Biography: writers Books

Book SynopsisAn intimate, personal exploration of the emotional and restorative power of the Lake District landscape and its poets.

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Book SynopsisMark Doty has always felt haunted by Walt Whitman’s bold, new American voice, and by his equally radical claims about body and soul and what it means to be a self. In What Is the Grass, Doty – a poet, a lover of men, a New Yorker, and an American – keeps company with Whitman and his mutable, landmark work, Leaves of Grass, tracing the resonances between his own experience and the legendary poet’s life and work.What is it, then, between us? Whitman asks. Doty’s answer is to explore spaces tied to Whitman’s life and spaces where he finds the poet’s ghost, meditating on desire, love, and the mysterious wellsprings of the poet’s enduring work. How does a voice survive death? What Is the Grass is a conversation across time and space, a study of the astonishment one poet finds in the accomplishment of another, and an attempt to grasp Whitman’s deeply hopeful vision of humanity.Trade ReviewDoty is an extraordinarily fine writer whose every word sings on the page… There certainly couldn’t be a more appropriate explorer [of Whitman] than Doty, as both a leading North American poet and a memoirist and prose writer of exceptional grace and depth… This is an exceptional, passionate memoir of reading, and of a poet’s lifelong work of understanding self and the world. -- Fiona Sampson * Spectator *Mark Doty's deeply personal love letter to Walt Whitman, belongs in the pantheon...beside Ted Hughes’s Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being and Don Paterson’s Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets… As admirers of his poetry and memoirs will know, Doty writes about his life with a rare warmth and candour. He makes you lean forward to listen… He reads with care, in the sense of both attentiveness and love. -- Tristram Fane Saunders * Daily Telegraph *Marvellous. He sends you straight back to the text, makes you feel like you're returning to an old love... In a fit of enchantment. -- Abhrajyoti Chakraborty * Guardian *Doty is one of the most compelling modern singers of 'the body electric' and in What is the Grass he has produced an elegant meditation on the great founding father of American poetry... Doty helps us feel the touch and connection of great art afresh. It is a warmly affecting performance. -- David Wheatley * Literary Review *Mark Doty has written a warm and intelligent account of Whitman... [Doty's] poems are a highly engaging mixture of the quotidian and the numinous. -- Seamus Perry * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Baillie Gifford ''Winner of Winners'' award in 2023How did Shakespeare go from being a talented poet and playwright to become one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this one exhilarating year we follow what he reads and writes, what he saw and who he worked with as he invests in the new Globe theatre and creates four of his most famous plays - Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet.This book brings the news, intrigue and flavour of the times together with wonderful detail about how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman and playwright, to create an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.A brilliant study, which carefully unpacks a single year in Shakespeare''s life ... The audacious focus on just one year pays off magnificently.' Sunday TimesA far richer, more intimate portrait of our greatest author than you''re likely to find in any cradle-to-grave biography.' Daily MailGripping and illuminating.' TelegraphA fascinating and entirely believable portrait of a talented workaholic ... Shapiro''s informed enthusiasm and energetic prose is addictive.'' GuardianTrade Review"'One of the few genuinely original biographies of Shakespeare.' Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph"

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Book Synopsis''The story of Coleridge''s life does undoubtedly echo that of his poem; this is a book that provides rewarding rereadings of both'' - The Sunday TimesA new biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, shaped and structured around the story he himself tells in his most famous poem, ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner''. Though the ''Mariner'' was written in 1797 when Coleridge was only twenty-five, it was an astonishingly prescient poem. As Coleridge himself came to realise much later, this tale - of a journey that starts in high hopes and good spirits, but leads to a profound encounter with human fallibility, darkness, alienation, loneliness and dread, before coming home to a renewal of faith and vocation - was to be the shape of his own life. In this rich new biography, academic, priest and poet Malcolm Guite draws out how with an uncanny clarity, image after image and event after event in the poem became emblems of what Coleridge was later to suffer and discoTrade ReviewForcefully and convincingly argued. * The Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisDorian Lynskey writes about music, film, books and politics for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, the New Statesman, GQ, Billboard, Empire, and Mojo. His first book was 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs. A study of thirty-three pivotal songs with a political message, it was NME's Book of the Year and a 'Music Book of the Year' in The Daily Telegraph. His second book, The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell's 1984, was longlisted for both the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Orwell Prize. He hosts the podcasts 'Origin Story' and 'Oh God, What Now?'.

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Book SynopsisSeason two of the hit TV adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small is now showing on Channel 5, featuring Sam West as Siegfried Farnon.'James Herriot's books have had a lasting and profound effect on my life' Amanda OwenThis beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of If Only They Could Talk features an afterword by Yorkshire Shepherdess and author Amanda Owen. To young James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary college, Yorkshire appears to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. But even life in the sleepy village of Darrowby has its challenges: from his new colleagues, brothers Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, to herds of semi-feral cattle and gruff farmers with incomprehensible accents.Heart-breaking and hilarious in equal measure, If Only They Could Talk is the first volume of classic memoirs which chronicle James Herriot's first years as country vet in the 1930's.This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of If Only They Could Talk features an afterword by Yorkshire Shepherdess and author Amanda Owen.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.Trade ReviewBulls with sunstroke, pigs on the run and a cake-eating Peke with a betting habit . . . I grew up reading James Herriot's book and I'm delighted that thirty years on they are still every bit as charming, heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny as they were then. -- Kate HumbleIt’s a pleasure to be in James Herriot’s company. * Observer *After an evening among his tales, anyone with as much as a dog or a budgerigar will feel he should move to Darrowby at once. * Yorkshire Post *

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Book SynopsisUncovering the fascinating and moving story of a famously unconventional family.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 'I loved this book... An exhilarating romp through Orwell's life and times' Margaret Atwood 'Outside my work the thing I care most about is gardening' George Orwell In 1936 Orwell planted roses at his cottage in Hertfordshire. Over eighty years later Rebecca Solnit encounters them, and is inspired to explore a different side to the great writer and activist to the one we know so well. Following his journey from the coal mines of England to taking up arms in the Spanish Civil War, and his explosive critiques of Stalin and authoritarianism, here Solnit finds a more hopeful Orwell. And in her dialogue with the author and his fascination with nature, she makes unexpected connections with the colonial legacy of the flower garden, discovers photographer Tina Modotti's extraordinary roses, and reveals Stalin's strange obsession with growing lemons in impossibly cold conditions. A fresh reading of a towering figure of the twentieth century, Orwell's Roses finds solace and solutions for the political and environmental challenges we face today, and is a remarkable reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance. 'Luminous...It is efflorescent, a study that seeds and blooms, propagates thoughts, and tends to historical associations' New Statesman 'A genuinely extraordinary mind, whose curiosity, intelligence and willingness to learn seem unbounded' Irish TimesTrade ReviewI loved this book, and so will many... an exhilarating romp through Orwell's life and times and also through the life and times of roses -- Margaret AtwoodThis book is brilliant because it is true, and because it rescues Orwell from a kind of dourness and seriousness, and gives him back his humanity and yes, his Englishness. -- James Rebanks, author of English Pastoral and The Shepherd's LifeI so loved this book. It unfolds like the petals of a rose - the political rose, the personal rose - and enacts its subject in the ethics of its beauty and the grace of its resistance -- Jay Griffiths, author of Why RebelWe all know what Orwell hated but Solnit pays attention to what he loved. Orwell's Roses is an ingeniously fresh and unpredictable take on his life and times, and the values he held dear -- Dorian LynskeyThere is nothing more political than a garden, and Rebecca Solnit brings Orwell's life and writing vividly alive through his quiet determination to love the surface of the earth. Orwell's Roses shows how intimately aesthetics is intertwined with ethics, and in doing so, Solnit has given us a truly beautiful book -- Alex Christofi, author of Dostoevsky in LoveThis an enchanting book, as powerful in its arguments as it is enjoyable to read. From a surprising close-up of George Orwell planting three Woolworth roses, Solnit pans to a bracing new vista of the man and his fierce political aesthetic, taking in the injustices of the rose industry and lying Soviet science as she goes. Brilliant -- Lisa AppignanesiThis elegant rambling rose of a book muses on Orwell with all Rebecca Solnit's luminous intelligence and trademark optimism. If "Orwellian" has become synonymous with darkness and oppression, she opens up his life affirming love of gardening, of wild nature and life's physical pleasure, his antidote to the grim puritanism of ideologues -- Polly ToynbeeA tribute by one fine essayist of the political left to another of an earlier generation... the great pleasure of reading [Solnit] is spending time with her mind, its digressions and juxtapositions, its unexpected connections. Only a few contemporary writers have the ability to start almost anywhere and lead the reader on paths that, while apparently meandering, compel unfailingly and feel, by the end, cosmically connected . .. The book provides a captivating account of Orwell as gardener, lover, parent, and endlessly curious thinker -- Claire Messud * Harper's Magazine *The green-fingered and the politically committed alike will want to curl up with this book as the gardening year draws to a close and we reflect on a time during which nature has been more of a solace than usual. * Observer *Elegantly light-footed and freewheeling... a marvellously bracing ramble that passes through a variety of intellectual terrain and physical landscapes * Daily Telegraph *Expansive and thought-provoking... In the hands of a skilled novelist or essayist like Solnit, biography becomes something else entirely * Independent *Idiosyncratic, immensely original work * i paper *Luminous ... part biography, part memoir, a historical and cultural analysis and a work of literary criticism, Solnit's book is a love letter in prose to those roses, to Orwell and to the enduring relevance of his ethical sensibility. It is efflorescent, a study that seeds and blooms, propagates thoughts, and tends to historical associations * New Statesman *The book itself, like petals of a rose unfurling, conveys hope for a better future... a genuinely exceptional mind, whose curiosity, intelligence and willingness to learn seem unbounded * Irish Times *An absorbing read for those with interests in politics and gardening alike * Sunday Telegraph *An entertaining ramble through the author's life and Solnit's consciousness... this rhizomatic exercise yields great blooms * Big Issue *Solnit makes us rethink "Orwellian" to mean not just what he was against but what he was for - nature. Her brilliant essays give colour back to an author we often think of as grey * Daily Telegraph *This hybrid volume blossoms with... insights, non sequiturs and epiphanies -- Margaret Drabble * TLS *A pleasing meditation on the small pleasures and intricate beauties of nature, and a book to see you through to spring -- Books of the year * The Times and Sunday Times *Wonderful and moving... Fine and thoughtful * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisA Book of the Year in The Times, Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, Bookseller and at Waterstones 'He understands only the women he invents the others not at all'

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Book SynopsisThis is an account of the life of barnstorming author Ernest Hemingway. Aubrey Malone has immersed himself in recent research to discover what led the author through a tumultuous personal life to the psychological collapse of his final years.

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Book SynopsisIn November 1910, Count Lev Tolstoy died at a remote Russian railway station attended by the world's media. He was eighty-two years old and had lived a remarkable and long life during one of the most turbulent periods of Russian history. Born into a privileged aristocratic family, he seemed set to join the ranks of degenerate Russian noblemen, but fighting in the Crimean war alongside rank and file soldiers opened his eyes to Russia's social problems and he threw himself into teaching the peasantry to read and write. After his marriage he wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, both regarded as two of the greatest novels in world literature. Rosamund Bartlett's exceptional biography of this brilliant, maddening and contrary man draws on key Russian sources, including the many fascinating new materials which have been published about Tolstoy and his legacy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.Trade ReviewThe extraordinary character of the giant is captured better by Bartlett than by any previous biographer * Spectator *Superbly readable and, in contrast to some earlier biographies, treats the great novelist's sometimes strange enthusiasms and obsessions sympathetically and seriously. -- Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury * Mail on Sunday Books of the Year *Conveys Tolstoy to me more vividly than any biography I have read. * Financial Times *Rosamund Bartlett's new life of Tolstoy is a splendid book - immensely readable, full of fresh details, and often quite brilliant in its perceptiveness about the greatest of Russian writers, and one of the stars in the western firmament. This biography has the sweep and vividness of literature itself, and I strongly recommend it. -- Jay Parini, author of The Last Stationhighly accessible and intelligent... neat and illuminating...Bartlett's biography is worth tackling for four qualities alone. The first is her insight into the many contradictions of Tolstoy's character... Its second merit is the way Bartlett places Tolstoy in the much wider cultural context... The third great strength of Bartlett's biography is the weight she gives both to his philosophical writings, and to his social activism, which is a salutary corrective to those, including his Soviet critics, who concentrate on the great novels to the exclusion of all else... The fourth distinguishing feature, and a considerable one, is Bartlett's relatively sympathetic treatment of the women in Tolstoy's life... bonus throughout is Bartlett's pleasant, unimposing style -- Mary Dejevsky * Independent *In the centenary of Leo Tolstoy's death, it was a great pleasure to read Rosamund Bartlett's Tolstoy: A Russian Life...an accessible and scholarly biography of the troubled master of realist fiction which conjures the splendid image of him wobbling around on a bicycle -- Richard Godwin * Evening Standard Books of the Year *engaging... In her revelations about the immense difficulties of producing the definitive Collected Works (a task that, under Soviet Communism, proved almost impossible) and in her elucidation of the suppression of Tolstoy's spiritual influence, Bartlett reminds us not only that the great man is not so very long dead, but also that his myth is being made and remade even now -- Claire Messud * Daily Telegraph *a splendidly lucid and sympathetic biography -- Scotsman * Alan Massie *Impressive * Independent on Sunday Books of the Year *

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Book SynopsisPostpartum depression affects millions of new mothers every year. This is an epic poem to women everywhere.

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Book SynopsisAn alternative biography of Shakespeare seen through the lens of queer Elizabethan England. From the Head of Research at The Globe, London.

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Book SynopsisIs it ever possible to know 'the truth' about Sylvia Plath and her marriage to Ted Hughes, which ended with her suicide? In The Silent Woman, renowned writer Janet Malcolm examines the biographies of Sylvia Plath, with particular focus on Anne Stevenson's Bitter Fame, to discover how Plath became an enigma in literary history. The Silent Woman is a brilliant, elegantly reasoned inquiry into the nature of biography, dispelling our innocence as readers, as well as shedding a light onto why Plath's legend continues to exert such a hold on our imaginations.Trade ReviewOne of the deepest, loveliest, and most problematic things Janet Malcolm has written. It is so subtle, so patiently analytical, and so true that it is difficult to envisage anyone writing again about Plath and Hughes * Guardian *An astonishing writer with a grasp of nuance that can be electric * The Times *Intellectually explosive, morally challenging and enormous fun * Financial Times *Compulsively readable, the best thing Malcolm has ever done * LRB *Superbly written, flowing like a piece of music from theme to theme, recapitulating here, changing key there, always disguising the complexity of its underlying construction * Independent *The best-written and most stirring polemic of the year. Completely brilliant * The Times *The Silent Woman contains some of the best thinking I know on both the practical and the philosophical problems of biography -- Bernard Crick * New Statesman *Of the oceans of words written about Sylvia Plath, these are among the best... a master storyteller and a psychoanalyst rolled into one. Brilliant * Independent *The Silent Woman pioneered a new genre of biography in its exploration of Hughes and Sylvia Plath...The study ends with an exquisite twist that gives this book the urgency of fiction...insightful * Telegraph *The maestro of gripping nonfiction investigation * Sunday Times *Brilliant -- Megan Nolan * New Statesman *A bleakly entertaining j'accuse of biography as a genre * TLS *

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Book Synopsis250TH BIRTHDAY EDITIONAlmost as good as finding an unpublished novel' The LadyIs there any sex in Jane Austen? Why do her plots rely on blunders? Which important characters never actually speak?Jane Austen's novels have been a staple of the British canon since the nineteenth century. Yet critics of the time did not appreciate the true complexity of her work. Neither Austen's literary innovations nor the cunning intracacy of her novels were understood much less the fascinating patterns and puzzles thrown up by some of the most famous works of English literature. Nothing, John Mullan argues, is accidental or coincidental in Austen. As she herself said, she wrote for readers who have a great deal of ingenuity themselves'.What Matters in Jane Austen? gets to the heart of what it is that makes Austen's work so singular. In twenty chapters, answering questions her novels have posed for over two centuries, Mullan uncovers the hidden truth of an extraordinary fictional world and reveals the true brilliance and underappreciated complexity of Austen's oeuvre. Sends the reader back to the originals with fresh pleasure' Tessa Hadley, Guardian

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Book SynopsisColm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Tóibín was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.

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Book SynopsisThe first major biography of Oscar Wilde in thirty years, and the most complete telling of his life and times to date. NOMINATED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2019 'The Book of the Year, perhaps of the decade' TLS 'Simply the best modern biography of Wilde... A terrific achievement' Evening Standard 'Page-turning... Vivid and desperately moving. However much you think you know Wilde, this book will absorb and entertain you' The Sunday TimesBooks of the Year Oscar Wilde's life – like his wit – was alive with paradox. He was both an early exponent and a victim of 'celebrity culture': famous for being famous, he was lauded and ridiculed in equal measure. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies. He was an unabashed snob who nevertheless delighted in exposing the faults of society. He affected a dandified disdain but was prone to great acts of kindness. Although happily married, he became a passionate lover of men and – at the very peak of his success – brought disaster upon himself. He disparaged authority, yet went to the law to defend his love for Lord Alfred Douglas. Having delighted in fashionable throngs, Wilde died almost alone. Above all, his flamboyant refusal to conform to the social and sexual orthodoxies of his day make him a hero and an inspiration to all who seek to challenge convention. Matthew Sturgis draws on a wealth of new material and fresh research, bringing alive the distinctive mood and characters of the fin de siècle in the richest and most compelling portrait of Wilde to date.Trade ReviewThis page-turning life of Oscar Wilde is vivid and desperately moving. However much you think you know Wilde, this book will absorb and entertain you * Sunday Times *Wonderfully exciting... Sturgis's great achievement is to take on board his great flurry of contradictions' * Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday, 5* review *Matthew Sturgis uses new letters and a libel trial transcript to give a fuller picture of Oscar Wilde's dazzling rise and tragic fall... He is a tremendous orchestrator of material, fastidious, unhurried, indefatigable' * Observer *A perfectly diligent book, and tells new readers all they possibly need to know about Wilde and his world * The Times *Authoritative, magnificently researched * Spectator *Oscar Wilde is more fashionable than ever, and his demise still makes for a gripping read... Sturgis's account is fuller and in some ways more reliable [than Richard Ellmann's biography]... Sturgis's account of the hearing at the Old Bailey is as gripping as it is grim' * Guardian *[Sturgis's biography] is the first major attempt since that of Richard Ellman some 30 years ago, and it's much better... This is simply the best modern biography of Wilde... A terrific achievement' * Evening Standard *The Book of the Year, perhaps of the decade... Captures the wit, the love-ability, the dramatic genius, the insane self-destructiveness, the originality of Wilde... [Sturgis] is the greatest chronicler of the 1890s we have ever had' * TLS, Books of the Year *Astute in its judgements and offers a sharp and detailed grasp of the period and an appreciation of Wilde's ambiguities * Irish Times, Books of the Year, Colm Tóibín *Like Churchill, Oscar Wilde [...] is one of those people who never seem to stop inspiring outstanding biographies, and Oscar: A Life by Matthew Sturgis is one of the best, as well as the latest, of a long line * Sunday Telegraph. *A first rate biography * Sunday Express, Books of the Year *This book provides not only a comprehensive record of [Wilde's] activities, friendships and financial affairs, but also a powerful sense of what it was actually like to know him... This is undoubtedly the most comprehensive, reliable and clear-sighted study of Wilde ever likely to be written' * Dublin Sunday Business Post *This excellent biography offers a deeper, more rounded picture of the writer's life, his rise to stardom, his fall and tragic final days... At once entertaining and scholarly. The man himself would be proud' * The Lady *Sturgis' attention to decadence allows readers to view Wilde's post-prison years in a new light... [An] insightful biography' * Volupte *Very solid and complete biography * The Dutch Review of Books *A great read * Edge Media Network *

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Book SynopsisNow in paperback, a beautifully illustrated account of of Tove Jansson''s life and artThe definitive biography of one of the most unique and beloved children''s authors of the 20th century, the creator of the Moomins. Tove Jansson (1914-2001) led a long, colourful and productive life, impacting significantly the political, social and cultural history of 20th-century Finland. And while millions of children have grown up with Little My, Snufkin, Moomintroll and the many creatures of Moominvalley, the life of Jansson - daughter, friend and companion - is more touching still. This book weaves together the myriad qualities of a painter, author, illustrator, scriptwriter and lyricist from fraught beginnings through fame, war and heartbreak and ultimately to a peaceful end.Dr Tuula Karjalainen is a Finnish art historian and non-fiction writer who has previously worked as a director of the Helsinki Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki. As the author of Tove Jansson''s biography, Karjalainen has become an expert not only on Jansson''s writing and art but also on her decades of personal correspondence and journals.

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Book SynopsisFlush was an English cocker spaniel who belonged to the nineteenth-century poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Virginia Woolf learned of him from the love letters Elizabeth wrote to her future husband, fellow poet Robert Browning, and found ‘the figure of their dog made me laugh so, I couldn't resist making him a Life.’ The resulting ‘biography’ combines sensuous imaginative description with sharp social comment, and brings Woolf’s unsentimental humour and insight to the fore. We see Flush as loyal confidant to Elizabeth on her sickbed at Wimpole Street, and from his jealous perspective we witness her courtship by Browning, their elopement and new life in Italy. The perfect accessible introduction to Woolf’s genius, a unique blend of fact and fiction, Flush is perhaps best read in the company of a canine companion.This edition includes the four original illustrations by Vanessa Bell and an afterword by Margaret Forster.Cover designed by the award-winning Finnish designer Aino-Maija MetsolaTrade ReviewA most triumphant trespassing of human imagination into dog sensibilities... The result is a book of irresistible grace and charm * Spectator *Flush is an afternoon's delight for dog-loving readers. It's wit and whimsy and sniffing, snuffling playfulness will amuse anyone who's ever known a spaniel. Woolf's literary underdog is a canine classic. * Guardian *A masterpiece... It is not fiction because it has the substance, the reality of truth. It is not biography because it has the freedom, the artistry of fiction * New York Herald Tribune Books *

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Book SynopsisA kaleidoscopic investigation of Dickens's superhuman imagination, from one of the greatest cultural critics of our time.See Dickens as never before in this creative biography of his life through his storytelling the characters, places and emotions conjured up across the entire range of his novels, stories, magazine articles and public readings.Peter Conrad, one of the great cultural critics of our time, repositions Dickens as a true giant of literature a magician with the power to work wonders, at his most ambitious a god-like creator who formed his own idiosyncratic world and populated it with hundreds of irrepressibly lively and often terrifying characters. Peter argues that Dickens alone rivals Shakespeare and in many ways outdoes him. he pays tribute to Dickens''s almost industrial productivity as a writer, but also calculates the physical and mental strain it involved and the consequent upheavals in his emotional life. The forces of creation and destru

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book to focus primarily on George Orwell's ideas about free speech and related matters freedom of the press, the writer's freedom of expression, honesty and truthfulness and, in particular, the ways in which they are linked to his political vision of socialism. Orwell is today claimed by the Left and Right, by neo-conservatives and neo-socialists. How is that possible? Part of the answer, as Glenn Burgess reveals, is that Orwell was an odd sort of socialist. The development of Orwell's socialism was, from the start, conditioned by his individualist and liberal commitments. The hopes he attached to socialism were for a fairer, more equal world that would permit human freedom and individuality to flourish, completing, not destroying, the work of liberalism. Freedom of thought was a central part of this, and its defence and use were essential parts of the struggle to ensure that socialism developed in a liberal, humane form that did not follow the totalitarian path of Trade ReviewGlenn Burgess has written with great perception about how intensely Orwell valued free speech and how determined he was to defend it. This study makes us vividly aware of aspects of Orwell, particularly his activism, that have been hitherto comparatively neglected. It will be read with great interest by the many who wish to know more about and understand better a writer whose impact has continued to grow over the years. * Peter Stansky, Professor Emeritus of History, Stanford University, USA, and author of The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War *Glenn Burgess synthesizes a massive number of primary and secondary texts and constructs an original and clear argument around them on a vitally important area – namely Orwell’s ideas about socialism, free speech, freedom of thought, press freedom and censorship. It amounts to an important and fascinating addition to Orwellian scholarship. * Richard Lance Keeble, Professor of Journalism, University of Lincoln, UK *Table of ContentsPrologue: ‘Ownlife, it was called, meaning individualism and eccentricity’ 1. Orwell and the Culture Wars 2. How to Be Yourself (or Not): Orwell’s Early Novels 3. The Expression on a Human Face 4. Individualism, Liberty, Socialism Part I: Orwell’s Socialism 1.. Before Orwell; Before Socialism: A Tory Anarchist? 2. The Birth of George Orwell’s Socialism 3. The Development of Orwell’s Socialism (a). Peace, Empire and Internationalism (b). Revolution and Political Violence (c). Nostalgia, Progress, and Utopia Part II: Orwell and Freedom of Thought 1. From Eric Blair to George Orwell: Englishness and Freedom 2. Libel, Obscenity and Politics: Orwell’s Early Experience of Censorship 3. ‘All Propaganda is Lies’: Orwell, BBC Propaganda and Intellectual Responsibility 4. Writing for Freedom: Tribune, Animal Farm and Free Speech 5. Activist for Intellectual Freedom: (I) The Freedom Defence Committee 6. Activist for Intellectual Freedom: (II) The League for the Dignity and Rights of Man 7. Propaganda Again: Orwell, His List and the Information Research Department (IRD) 8. Freedom and Truth: Nineteen Eighty-Four Index

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Book Synopsis'That word, "vacation," makes me sweat.' Coco Chanel on taking a break'You must do it irregardless, or it will eat its way out of you.' Zora Neale Hurston on writing'One has to choose between the Life and the Project.' Susan Sontag on choosing artFrom Vanessa Bell and Charlotte Brontë to Nina Simone and Jane Campion, here are over one hundred and forty female writers, painters, musicians, sculptors, poets, choreographers, and filmmakers on how they create and work.Barbara Hepworth sculpted outdoors and Janet Frame wore earmuffs as she worked to block out noise. Kate Chopin wrote with her six children ‘swarming around her’ whereas the artist Rosa Bonheur filled her bedroom with the sixty birds that inspired her work. Louisa May Alcott wrote so vigorously – skipping sleep and meals – that she had to learn to write with her left hand to give her cramped right hand a break.From Isak Dinesen subsisting on oysters, champagne and amphetamines, to Isabel Allende's insistence that she begins each new book on 8 January, here are the working routines of over 140 brilliant female painters, composers, sculptors, writers, filmmakers and performers.Filled with details of the large and small choices these women made, Mason Currey's Daily Rituals Women at Work is a source of fascination and inspiration.'An admirably succinct portrait of some distinctly uncommon lives' - Meryle SecrestTrade ReviewUtterly fascinating . . . This book is the ultimate retort to the flaneurs who dream about the novel/screenplay/painting they would create if only they had the time -- Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times on Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration and Get to WorkI just can't recommend this book enough -- Lena Dunham on Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration and Get to WorkA trove of entertaining anecdote and thought-provoking comparison -- Daily Telegraph, on Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration and Get to WorkA chance to see what great lives look like when the triumphs, dramas, disruptions and divorces have been all but boiled away. It will fascinate anyone who wonders how a day might best be spent, especially those who have wondered of their artistic heroes, as a baffled Colette once did of George Sand: how the devil did they manage? -- Guardian, on Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration and Get to WorkMason Currey has carefully compiled the daily habits and personal foibles of 161 great writers, artists, scientists and thinkers, including one who stood on his head to cure creative block. By the end of this book, our carpet-glue habit looks normal -- DBC Pierre, Guardian, on Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration and Get to WorkA fascinating little book -- Financial Times on Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration and Get to Work

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Book SynopsisOrlando Reade is a writer from London. He studied English at Cambridge and Princeton, where he received his PhD in 2020. He has written about culture and politics for publications including Frieze, the Guardian, and the White Review, where he served as a contributing editor. He is currently Assistant Professor of English at Northeastern University London.

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Book Synopsis***AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4***NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER'A gripping account of the heartbreaks and triumphs of two of history's most formidable female intellectuals, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley.Trade Review[A] unique double biography... An excellent and poignant book whose heroines breathe in its pages. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *A mother and daughter who changed not only the way we think, but the way we are… extraordinary women, a dozen decades ahead of their time… Romantic Outlaws enables readers to compare the different ways in which these two remarkable women confronted their tragically different destinies… [A] thoughtful, intelligent, deeply-felt book’ -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times *A gripping account of the heartbreaks and triumphs of two of history's most formidable female intellectuals, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Gordon has reunited mother and daughter through biography, beautifully weaving their narratives for the first time. -- Amanda Foreman * author of A World on Fire *Full of enriching paradox… Charlotte Gordon has managed to produce that rare thing, a work of genuinely popular history... It works beautifully. -- Melissa Benn * New Statesman *Wollstonecraft and Shelley were extraordinary women who led sensational lives. They were Romantic revolutionaries… retelling their story cannot fail to captivate and provoke. * Spectator *Unique... Marvellous, passionate stuff. -- David Aaronovitch * Books of the Year, Times *An exceptional achievement -- Michael Morpugo * Daily Telegraph *Read and be seriously inspired. * Stylist *An innovative dual biography that foregrounds the writing of two women who disregarded the moral codes of their eras and shaped their own destinies. Gordon’s parallel mapping of their lives reveals fascinating similarities in the ways writing sustained, and sometimes saved, them both. * Financial Times *Mother and daughter shadow and reveal each other. The retelling emphasises the extent to which Shelley’s life was shaped by her mother’s legacy but here is underlined in thought-provoking ways... In Gordon’s narrative, [Wollstonecraft and Shelley] appear at their best and bravest. * Observer *

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Book SynopsisA pioneering biography of George Orwell told through moments of everyday life.

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Book SynopsisByron Rogers’ biography of Wales’ s national poet and vicar, R.S. Thomas has been hailed as a ‘ masterpiece’ , even as a work of ‘ genius’ , by reviewers from Craig Brown to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Within someone considered a wintry, austere and unsociable curmudgeon, Rogers has unearthed an extremely funny story – ‘ riotously’ so, in Rowan Williams’ words. Thomas is widely considered as one of the twentieth-century’ s greatest English language poets. His bitter yet beautiful collections on Wales, its landscape, people and identity, reflect a life of political and spiritual asceticism. Indeed, Thomas is a man who banned vacuum cleaners from his house on grounds of noise, whose first act on moving into an ancient cottage was to rip out the central heating, and whose attempts to seek out more authentically Welsh parishes only brought him more into contact with loud English holidaymakers. To Thomas’ s many admirers this will be a surprising, sometimes shocking, but at last humanising portrait of someone who wrote truly metaphysical poetry.Trade Review‘A biography touched by genius’‘A masterpiece’‘This book ought to win every award for which it is eligible’‘ A biography touched by genius’ ‘ A masterpiece’ ‘ Byron Rogers’ lively and affectionate biography… is unexpectedly, even riotously funny… Warm, perceptive, ruthless, gossipy and admiring’ ‘ This book ought to win every award for which it is eligible’

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Book SynopsisMonk's House in Sussex is the former home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. It was bought by them in 1919 as a country retreat, somewhere they came to read, write and work in the garden. From the overgrown land behind the house they created a brilliant patchwork of garden rooms, linked by brick paths, secluded behind flint walls and yew hedges. The story of this magical garden is the subject of this book and the author has selected quotations from the writings of the Woolfs which reveal how important a role the garden played in their lives, as a source of both pleasure and inspiration. Virginia wrote most of her major novels at Monk's House, at first in a converted tool shed, and later in her purpose-built wooden writing lodge tucked into a corner of the orchard. Caroline Zoob lived with her husband, Jonathan, at Monk's House for over a decade as tenants of the National Trust, and has an intimate knowledge of the garden they tended and planted. The photographer, Caroline Arber, was a frequent visitor to the house during their tenancy and her spectacular photographs, published here for the first time, often reveal the garden as it is never seen by the public: at dawn, in the depths of winter, at dusk. The photographs and text, enriched with rare archive images and embroidered garden plans, take the reader on a journey through the various garden 'rooms', (including the Italian Garden, the Fishpond Garden, the Millstone Terrace and the Walled Garden). Each garden room is presented in the context of the lives of the Woolfs, with fascinating glimpses into their daily routines at Rodmell. This beautiful book is an absorbing account of the creation of a garden which will appeal equally to gardeners and those with an interest in Virginia and Leonard Woolf.Trade Review"a thoughtful, intelligent account of restoring the garden at Rodmell as the tenant of the National Trust." Literary Review 'this book about a gifted amateur's garden has immense charm' Country Life 'Lovely book celebrates the Woolfs' garden - the first (large picture book) about Monk's House' Virginia Woolf's Bulletin 'A portrait of their life ... a delightfully layered garden history.' Garden Design Journal "Rich with Caroline Arber's photography (and atmospheric sepia snaps of the Woolfs) the book documents the garden's developments from the Woolfs' time, through the Second World War, Virginia's death and Caroline's own decade-long tenancy. It remains a place of beauty and solace." The Simple Things "The book has great charm and terrific photographs, is packed with horticultural information, and gives a delightful account of the domestic life of the Woolfs." -- Annabel Freyberg The World of Interiors 'touching account' The Sunday Times 'Zoob's admirably passionate approach to the house and garden as an artistic whole has produced an extraordinary book, full of quiet images that exactly capture the beauty of the place...Buy it!' The Independent on Sunday 'Zoob's book is enchanting and full of excellent excerpts from the Woolfs' letters and diaries' -- Anna Pavord The Independent "a beautifully presented book ... visual pleasure ... uses [language] engagingly. Gardeners and Woolf readers will much enjoy her book" -- Robin Lane Fox Financial Times 'a glorious amalgam of biography and gardening' The Independent 'an unusual and affecting book' The Lady "an indispensable treasure for any Woolf fan, Anglophile, or gardener" Blogging Woolf 'takes the reader on a visually sumptuous tour of the property's famous grounds, uncovering its enchanting patchwork of 'rooms' and offering a fascinating glimpse into the Woolfs' daily lives.' Landscape 'her embroidered plans of the gardens add a delightful extra dimension to the book.' House & Garden

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Book SynopsisA Guardian and Lit Hub most anticipated book of 2024An exhilarating biography of the iconic poet, essayist and activist Audre Lorde Read these chapters like a collection of poems that speak in chorus in all directions. Understand each word as an opportunity for Audre's fierce love, which is the same love that birthed the volcanoes and split the continents, to reach you, wherever you are.Audre Lorde was a survivor: of childhood disability injustice, of her best friend's suicide, of the atomic age. She was a college activist against nuclear arms. A mother who knew poetry could help her children survive a racist world. And, ultimately, a cancer survivor, who understood the war going on within her cells was connected to the struggle against oppression taking place all around her.This stunning new account of Lorde's life and work illuminates how, for Lorde, survival was not simply about getting through, or about resilience. It was about how to live on, and with, a planet in transformation. Lorde's commitment to justice was intimately connected to her deep engagement with the natural world; with the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. For Lorde, ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be on earth, and how to live fully as a Black feminist lesbian warrior poet.In Survival Is a Promise, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde's manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Audre Lorde. Her life and work swell to become a cosmic force, showing us the grand possibility of life together on earth.

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Book SynopsisThis beautiful and deeply personal book blends memoir and biography with literary criticism to offer a new perspective on the legendary American writer James Baldwin. -- .

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Book SynopsisA kind of blissography, teeming with bon mots' Sunday TimesA celebrated modern classic that has revolutionised our understanding of the Bloomsbury group and remains the definitive biography of the group's gloriously eccentric patron, Lady Ottoline Morrell. Met with widespread acclaim and translated into fifteen languages, this seminal book provoked a rethinking of the traditional Bloomsbury narrative and the rewriting of some major biographies.For decades, Ottoline Morrell was grossly misunderstood. The artists and writers who benefited from her generous patronage and friendship helped to create the false and vicious image of a nymphomanical aristocrat with cultural aspirations. This landmark literary biography presents Morrell in an entirely new light, rightly setting her centre-stage as the brilliant and courageous lynchpin of the Bloomsbury group. She counted T.S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Lytton Strachey, Siegfried Sassoon, Augustus John, Katherine Mansfield and W.B. Yea

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Book SynopsisA fascinating and wonderfully readable deconstruction of the countless myths that have grown up around the Brontës.Since 1857, hardly a year has gone by without some sort of Bronte ''biography'' appearing. These range from pious accounts in Victorian conduct books to Freudian pyschobiographies, from plays, films and ballets to tourist brochures and images on tea-towels, from sensation-seeking penny-a-liners to meticulous works of sober scholarship. Each generation has rewritten the Brontes to reflect changing attitudes - towards the role of the woman writer, towards sexuality, towards the very concept of personality. The Bronte Myth gives vigorous new life to our understanding of the novelists and their culture and Lucasta Miller reveals as much about the impossible art of biography as she does about the Brontes themselves.WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHORTrade ReviewA brilliant and riveting examination of the Bronte phenomenon * Daily Mail *Written with wit and relish, and packed with irresistible detail * The Times *Literary history is seldom related with such a pleasant combination of brio and erudition * Sunday Times *Crisply written and witty - Lucasta Miller sends the reader straight back to the wonderful novels that inspired such hommages * Independent on Sunday *A sharp-witted study in literary reputation - Miller supplies a deft and immaculately detailed tracing of the many 'constructions' of Charlotte Bronte * Observer *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Golding was born in 1911 and educated at his local grammar school and Brasenose College, Oxford. He published a volume of poems in 1934 and during the war served in the Royal Navy. Afterwards he returned to being a schoolmaster in Salisbury. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was an immediate success, and was followed by a series of remarkable novels, including The Inheritors, Pincher Martin and The Spire. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983, and was knighted in 1988. He died in 1993.

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Book Synopsis''A beautiful, deeply philosophical book about reading as a form of existential consolation'' Literary Review''Acute and tender . . . alive with discovery and desire'' Observer''A meditation, by turns glorious and aching, on what it means to be a woman and to try to be free'' Amia Srinivasan ''A gift to readers of all ages. Engaging . . . poignant . . . uplifting'' Washington Post''I adored this book . . . a generous, enlivening work, destined to be passed from friend to friend for a long time to come'' Megan HunterIn this intricate, intimate and dazzlingly original group biography, Joanna Biggs looks to eight revolutionary women writers who each sought freedom and intellectual fulfilment in their lifetimes and asks: why is it so important for women to read one another? By illuminating the motivations, desires and disappointments of Mary Wollstonecraft, George Eliot, Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf

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Book SynopsisLeon Battista Alberti was among the most famous figures of the Italian Renaissance. Biographical and Autobiographical Writings includes On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literature, The Life of St. Potitus, My Dog, My Life, and The Fly. It presents the first collected English translations of these works and an authoritative Latin text.

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Book SynopsisA fascinating insight into the life of one of our best-loved authors through the biographies of objects that crossed her path in life and afterward.

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