an utterly riveting example of that too.Trade ReviewAnyone trying to write in any form will devour it * Evening Standard *One of the greatest non-fiction works ever written -- Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times, on The Power BrokerIrresistibly readable, an outright masterpiece -- David Sexton, Evening Standard, on The Power BrokerA stupendous achievement … Caro’s style is gripping, indeed hypnotic, and he squeezes every ounce of drama from his remarkable story -- Vernon Bogdanor, Independent, on The Power BrokerI think about Robert Caro and reading The Power Broker back when I was twenty-two years old and just being mesmerized -- Barack Obama on The Power Broker

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Book SynopsisJohn Hopkins brings back to life all the decadence and flamboyance of Tangier in the 1960s and 1970s. Tangier in the 1960s and â70s was a fabled place. This edge city, the 'Interzone', became muse and escapist's dream for artists, writers, millionaires and socialites, who wrote, painted, partied and experienced life with an intensity and freedom that they never could back home. Into this louche and cosmopolitan world came John Hopkins, a young writer who became a part of the bohemian Tangier crowd with its core of Beats that included William Burroughs, Paul and Jane Bowles and Brion Gysin, as well as Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Yves Saint Laurent, Barbara Hutton and Malcolm Forbes. Those intoxicating decades â Tangier's 'Golden Years' â are long gone. Grand old houses that once sparkled with life are shuttered and dark and most of the eccentrics who once lived and loved in the city have died. But here, in the pages of John Hopkins' cult classic, all the decadence and flamboyaTrade ReviewAn incomparable diarist. * Elle *[Hopkins] draws the reader into the daily life of what he describes as the “Saigon of the Sahara”, with tales of his encounters with the likes of William Burroughs, Malcolm Forbes, Wilfred Thesiger, Timothy Leary and Rudolf Nureyev [...] a chronicle of an era that has disappeared forever. * Independent on Sunday *All lovers of The Sheltering Sky will be grateful for this intimate record of Paul Bowles’s methods and opinions. -- Michael Arditti * Daily Mail *The Sixties are vividly described and we are plunged into the exotic world centred on writers Paul and Jane Bowles. A hit. -- Judy Cooke * Mail on Sunday *A grand read. -- Ephraim Hardcastle * Daily Mail *Morocco (especially Tangiers) was one of the places to be in the early ’60s. [...] Now it seems almost mythic, a great, outlandish American Bloomsbury. Hopkins delivers all the expected goodies and more: the requisite desert meditations, the kif-censed evenings in the kasbah, the celebrity sightings [...] a graceful, laconic stylist. * Kirkus Reviews *His diaries are crammed full of fine writing, warmly drawn recollections, and source material which will be used by historians so long as people want to read about the powerful confluence of cultures in collision which was Beat Tangier. -- Joe Ambrose * Outside Left *His beautiful diary is full of wonderful pen portraits of the many and various characters on display, vivid little street scenes and evocations of landscape [...] and personal stories. -- Jon May * The Generalist *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction The Tangier Diaries, 1962–1979 Epilogue

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Book SynopsisThe Perfect Stranger was first published in the '60s and since then has continued to find a select group of passionate admirers. Evocative and engaging, and ultimately deeply emotional, The Perfect Stranger is the story of a soldier, a poet and a husband. The author describes it as the story of a rescue -of a young man who emerges from the bleak playing fields of school onto the battlefields of Korea, from the heady chaos of Barcelona into an intense and tragic relationship with a girl called Sally Lehmann. Brutally sad, sharp and wise, this is a classic of the genre.Trade ReviewThe writing remains vivid and detailed, full of concise pen portraits ... it's hard to think of a memoir by a male author that describes the experience [of love] with as much honesty, passion and precision.' --David Nicholls 'A fine memorial to love and youth.' --Michael Frayn 'One of the best memoirs I have read ... humorous and poetic.' --Richard Ingrams 'I've re-read The Perfect Stranger many times and still think it, though unique, a model "of its kind."' --Derek Mahon 'To hear the truth so devastatingly and yet so joyfully encountered is rare in an age where autobiography has been flattened by the massed weight of political and public reminiscence. This autobiography, from its beginning to its bitter end, is a celebration of joy: joy in youth, in woman, in male camaraderie, in the struggle of art, in married love.' --The Times Literary Supplement '[A] remarkable work of prose ... It won the Richard Hillary Memorial Prize, for in reality it was a testimony to the absence of the one person who could help him work out the puzzle of life, his wife, Sally' --The Independent 'A joyous yet unsentimental account of Kavanagh's early life and his few years with Sally. A story of love and tragic loss' -- The Guardian 'Not sentimental nor self-pitying but vivid, humorous and bent upon describing a world in which the one person who had seemed to make sense of it had been lost.' --The Telegraph 'A terrific book, vivid, funny and moving ... The account of his narrow escape from the great battle in Korea is brilliant, as is in a quite different way the elegiac conclusion to the book.' --David Lodge 'Patrick Kavanagh's memoir is a small masterpiece of its kind, reflecting all the wit, unabashed frankness and literary elegance of its author.' --Max Hastings

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Book SynopsisSo wise and so well done. It made me wish it were much longer than it is' Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieFrom the award-winning author of Five Star Billionaire and We, The Survivors comes a whirlwind personal history of modern Asia, as told through his Malaysian and Chinese heritage.If we are lucky we will find writing that grips us with its vitality, beauty and significance Strangers on a Pier is like that' Deborah LevyIn Strangers on a Pier, acclaimed author Tash Aw explores the panoramic cultural vitality of modern Asia through his own complicated family story of migration and adaptation, which is reflected in his own face. From a taxi ride in present-day Bangkok, to eating Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1980s Kuala Lumpur, to his grandfathers'' treacherous boat journeys to Malaysia from mainland China in the 1920s, Aw weaves together stories of insiders and outsiders, images from rural villages to megacity night clubs, and voices in a dizzying variety of languages, dialects, and slangs, to create an intricate and astoundingly vivid portrait of a place caught between the fast-approaching future and a past that won''t let go.Trade Review‘Strangers on a Pier offer a unique and thought-provoking perspective of a life lived out in interesting times, places, and circumstances’ Carl Logan, Midwest Book Review ‘Aw always writes well, but this small volume is particularly lyrical. The extended essay format suits him: long enough for some structure – the chronology is not linear, and he bounces from story to social commentary to introspection – and to explore issues in depth, while short enough for immediacy. He covers a tremendous amount of ground … Strangers on a Pier is a wealth of pithy observation’ Peter Gordon, Asian Review of Books Aw digs deep into the meaning of this move, the meaning of Chineseness in Malaysia, the meaning of inherited immigrant markings, and the meaning of leaving the immigrant perspective behind. He charts what it looks like to reprise history, to move for greater opportunity and more education, leaving behind those with less money and shedding the ancestral memory and choreography of poverty’ Sharrona Pearl, Public Books

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Book SynopsisLudwig Bemelmans came to the California home of famed interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl, for cocktails. By the end of the night, he was firmly established as a member of the family: given a bedroom in their sumptuous house, invitations to the most outrageous parties in Hollywood, and the friendship of the larger-than-life woman known to her closest friends simply as 'Mother'. With hilarity and mischief, Bemelmans lifts the curtain on a bygone world of extravagance and eccentricity, where the parties are held in circus tents and populated by ravishing movie stars. To the One I Love the Best is a luminous painting of life's oddities and a touching tribute to a fabulously funny woman.Trade Review"This book is a must." -- The New York Times"An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein."--Kirkus Reviews“Delightful... It was Bemelmans’ privilege to have known [Lady Mendl] and it’s ours to have his gorgeous recollections.” --Sunday Times “A beautiful, fun and emotion-filled piece of social history.” --Irish Independent “The charm of To the One I Love the Best lies in the peerless combination of author and subject.” --Paris Review "About a third of the way through the book I decided that Lady Mendl, was one of the great comic creations in the history of literature . . . as airy as a soufflé, full of the sun and smells of California . . . Madeline for grown ups."--The Spectator “Reissued treasure.” --The Gloss

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Book SynopsisThe third volume of Canetti's autobiography is set in Vienna between 1931 and 1937: years when the European catastrophe, already clear to anyone with eyes to see, was approaching its horrifying climax. To this great intellectual and spiritual self-portrait Canetti adds wonderful portraits of his friends and rivals: Herman Broch, Robert Musil, Fritz Wortruba, Alban Berg and Alma Mahler. Canetti brings these legends to life for modern readers as never before. Central to the book is Canetti's account of his friendship with the mysterious Doctor Sonne, a mentor whose effect on his life and work was enormous.

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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 From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks – writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Trade Review‘Didion at her most fascinatingly unfiltered, recording folksy vernacular at a motel pool, having G & Ts with Walker Percy, and searching fruitlessly for Faulkner’s grave in an Oxford cemetery … her riffs on everything from Gertrude Atherton to crossing the Golden Gate bridge for the first time in three-inch heels captures the thrill of a writer discovering her richest subject: the American mythologies that governed her own romantic girlhood, a yearning for an MGM-style heritage that never really was – a yearning that feels freshly perilous in its delusions.’ Vogue ‘Every era needs better criticism … And so it’s been a relief to read [South and West], investigating the South and its “vertiginous preoccupation with race, class, heritage, style and the absence of style”’ Adam Thirlwell, TLS, Books of the Year ‘Let your heart skip a beat. For here be new writing from the mind behind The Year of Magical Thinking and The White Album – Joan Didion. But this isn’t just for Didionites … For an understanding of certain parts of modern America, it still has eerie resonance … An insight into the process of a writer who can truly be referred to as an icon’ Emerald Street ‘A compelling book — rooted utterly in a past now all but lost to us, while also incredibly timely and relevant … It bears the hallmarks of Didion’s sparkling prose’ Los Angeles Review of Books ‘You'll learn more about America's future from Didion's 40-year-old field notes than you will from tomorrow's newspaper’ Esquire ‘There’s a universal rule against reading someone else’s diary – but in this case, it’s not just OK, it’s required reading’ Marie Claire ‘The power of Didion’s work is on striking display in this slender volume … Didion’s notes are remarkably polished and slicing; they shimmer with dark implications’ Booklist ‘Here are many of the splendid, sharp-eyed sentences for which [Didion] has long been admired … An almost spectral text haunted by a past that never seems distant’ Kirkus Reviews

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Book Synopsis**Featured on BBC Radio 4's A Good Read** 'A profound meditation on language and loss and time, and on how we construct ourselves through stories. And it's painful. And it's beautiful. And I love it.' NATHAN FLIER Samantha Harvey's insomnia arrived, seemingly, from nowhere; for a year she has spent her nights chasing sleep that rarely comes. She's tried everything to appease it. Nothing is helping. What happens when one of the basic human needs goes unmet? For Samantha Harvey, extreme sleep deprivation resulted in a raw clarity about life itself. Original and profound, The Shapeless Unease is a startlingly insightful exploration of memory, writing and influence, death and grief, and the will to survive. 'A delight to read... ineffably rewarding' OBSERVER 'Easily one of the truest and best books I've read about what it's like to be alive now, in this country' MAX PORTER 'How can a book about a sensual deprivation be so sensuous and so full? ... it seemed to give my sleep resonance and poetry. What a beautiful book.' TESSA HADLEYTrade Review[A] remarkable book… [The Shapeless Unease is] an extraordinary journey, but it’s also mesmerising. Harvey writes with hypnotic power and poetic precision about – well, about everything: grief, pain, memory, family, the night sky, a lake at sunset, what it means to dream and what it means to suffer and survive. -- Christina Patterson * Mail on Sunday *A delight to read… suffused with the sense of a timeless fable… ineffably rewarding. -- Colin Grant * Observer *Urgent and wild, but also dazzling in its precision. This is what it must be like to try to keep hold of a brilliant mind that is threatening to unspool… a dark, seductive book about fear and madness and their allure… Reading The Shapeless Unease can feel not unlike dipping into strange, unchartered waters: it is by turns bracing and soothing, with a dark undertow and glimmers of light at the surface, and one emerges from it with an altered perspective, a sense of time having slowed down. -- Sophie McBain * New Statesman *Samantha Harvey's dazzling, dizzying trip through the nightmare world of the sleepless...[is a] wondrous little book... a treasure trove of material… The Shapeless Unease is also one of the best books you will find about swimming. And its wonders. -- Roger Alton * Daily Mail *Intricately intriguing… astonishing… [The Shapeless Unease is] a particular joy. It moves between topics with ease, and yet at its heart it is an emotional book… I haven’t read a book which is quite as clear about being a writer. -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisAs read on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week'Moving, intellectual and unsentimental. I think it will become a classic' Melvyn Bragg'Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, Every Third Thought is beautiful' Kate Mosse In 1995, at the age of forty-two, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and near-fatal stroke. Since that life-changing event, McCrum has lived in the shadow of death, unavoidably aware of his own mortality. And now, in his sixties, he is noticing a change: his friends are joining him there. Death has become his contemporaries’ every third thought.And so, with the words of McCrum’s favourite authors as travel companions, Every Third Thought takes us on a journey towards death itself. This is a deeply personal book of reflection and conversation – with brain surgeons, psychologists, hospice workers and patients, writers and poets, and it confronts an existential question: in a world where we have learnt to live well at all costs, can we make peace with dying?Trade ReviewThoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, Every Third Thought is beautiful and - most of all - true -- Kate Mosse, author of LabyrinthEvery Third Thought is an important book, and one that brings death into the light, uncovering both the losses we have to endure, as well as the gifts we can receive if we are open to it. Profoundly moving and fascinating. It is a gem. -- Julia Samuel, author of Grief WorksAs an assemblage of great quotes and prompts for further reading, Every Third Thought rivals DJ Enright's anthology The Oxford Book of Death. McCrum adds striking metaphors of his own. -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *A wry and reflective treatise on mortality . . . fascinating and paradoxically enjoyable -- Roger Lewis * The Times *We have to think about death, and talk about it, perhaps rather more than we do. And if that’s so, there can be no better guide than a wise, humane and battered-about writer like McCrum. He has thought deeply, talked widely, read voraciously and experienced much . . . by the time I had finished this book, I had a silly grin on my face. That was partly because it ends with a happy surprise, but more importantly because you cannot confront the meaning of death without a refreshed and more vivid understanding of the glory of being alive . . . As I closed it, having stared pretty steadily at extinction, I found myself encouraged and fortified. So, really, thank you, Robert. -- Andrew Marr * Mail on Sunday *I can't think of another writer who could display such learning and erudition with this lightness of touch. Robert McCrum seems to have read everything, but you never feel he's lecturing; rather, he is a delightful and amused companion. The subject of Every Third Thought is so serious, yet it's illuminated by such humanity and flashes of wit that the reader closes it feeling oddly comforted. Only a writer in total command of his subject could present all this so deftly. Every Third Thought is a constant source of wisdom and interest . . . a gem -- Cressida ConnollyMarvellous . . . Every Third Thought is a reminder of the shadows on the grass, even at this time of year; that we shouldn’t be afraid of them, that in time they will come to enfold us all . . . McCrum's book shows us that we should grab all the living moments and live in them, while we are here. * Scotsman *A wonderful book, so personal that it holds you in its grip -- Rabbi Julia NeubergerA jewel of a book: our most profound thoughts, gracefully shaped . . . thoughtful, humane and full of warmth -- David BodanisEvery Third Thought is simply stunning: a brilliant, wise, compassionate and consoling account of death and dying in a secular age. McCrum moves seamlessly from personal testimonies to medical case studies to recent developments in neuroscience. He asks profound philosophical questions about mortality, finitude and the unknown. A uniquely beautiful and significant book -- Joanna Kavenna, author of The Ice Museum Reading McCrum's book, with its jaunty, gentle, meandering style, is like going on a country ramble with an exquisitely knowledgeable yet modest friend, discussing the meaning of life. Although it's a slender work on a well-worn subject, it would be hard to find a more agreeable or erudite companion for the journey along the road towards life's inevitable dead end. * Literary Review *Both intensely personal and coolly objective . . . McCrum carries us with him on a tour d'horizon that is witty, companionable and compulsively readable. And in the final pages comes a twist to make the heart soar: evidence that however bleak, however short the time left, it is never too late to be surprised by joy -- Maggie Fergusson * Spectator *Engaging and honest... A narrative full of vigour, even (sometimes) black humour... It is like wandering around with a wise peer, eavesdropping on his conversations and enjoying his literary quotations. With the distinguished British neurologist Andrew Lees, he discusses the death-in-life that is Alzheimer’s disease and continues this theme with world-famous brain surgeon (and bestselling author of Do No Harm) Henry Marsh -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *A beautifully contemplative account of what it means to be dying, as we all are, in the midst of life . . . a deep and engaged set of questions and ruminations . . . Strangely, by pressing so hard into his subject, he has written a book that is lifted and lightened with affirmation of life. There is not a single story that he tells, no matter how grave, that is not made joyous by the fine attention of his writing and its judicious and intelligent use of quotation and literary and scientific material . . . In McCrum’s book, the quotations, poetry and information collated are part of the weave of its fabric. It’s why his story has such lift and reach. It is never just about Robert McCrum thinking about death. It becomes a continuation of a great discussion that has been taking place since the beginning of recorded culture. -- Kirsty Gunn * New Statesman *Robert McCrum's elegant series of essays captures that sense of inevitability and surprise that comes into any discussion of mortality . . . He is an impeccable stylist . . . The book is graciously about others as much as it is about himself . . . It is also a work of literary criticism, examining the ways in which our anxieties about ageing and dying have been represented in prose and poetry. McCrum is admirably eclectic in his tastes here . . . This eloquent book shows that it is not just philosophy that "teaches us to die well," but literature - and more than that, a common humanity. -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *McCrum's investigative spirit takes hold and keeps pathos at bay . . . This is a brave book, which faces what most of us avoid thinking about, and it even manages a joke. -- John Carey * Sunday Times *An unflinching exploration of [McCrum's] own mortality and that of other people. It draws on personal experience, the testimony of friends, the works of great writers, and interviews with experts in medicine and psychotherapy, melded together in an engaging conversational style . . . McCrum’s bravery in staring into the abyss cannot be overestimated; reading his book inevitably brings moments of terror. But Every Third Thought has something positive to offer, too. The approach of death can reveal extraordinary reserves of courage and heighten people’s appreciation of the world around them. * Economist *And enthralling, wise and very necessary read * Radio Times *Moving, intellectual and unsentimental. I think it will become a classic -- Melvyn Bragg, New Statesman, Books of the Year 2017Every Third Thought – part autobiography, part meditations on death, part interviews – is seasoned by telling references to a wide range of literature. It is moving, intellectual and unsentimental. I think it will become a classic. -- Melvyn Bragg * New Statesman *McCrum writes with elegance and candour about the question of mortality salience. * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisIn The Torch in My Ear Elias Canetti, Nobel Prize winner, towering intellectual figure and polymath, gives us his second volume of autobiography. Using as a framework his admiration for his first great mentor, the Viennese writer Karl Kraus, and his passion for his first wife, Veza, Canetti seamlessly incorporates a profoundly perceptive portrait of Vienna and Berlin in the 1920s. Here are the voices of Brecht, Isaac Babel, George Grosz, and many others. This is autobiography redefining itself.

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER. A raw, honest, vivid memoir of one woman's struggle with addiction and recovery, for fans of Bryony Gordon, Cheryl Strayed and Daisy Buchanan.Trade ReviewAmerican journalist Sarah Hepola's extraordinary book describes her years of drinking... Writing with warmth and wit she explores reasons for her alcoholism * Independent *Simply extraordinary. Ms. Hepola's electric prose marks her as a flamingo among this genre's geese... As a form, addiction memoirs are permanently interesting because they're an excuse to crack open a life. Ms. Hepola's book moves to a top shelf in this arena... I'm glad, for herself and for us, that Ms. Hepola found A.A. and other varieties of help. "I had wanted alcohol to make me fearless," she writes. "But by the time I'd reached my mid-30s, I was scared all the time." It's a win-win. She got a better life. We have this book * New York Times *To say Blackout is a brutally honest memoir would be a bit of an understatement... It's a poignant and revealing look into the mind of an alcoholic that lets the reader experience all of the raw emotions the author feels during her struggles. It's a tale of friendships and how they evolve over the years... Blackout is one of the best memoirs I've read. Like Kristen Johnston's GUTS: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster, it treats a sensitive subject with unbridled honesty and humour. Yes, Blackout is a touching and, at times, heart-breaking story. It will likely make you cry. But it will also make you laugh out loud... a tour de force... Read this book. You won't be disappointed -- Dean Dauphinais * Huffington Post *This blew me away... Hepola is astonishingly and moving clear-sighted and honest about her drinking. She's also funny, and dry, and ever so clever * Bookseller (January 2016 preview) *Here's What People In Media Are Excited About In 2015... Sarah Hepola's Blackout, a dark, funny, honest-to-the-bone account of getting sober. * Buzzfeed *a memoir of her alcoholism but also an empathetic dissection of addiction and American drinking culture, and the blurry lines between the two. Hepola conveys both the horror in the mysteries left after a night smudged dark by drinking, and the draw of overdrinking that kept her carving out her memory with alcohol. * Atlantic *A memoir that's good and true is a work of art that stands the literary test of time and also serves a purpose in the present. It mines intimate, personal experiences to raise bigger questions, tell a bigger story, help readers understand themselves, their circumstances, their world. Like the best sermon, the best memoir comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. Blackout, the debut memoir by Salon editor Sarah Hepola, is one such memoir. It's as lyrically written as a literary novel, as tightly wound as a thriller, as well-researched as a work of investigative journalism, and as impossible to put down as, well, a cold beer on a hot day. This book is a must-read redemption for everyone who has ever "craved something good for me" - which is to say, everyone. * Chicago Tribune *What's important about this book is that it treats alcohol as a symptom of the bigger issues we women deal with... Sarah writes it all with - dare I say? - sassiness and spunk. She's got a strong sense of where she came from, what she came through and where she's going - now that alcohol isn't along for the ride. I admire Sarah's honesty, I admire her anything-but-stereotypical stories and I admire her inventive, funny writing. But mostly, I admire Sarah herself. What she has accomplished - at such a young age - in regard to stepping up on behalf of her own well being. And what she has accomplished with the publication of this book - which has the potential to save the lives of so many other talented, spirited young women. Listen to Sarah Hepola. She's living proof of how fascinating a sober life can be. -- Sharon Grigsby * Dallas Morning News - Editorial Opinion Blog *a fucking stellar book... Here's what Blackout is about: body image, sexual consent while being an alcoholic, online dating as a late 30-something, dating while recently sober, the challenge of experiencing your first sober romantic kiss and sexual encounter as a 30-something, AA, feminism, friendship through alcohol and sobriety, the relationship between alcohol and writing, and more... The writing is incredibly smart and maintains a level of intensity you don't often find in long-form memoirs... Blackout is an enthralling interrogation of a life. Even the most banal moments are beautiful, elevated, and resonate across the human experience. * The Rumpus *Blackout is devoid of preachy admonitions. Instead, Hepola has woven together a compendium of hard facts (like that fragmentary blackouts start at a blood alcohol level of 0.2), personal reflections, and cultural implications; the result is a startlingly personal, in-depth exploration of a phenomenon that's still not completely understood, neither by the scientific world nor, certainly, by victims of recurrent alcohol-induced blackouts * Elle US *You don't need to be a reformed problem drinker to appreciate Hepola's gripping memoir about the years she lost yoo alcohol - and the self she rediscovered once she quit. * People *excellent * The Fix *The most anticipated pop cultural events of 2015... Hepola's dark, wise and often terrifically funny insights into her own toughest experiences are unfailingly riveting, and there's no doubt in our minds that her debut memoir, coming in June, will be a sensation * Salon *refreshingly honest, self-deprecating, and totally unselfish memoir... This is a must-read for recovering addicts; for women susceptible to the glamour of being modern and independent; for anyone who has had a difficult past, and who wants to heal, but who wants mostly to laugh at themselves. Basically, we should all be reading Blackout this summer (and wishing the incredibly smart and candid Hepola was our BFF) * Bustle (13 Of June 2015's Best Books That Are The Perfect Summer Escape) *Razor-sharp... modern, raw, and painfully real-and even hilarious... Hepola moves beyond the analysis of her addiction, making this the story of every woman's fight to be seen for who she really is. * Kirkus - Starred review *The best books we can't wait to read in 2015... Hepola has written some great essays about her drinking years. Now she's expanded them into a book * Chicago Reader *Sarah Hepola's Blackout is the best kind of memoir: fiercely funny, full of hard-won wisdom, marked by a writer with phenomenal gifts of observation and insight. The book engages universal questions -- Where do I belong? What fulfills me? -- that will engage any reader. * Emily Rapp, author of THE STILL POINT OF THE TURNING WORLD *The story of a rising star's journey of self-destruction and realization, Blackout is gripping, alternately excruciating and funny, scary and hopeful, and beautifully written. I loved it. * Anne Lamott, author of SMALL VICTORIES *This is a book about welcoming yourself back from a long absence. It's a memoir, but its author is not its main character; she is a new person sprung from the ashes of another one whose alcoholic self-erasure she describes with painful honesty and charming humor. A book about freedom that will help set others free as well * Walter Kirn, author of UP IN THE AIR *Sarah Hepola is my favorite kind of memoirist. She is a reporter with a poet's instincts, an anthropologist of her own soul. Blackout is a book about drinking and eventual sobriety, but it's also an exploration of the fleeting nature of the comfort we all constantly seek - comfort with the self, with others, with the whole maddening, confusing, exhilarating world. What's more, Hepola's ability to bring such precise and evocative life to the blank spaces that were her drinking blackouts is downright stunning in places. I admire this book tremendously. * Meghan Daum, author of THE UNSPEAKABLE: AND OTHER SUBJECTS OF DISCUSSION *Excellent * Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of BETTER THAN BEFORE *Hepola's account of her experience with alcohol gives a fresh edge to what is essentially a book on the influence booze has on the most precious moments of our lives. Never does she pretend her days of drinking were not as enjoyable as they were painful - both physically and mentally. There is a self-awareness to her writing that hits the right notes without feeling didactic. This is most poignant when Hepola describes how she dealt with the extreme feelings of vulnerability and exposure that came with finally giving up alcohol. Or the moments where she recounts the pressure her alcoholism put on her closest friends. Being an alcoholic, Hepola explains, is the easy part. Sobriety, that's where the challenge begins. Hepola makes for an endearing and entertaining authorand Blackout is an honest account of letting go of (and at times enjoying) alcohol. One that will surely endear and entertain the reader * We Love This Book *

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisNamed Most Anticipated by: Bustle Popsugar Goodreads Zibby Magazine SheReads Book RiotAnd featured in Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire*Nominated for the 2023 Goodreads Best Debut Novel award and longlisted for the Book of the Year award through Book of the Month*'Achingly beautiful, and heartbreakingly relatable.' DANA SCHWARTZ'Beautiful and raw, Adelaide is a visceral portrayal of love and loss... Wheeler is a master.' ELLA BERMAN, Reese's Book Club Pick authorOn an otherwise ordinary day, 26-year-old American expat Adelaide Williams walks into a London hospital and asks for help. Something's not right. She doesn't feel like herself any more. For the past year, she's been dating Rory Hughes, the charming man she met when she was least expecting to fall in love. Does he respond to texts? Honour his commitments? Make advance plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. Despite everything, Adelaide is convinced he's The One. But when tragedy strikes unexpectedly, their relationshi

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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 Synopsis''Little Matters they are to be sure, but highly important.''Letter-writing was something of an addiction for young women of Jane Austen''s time and social position, and Austen''s letters have a freedom and familiarity that only intimate writing can convey. Wiser than her critics, who were disappointed that her correspondence dwelt on gossip and the minutiae of everyday living, Austen understood the importance of ''Little Matters'', of the emotional and material details of individual lives shared with friends and family through the medium of the letter. Ironic, acerbic, always entertaining, Jane Austen''s letters are a fascinating record not only of her own day-to-day existence, but of the pleasures and frustrations experienced by women of her social class which are so central to her novels.Vivien Jones''s selection includes very nearly two-thirds of Austen''s surviving correspondence, and her lively introduction and notes set the novelist''s most private writings in their wider culturTrade Review...astute introduction * Karen Joy Fowler, The Independent *

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Book Synopsis''Britain''s greatest living nature writer'' The TimesRediscover the extraodinary power of nature and the British wilderness, from award-winning naturalist and author Richard MabeyIn the last year of the old millennium, Richard Mabey, Britain''s foremost nature writer, fell into a severe depression. The natural world which since childhood had been a source of joy and inspiration for him became meaningless. Then, cared for by friends, he moved to East Anglia and he started to write again. Having left the cosseting woods of the Chiltern hills for the open flatlands of Norfolk, Richard Mabey found exhilaration in discovering a whole new landscape and gained fresh insights into our place in nature. Structured as intricately as a novel, a joy to read, truthful, exquisite and questing, Nature Cure is a book of hope, not just for individuals, but for our species.''A brilliant, candid and heartfelt memoir...how he broTrade ReviewA brilliant, candid and heartfelt memoir...The account of how he broke free of depression, reshaped his life and reconnected with the wild becomes nothing short of a manifesto for living...Mabey's particular vision, informed by a lifetime's reading and observation, is ultimately optimistic. It is also what makes his voice so appealing amid all the froth and flam of the eco-debate -- Philip Marsden * Sunday Times *A book of which only he could have written a single page...marvellously observed, deeply felt from sentence to sentence. The writing is exquisite -- David Sexton, * Evening Standard *Subtle, devotional, poetic * Observer *Rich, invigorating and deeply restorative * Irish Times *Nature Cure moves between the nervous breakdown of an individual and the madness of the modern world with a prescience akin to that of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land -- Jonathan Bate * Guardian *Mabey is a radical, inheritor of an old English tradition...The core of the book is his exploration of his new landscape. It feels a privilege to share it, watching him unpick the layers of watery Norfolk, with dazzling skill and the warmest of hearts, as his troubled mind heals -- Michael McCarthy * Independent *Written in the radiant, tingle-making prose that has earned Mabey literary prizes and a multitude of fans... both a wake-up call and an example of how the love of nature can electrify and heal the imagination. -- Val Hennessy * Daily Mail *An inspiring book -- Nicholas Bagnall * Sunday Telegraph *Britain's greatest living nature writer * The Times *

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Book SynopsisIn 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, the author began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and on his writing. This title presents his portrait.Trade ReviewIt’s an inspiring, reflective read that’ll make you want to dust your trainers off -- Andy McNicoll * Professional Social Work *An outstanding read -- Peter Sharkey * Eastern Daily Press *

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Book SynopsisPublished posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway''s most beloved works. Since Hemingway''s personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes made to the text before publication. Now this new special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published. Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest''s sole surviving son, and an introduction by the editor and grandson of the author, Seán Hemingway, this new edition also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son Jack and his first wife, Hadley. Also included are irreverent portraits of other luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Madox Ford, and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. Sure to excite critics and readers alike, the restored edition of A Moveable Feast b

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Book SynopsisThis new translation includes Kafka's most famous story, The Metamorphosis, together with two other stories, The Judgement and In the Penal Colony, and Meditation and the autobiographical Letter to his Father. The edition includes a detailed introduction, notes, and other helpful items.Trade ReviewThis edition contains a fascinating introduction by Ritchie Robertson, offering Buddhist, Freudian and expressionist readings of the text. * Guardian online, WB Gooderham *Bracing surprises for buffs as well as an easy passage into the labyrinth for newcomers. * Boyd Tonkin, The Independent *Table of ContentsMeditation ; The Judgement ; The Metamorphosis ; In the Penal Colony ; Letter to his Father

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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 SynopsisWith such varied correspondents as T. S. Eliot, Stephen Spender and Anthony Powell, for nearly forty years George Orwell wrote and received the letters that are now collected together in A Life in Letters, edited with an introduction by Peter Davison in Penguin Modern Classics.Personal as well as political, Orwell''s letters offer a fascinating window into the mind of a phenomenal man. We are privy to snatched glimpses of his family life: his son Richard''s developing teeth, the death of his wife Eileen, and his own illness. Candid portraits of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, his opinions on bayonets, and on the chaining of German prisoners display his magnificent talent as a political writer, and letters to friends and his publisher provide a unique insight into the development and publication of some of the most important novels in the English language. A Life in Letters features previously unpublished material, including letters which shed new light on a love that would haunt him for his whole life, as well as revealing the inspiration for some of his most famous characters. Presented for the first time in a dedicated volume, this selection of Orwell''s letters is an indispensible companion to his diaries.''Arguably the most influential writer thrown up by the West in the twentieth century ... the real Orwell - whoever he is - continues to take shape''The TimesTrade ReviewArouses your warmest sympathy * Daily Mail *A Life in Letters contains nearly everything a reader new to Orwell needs to know about him -- DJ Taylor * New Statesman *'Mr Davison's new edition of the letters is compelling...unlike a conventional biography, the character of the subject comes through undiluted.' * Sunday Telegraph *'This is the authentic Orwell voice: wonderfully clear and fresh and forthright' * Mail on Sunday *'the best single-volume selection we could hope for' * Sunday Times *'Orwell: A Life in Letters should take its place beside the five major biographies ... as an indepsensible resource for understanding George Orwell and his times.' * John Rodden *

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Book SynopsisEdward St Aubyn's superbly acclaimed Melrose novels are Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, Mother's Milk (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006) and At Last. He is also the author of the novels A Clue to the Exit, On the Edge, Lost for Words and Dunbar.

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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 Synopsis''In the journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could do to any person; I create myself''Intimate, vulnerable and unsparing, Reborn bears witness to the evolution of Susan Sontag.With entries dating from 1947-1963, the first instalment from Susan Sontag''s diaries charts her ascension from early adolescence to her early thirties. Unabashed, though thoroughly self-reflective, Sontag''s diaries reveal the inner workings of her mind, her insecurities and her passions. This compelling account of the evolution of America''s greatest post-war intellectual allows us to behold the moral and political awakening of the artist and critic.''An exceptionally vivid, and often moving, account of a young woman''s painful journey towards acceptance of her own nature'' Sunday Telegraph''Moving on several levels . . . thrilling . . . fascinating . . . often reads like a brilliant postmodern bildungsroman'' New YoTrade ReviewFascinating. One can feel Sontag's mind beginning to ripen and bloom, and the full force of the intellectual originality that would be her hallmark emerging * Guardian *Inspirational. Sontag shows us not just the importance, but the exhilaration of being earnest * New Statesman *A fascinating document of her apprenticeship, charting her earnest quest for education, identity, and voice. Reborn is overwhelmingly a record of an inner landscape. * New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisA pitch-perfect memoir, brilliantly funny, wise and moving, of family, friends and political life over the last sixty yearsTrade Review'Hard to beat. I could read this sort of book for ever' Stephen Fry, Independent 'Reading this book actually makes you feel perceptibly happier and buoyed up' Evening Standard 'An unadulterated joy Every page is shot through with anecdote and wit, so that the whole experience feels like being at a peculiarly wonderful dinner party Funny, astute and clever' Observer 'A loving, lyrical, life-filled memoir' Guardian

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Book SynopsisA NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEARFrom one of our greatest living writers, comes a remarkable memoir of a forgotten England.''The war went. We sang in the playground, Bikini lagoon, an atom bomb's boom, and two big explosions. David's father came back from Burma and didn't eat rice. Twiggy taught by reciting The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Charge of the Light Brigade and the thirteen times table. Twiggy was fat and short and he shouted, and his neck was as wide as his head. He was a bully, though he didn't take any notice of me.'In Where Shall We Run To?, Alan Garner remembers his early childhood in the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge: life at the village school as a sissy and a mardy-arse''; pushing his friend Harold into a clump of nettles to test the truth of dock leaves; his father joining the army to guard the family against Hitler; the coming of the Yanks, with their comics and sweets and chewing gum. From one of our greatest living writers, it is a remarkable and evocative memoir of a vanished England.Trade Review Praise for Where Shall We Run To: ‘In old age childhood memories become vivid again and it’s the present that disappears behind a confusion of vivid fragments. In this book, Garner, now old, has faced that pattern and in place of the bewildering, wonky memory of old age, produced something precise and fresh as flowers. He has become – as we’re told we must – as a little child. He’s also produced one of the best things he’s ever written.’ Frank Cotterell-Boyce, New Statesman ‘Its encounters are vivid and immediate, but it is also an examination of class and change in the England of those years.’ Erica Wagner, Financial Times ‘Every street, every house, every carved stone, mysterious well, dark pond and perilously steep cliff-edge is remembered and described, as Garner roams through it, with a succession of companions…. Garner’s detailed recall of so many characters and events is extraordinary’ Sue Gaisford, The Tablet ‘In this slight but charming memoir about his wartime childhood in Alderley Edge, Garner has pulled off the same trick – making the Cheshire landscape feel fresh, while bringing a new perspective to a tried and tested literary form..and Oh, what language’ Ben Lawrence, Sunday Telegraph ‘This is a book very much about reading and writing, about the marks that we use to give life meaning, whether they are a tramp’s chalk-mark on a wall or the comics and Arthur Mee’s The Children’s Encyclopaedia that allow young Alan to get past block capitals and closer to Real Writing. It is also a book written without a single scrap of hindsight, or rationalisation of the past. This, then, is a writer’s memoir’ Brian Morton, Herald Praise for Alan Garner: ‘ I salute him with the most heartfelt respect and admiration’ Philip Pullman

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Book SynopsisWritten between August and December 1938, Autumn Journal is still considered one of the most valuable and moving testaments of living through the thirties by a young writer. It is a record of the author''s emotional and intellectual experience during those months, the trivia of everyday living set against the events of the world outside, the settlement in Munich and slow defeat in Spain.Trade Review"'He completely seizes the atmosphere of the year of Munich. He tolls the knell of the political thirties with melancholy triumph.' Cyril Connolly"

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Book Synopsis*Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2020**Winner of non-fiction book of the year at the Irish Book Awards*An extraordinarily intimate book of essays that chart the experiences that have made Sinéad Gleeson the woman and the writer she is today, for readers of The Last Act of Love and I Am, I Am, I Am.'Utterly magnificent. Raw, thought-provoking and galvanising; this is a book every woman should read.' – Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing.I have come to think of all the metal in my body as artificial stars, glistening beneath the skin, a constellation of old and new metal. A map, a tracing of connections and a guide to looking at things from different angles. How do you tell the story of a life in a body, as it goes through sickness, health, motherhood? How do you tell that story when you are not just a woman but a woman in Ireland? In the powerful and daring essays in Constellations Sinéad Gleeson does that very thing. All of life is within these pages, from birth to first love, pregnancy to motherhood, terrifying sickness, old age and loss to death itself.Throughout this wide-ranging collection she also turns her restless eye outwards delving into work, art and our very ways of seeing. In the tradition of some of our finest life writers, and yet still in her own spirited, generous voice, Sinéad takes us on a journey that is both uniquely personal and yet universal in its resonance. Here is the fierce joy and pain of being alive.'Breathtaking and sublime.' – Nina Stibbe'Absolutely extraordinary and life-enhancing.' – Daisy Buchanan, author of How to be Grown-up.Trade ReviewOutstanding . . . wide-ranging, intimate and expressive . . . it's clear that Gleeson's insight is hard-won, and that, like the women who inspire her, she has found a way to transmute her experience into something powerful that demands to be heard. * Observer *Utterly magnificent. Raw, thought-provoking and galvanising; this is a book every woman should read. -- Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed ThingSinéad Gleeson has written one of those rare things, a wise and compassionate book full of truth and humility. There are universal themes here; love, the strength of women, survival against the odds. Beautiful prose, poetry and history woven together to make this a must-read and a masterpiece. -- Kit De Waal, author of My Name Is LeonConstellations is glitteringly brilliant . . . Political, poetic, tender and angry, a remarkable book and an astonishing debut. -- Robert Macfarlane, author of The Lost WordsExceptional . . . Bell-clear and immaculately hewn throughout . . . Like Olivia Laing's The Lonely City, this balance between intellect and humanity is what matters . . . besides entertainment and enlightenment, we need writing in our lives that reaches into us and has the potential to leave what's there a little better than it found it. * Irish Independent *Sinéad Gleeson has changed the Irish literary landscape, through her advocacy for the female voice. In Constellations, we finally hear her own voice, and it comes from the blood and bones of her body’s history. Sinéad Gleeson is an absolute force: if you want to know where passion and tenacity are born, read this book. -- Anne EnrightMoving, insightful, beautiful essays about health, art, gender, parenthood, bereavement, the body and her own struggles. * Irish Times *An absolutely astonishing, brilliant and beautiful book. -- Kate Mosse, author of The Burning ChambersBreathtaking and sublime. -- Nina Stibbe, author of Love, NinaThe most beautiful and brilliant book - gorgeous, furious, powerful, tender, funny, compassionate and shockingly wise. Sinéad Gleeson writes with such dazzling talent and vivid insight. Constellations is one of those rare magical books and I feel truly nourished by it. Absolutely extraordinary and life-enhancing. -- Daisy Buchanan, author of How to Be a Grown UpAn absolutely astonishing, brilliant and beautiful book. -- Kate Mosse, author of The Burning ChambersConstellations is an extraordinary piece of writing - beautiful, life affirming, and full of heart -- Louise O’ Neill, author of Asking For ItNimbly written, balletic in style, heartfelt, spirited and thoughtful, Sinéad Gleeson's Constellations is a powerful, inspiring gift to readers everywhere. -- Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown UpConstellations is a truly beautiful book; about the tremendous confines of the body, struck through with almost everything else in the universe, from songs to stars. -- Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter WitherGleeson moves nimbly, within and between individual essays, from the minutiae of the personal to the broad sweep of culture, history and politics . . . The result is taut but unforced, textured and various. * Financial Times *Sinéad Gleeson’s essay collection brings together passionate, transcendent essays about bodies and art, ghosts and womanhood, grief and motherhood, and what it’s like to live in a body that fails you. Like the perfect title indicates, this is a glistening ensemble of pieces that live on their own but, all together, form a powerful emotional universe. * Elle *In Constellations, Sinead Gleeson, maps the human body and the the human condition in all its triumphs and failures, leaving us with hope and survival. Her writing is startlingly good and fiercely intelligent, her research is forensic and the result is a gift to readers everywhere. -- Liz Nugent, author of Skin DeepGleeson’s writing is honest and moving and delves deep into personal experiences of sickness, health and motherhood. * Lit Hub *

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Book SynopsisMaryse Conde is one of the best-known and most beloved French Caribbean literary voices. The author of more than twenty novels, she was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015 and has long been recognized as a giant of black feminist literature. While Conde has previously published an autobiography of her childhood, What Is Africa to Me? tells for the first time the story of her early adult years in Africa years formative not only for her, but also for African colonies appealing for their own independence.What Is Africa to Me? traces the late 1950s to 1968, chronicling Conde's life in Sekou Toure's Guinea to her time in Kwame N'Krumah's Ghana, where she rubbed shoulders with Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Julius Nyerere, and Maya Angelou. Accusations of subversive activity resulted in Conde's deportation from Ghana. Settling down in Senegal, Conde ended her African years with close friends in Dakar including, filmmakers, activists, and Haitian exiles, before putting down more permanent roots in Paris. Conde's story is more than one of political upheaval, however; it is also the story of a mother raising four children as she battles steep obstacles, of a Guadeloupean seeking her identity in Africa, and of a young woman searching for her freedom and vocation as a writer. What Is Africa to Me? is a searing portrait of a literary genius it should not be missed.

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Book SynopsisThe must-read memoir about the dazzling days and dark nights of a Chelsea childhood . . .''Brilliant and moving'' The Times''Dazzling'' Evening Standard''Beautifully written'' Marian Keyes''Unflinchingly honest Sunday Times''Superbly written'' Guardian''A triumph'' i_______Her father was a hairdresser to the rich and famous - he was also their drug dealer.Her mother was an alcoholic fashion model. Her days and nights were non-stop parties - she spent them taking care of her little sister and putting out naked flames.And when her sister dies aged nine, Gavanndra is left alone with her grief. Growing up in the dazzling days and dark nights of her parents'' social lives, surviving means fitting into their dysfunctional world, while stopping the family from falling apart . . ._________''A redemptive tale of an emotionalTrade ReviewUnflinchingly honestly. A beautiful book . . . everyone should read it * The Sunday Times *There are scenes that will reduce you to tears, but there's also humour, forgiveness and uplifting optimism [...] by the end of this dazzling debut you just want to give her a huge cheer for coming through * Evening Standard *Wise and moving . . . this memoir is an acknowledgment that love demands a price * Guardian *By turns painful and joyful, this beautiful book has plenty of poignant lessons to teach us about grief and love * Cosmopolitan *Gavanndra writes beautifully, her words are unsentimental but very lyrical [...] I loved this book and my tears fell into the bath as I read it -- Clover Stroud * author of The Sunday Times Bestselling memoir My Wild and Sleepless Nights *A devastating, heart-breaking and magnificent meditation on the function of memory. It will stay with me forever, so beautifully written * Daisy Buchanan, author of The Sisterhood *A completely unforgettable and unique family memoir. A total cliché but I honestly couldn't put it down * Hadley Freeman *A real tear-jerker * i *'Beautifully-written, calm-but-utterly-compelling life-story of trauma and healing... the author seems lovely and I want to be her pal!' * Marian Keyes *At a time when so many families are losing loved ones, and are denied even the scant comfort funerals provide, there is no more poignant moment for this book to appear -- Emily Hill * The Spectator *This is one of the best books I've read about grief - and the catastrophic consequences of addiction. Exquisitely written. Profoundly moving -- Robert PestonGavanndra Hodge's moving memoir recounts the consequences of an early life framed by beauty, glamour and tragedy * The Observer *A heartbreaking and compelling memoir * Red *Looks at the power of love and loss in shaping one's life. Moving and beautifully written * Grazia *The must-read of the summer * The Times *So brilliantly written . . . ultimately joyful and uplifting * Daily Mirror *Brave and beautifully written * Elle *There are books - and then there are books that you'll never forget reading. A quite extraordinary memoir -- Becky Barrow * News Editor of The Sunday Times *I read it in one sitting without pause. It is an astonishing book. I haven't stopped thinking about it -- Charlotte Edwardes * columnist for Sunday Times Style Magazine *A wonderful and transformative memoir about the impact of loss and the power of love; and one that illustrates how it is never too late to tackle suppressed grief -- Julia Samuel * author of the Sunday Times Bestseller This Too Shall Pass *I read this in one sitting, tears splashing onto its pages. A beautiful book about grief, losing a sibling, trauma, drugs, parenting & memory in the most exquisite way. Please everyone read it -- Emma Gannon * podcaster, author of Olive and founder of The Hyphen Book Club *This book is genuinely extraordinary -- Eleanor WoodLife affirming [...] an enrapturing journey through darkness, destructive behaviour and an urgency for light and happiness now * Magic Radio Book Club, May's Book of the Month *A powerful memoir -- Laura Whitmore * BBC Radio 5 *Timely and highly original * Evening Standard *Brilliant and moving * The Times *The Consequences of Love is undoubtedly one of this year's most hotly-anticipated books, and with good reason * The Sunday Salon podcast with Alice-Azania Jarvis *Brilliantly written and heartbreaking but also joyful and uplifting * Psychologies *Extraordinary . . . profoundly moving * Sunday Mirror *A brave, lyrical, painful tale of bereavement, addiction, and the building of a new life -- Joanna Briscoe * Evening Standard *Superbly written. Beautifully written and utterly heartbreaking. Courageous, inspired, bleakly comic, extreme candour * Guardian *Searing * Daily Mail *Hodge's beautiful memoir is both a devastating, grief-fuelled account of her sister's death and a redemptive tale of an emotional reckoning * i *It's a vivid and oddly entertaining memoir, a hand plunged into the dark hole of grief . . . uncovers surprising treasures - most importantly, strength, resilience and love * Mail on Sunday *Searing. A masterful writer with a gift for storytelling. Her prose is rich with detail, combining a sharp sense of place with escalating drama. A triumph * i *The most moving, most exquisitely written book about addiction, grief, loss and coming to terms with trauma even decades on. One that you will be thinking about, and remember long after finishing * Quintessentially *One of the most beautiful memoirs I've ever read. This story will say with you long after you put the book down * Emma Gannon *I just turned the last page (reluctantly!). A bold, often brutal exploration of memory, grief and love. Full of hope and heart. I can't recommend it enough * Terri White, author of Coming Undone *A brave, brilliant book that is both beautiful and important. Read it then buy it for all your friends * Hello! *Gavanndra's memoir The Consequences of Love is absolutely beautiful. It's compelling, heartbreaking, sweet, honest, fascination. I recommend it HIGHLY. I absolutely LOVED it. * Marian Keyes *This stunning exploration of grief is so well written and profoundly moving * Good Housekeeping *An elegant study of grief and memory * Guardian *Hodge pours heartbreak and love into the pages of a book that never pretends to know the answers, and is all the better for it * Sunday Times *An elegant study of grief and memory * Guardian Weekly *An eye-opening snapshot of the fashion world in '90s London * Vogue UK *

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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 SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BARBELLION PRIZE 2021 'A manifesto for recalibrating' DAILY MAIL 'I can’t think of many books where the reader feels so passionately on the side of the narrator' GUARDIAN 'A profound redefinition of the very idea of vitality' FINANCIAL TIMES Josie George lives in a tiny terraced house in the urban West Midlands with her son. Since her early childhood, she has lived with the fluctuating and confusing challenge of disabling chronic illness. But Josie’s world is surprising, intricate, dynamic. She has learned what to look for: the routines of her friends at the community centre; the neighbourhood birds in flight; the slow changes in the morning light, in her small garden, in her growing son, in herself. In January 2018, Josie sets out to tell the story of her still life, over the course of a year. As the seasons shift, and the tides of her body draw in and out, Josie begins to unfurl her history. And against a world which values progress and productivity above all else, Josie sets out a quietly radical alternative: to value and treasure life for life itself, with all its great and small miracles. 'Full of kindness, A Still Life will make you a better person' CLARE MACKINTOSH 'A Still Life is joy-lit: vivid, lovestruck, hopeful and wise' MELISSA HARRISON 'Josie George is the kind of writer I strive to be ... A tough, tender, beautiful book about existing in a body in the world' ELLA RISBRIDGER 'Could not be more timely ... An immensely talented writer' LINDA GRANT Trade ReviewInspiring ... How fragile we are, she notes, how fleeting our joys ... Describes a way of living now familiar to many of us -- TRACEY THORNE * New Statesman *A moving account of living with a chronic illness * Independent *In all honesty, I've never come across a new writer with more to offer the world -- MELISSA HARRISONA profound redefinition of the very idea of vitality * Financial Times *Audacious, exuberant ... I can’t think of many books where the reader feels so passionately on the side of the narrator * Guardian *A Still Life is that rarest of things: a memoir that reads like a novel. In a world where we are continually made to think bigger is better, Josie reminds us of the joy to be found from a small, quiet life. Full of kindness, A Still Life will make you a better person -- CLARE MACKINTOSHThis book would always have found a loyal readership – its vivid prose and meticulous, kindly candour ensure it. But coming now, at a time when record numbers have been struggling with their own ill-health and when many more have been forced to slow down, it feels like a manifesto for recalibrating * Daily Mail *Could not be more timely ... Josie is an immensely talented writer and thinker who sees a world in a grain of sand and we're all made richer for it ... I hope it’s a bestseller -- LINDA GRANTJosie George is the kind of writer I strive to be: meticulous and exacting in her documenting of joy and pain, and how those are the same thing. George sees things other people miss, and that's the point: it's about noticing, about seeing, about learning to see. A tough, tender, beautiful book about existing in a body in the world. I loved it -- ELLA RISBRIDGERThis memoir feels like the book we all need right now * Good Housekeeping *An exquisitely pitched memoir of disability and living with chronic pain, but also of finding joy and wonder * Bookseller, Editor's Choice *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED AND A WOMAN LOOKING AT MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN''Richly intelligent insights on every page'' Financial Times''A rare kind of quiet intellectual confidence'' Sunday TelegraphIn these fascinating, lively and engaging essays, Siri Hustvedt shows what lies behind her fiction: an abiding curiosity about who we are and how we got that way. Covering a wide range of subjects, from the nature of desire to false memories and the paintings of Goya, she draws on her own life and on the insights provided by both the arts and sciences to deepen our understanding of what it means to be human - to live, think and look.''There is something refreshingly straightforward about her style. It has the confidence born of complex but well digested thoughts'' ObserverPRAISE FOR SIRI HUSTVEDT:''Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer oTrade ReviewHer erudition, the sharp clarity of her thinking, the variety of her sources and the supple ways in which she weaves them into personal narrative, coupled with her fearlessness in the face of those aspects of the human condition which are of necessity ambiguous, infuse her work with a rare kind of quiet intellectual confidence...I'll be returning to these essays. * Melanie McGrath, Sunday Telegraph *richly intelligent insights on every page * George Pendle, Financial Times *Siri Hustvedt is best known as a novelist and her novels have received a deserved acclaim. But to my mind, she is even more to be admired as an essayist...there is something refreshingly straightforward about her style. It has the confidence born of complex but well digested thoughts and thus lacks the tendency to obfuscate that is the hallmark of the inferior thinker's style. * Salley Vikcers, Observer *...she is an inspiring guide to territory where both the humanities and the sciences can throw light on the ways in which we construct meaning in our lives. * Nick Rennison, Sunday Times, Culture *Hustvedt addresses a broad public without dumbing down her material... At once stimulating and warm-hearted, with sentences of drop-dead beauty and acuity on nearly every page. * Kirkus *Hustvedt's deep interest in art, psychology, and neuroscience shape her brilliantly insightful novels as well as her virtuoso essays...Mystery, fact, intelligence, and enchantment flourish here. * Booklist *exquisitely eloquent...You'll be by turns inspired, provoked, educated and enchanted. Her writing is scientifically precise and poetically elegant, and this intense compilation merits careful attention. It's a book you can return to time and time again. * Beatrice Hodgkin, Easy Living *These essays offer thoughts on locating morality in the brain, the origins of desire and who we are when we sleep...I suggest you take this book to your favourite corner, turn off the phone and allow yourself to be reminded of the pure pleasure of using your mind. * Clare Longrigg, Psychologies *

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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 SynopsisJulian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and three books of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and Nothing To Be Frightened Of, which won the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize in Russia. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.Trade ReviewIt is extraordinary... [It] would seem to pull off the impossible: to recreate, on the page, what it is like to be alive in the world. -- Emma Brockes * Guardian *This is a book of rare intimacy and honesty about love and grief. To read it is a privilege. To have written it is astonishing. -- Ruth Scurr * The Times *It’s an unrestrained, affecting piece of writing, raw and honest and more truthful for its dignity and artistry... Anyone who has loved and suffered loss, or just suffered, should read this book, and re-read it, and re-read it. -- Martin Fletcher * Independent *Levels of Life is both a supremely crafted artefact and a desolating guidebook to the land of loss. -- John Carey * Sunday Times *While one might expect a Barnes book to impress, delight, move, disconcert or amuse, the last thing for which his work prepares us is the blast of paralysingly direct emotion that concludes Levels of Life. -- Tim Martin * Daily Telegraph *Levels of Life is, deep-down, a heartfelt attempt to chronicle the strange journey that follows the death of a loved one. -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *A Taj Mahal made of paper not white marble. -- Peter Conrad * Observer *A magnificent blast of unflinching prose. * Daily Telegraph *Powerful and well-articulated. -- Roger Lewis * Daily Mail *It is true that the private language of love doesn’t generally translate; yet how vividly Barnes invokes the power and delicacy of what is lost to him. -- Jane Shilling * Sunday Telegraph *Profoundly emotive. * Sunday Times *He writes with aphoristic simplicity and a calm profundity, without ever sounding self-pitying, maudlin or trite… Levels of Life is at times unbearably sad, but it is also exquisite: a paean of love, and on love, and a book unexpectedly full of life. -- Rosemary Goring * Herald *A grief-stricken, achingly precise and bravely unconsoling exploration into the inadequacy of words. * Metro *An impassioned, raw insight into a survivor’s grief. * Sport *A confession of grief so emotively described that it leaves the reader cold with awe. -- Billy O'Callaghan * Irish Examiner *

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