Biography: writers Books

Book SynopsisBuild your child's reading confidence at home with books at the right levelCharles Dickens was a famous writer who lived in the 19th century. Discover what life was like for Charles, from spending his childhood working in a factory to finding a job as a law clerk and starting his writing career in this biography by Jim Eldridge.Lime/Band 11 books have longer sentence structures and a greater use of literary languageText type: A biographyPages 30 and 31 present a timeline of Charles Dickens' life, allowing children to recap the events from the book.Curriculum links: Literacy: Information texts.This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.

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Book SynopsisThe former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm makes his literary debut with this dramatic and riveting novel of book publishing, émigrés, spies, and diplomats in World War II Sweden, based on his grandfather's lifeIn 1933, after Hitler and the Nazi Party consolidated power in Germany, Immanuel Birnbaum, a German-Jewish journalist based in Warsaw, is forbidden from writing for newspapers in his homeland. Six years later, just months before the German invasion of Poland that ignites World War II, Immanuel escapes to Sweden with his wife and two young sons.Living as a refugee in Stockholm, Immanuel continues to write, contributing articles to a liberal Swiss newspaper under the name Dr. B. He becomes increasingly entangled with British intelligence agents who plan several acts of sabotage on the orders of Winston Churchill. But when the Swedish postal service picks up a letter written in invisible ink, clearly by Dr. B. himself, the Allied plotters are exposed. But could a Trade Review ‘A superb thriller, a cross between Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and The Thirty-Nine Steps, full of mysteries, twists and turns … You can’t put it down. This is an astonishing debut and Daniel Birnbaum is clearly a talent to look out for’ The Jewish Chronicle ‘If you’re looking for a ridiculously brilliant story, you can stop looking … He’s got the world’s best story – he’s got Dr B’ Svenska Dagbladet ‘Dr B is an astonishing thriller-novel … reminiscent of both Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glass as well as the dreamy melancholy in The Rings of Saturn by W.G Sebald … This moral ambiguity makes Dr. B. no less fascinating a character than Stefan Zweig’s version of the same’ Aftonbladet ‘A moving evocation of a life beset by conflicts in a troubled time’ Kirkus Reviews ‘Illuminating … Birnbaum skillfully delineates the social and political tensions shaping a culture caught between the national interests of Germany and Russia, and he poignantly conveys the plight of individuals for whom each day is a potential tragedy waiting to happen’ Publishers Weekly ‘Who was Dr. B.? A spy? A member of the resistance? A journalist manipulated by competing political forces in the Casablanca of the North that was Stockholm during World War II? Dr. B brings to life the feverish atmosphere of the capital … where Immanuel Birnbaum becomes entangled in a whirlwind of confusing intrigue’ Le Monde ‘A spy novel as complex as it is captivating … Dr. B. evokes so vividly the apocalyptic chaos of 1939-40 Stockholm, where different political forces jockey for power … and Immanuel Birnbaum, Dr. B, finds himself caught in the confusion’ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

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Book Synopsis''This book is a glowing achievement by one of the best essayists of her generation'' Charlie Brinkhurst-CuffWitty, fresh and full of life' Liv LittleI can't recommend more highly it's one of those books that I just want to press in the hands of everybody' Damian Barr, Literary Salon PodcastKimberly McIntosh has lived a full life, with a loving family, messy friendships, mind-expanding travel and all-night parties. She's also spent that life wondering why such opportunities aren't always available to people who look like her.Stemming from years of social policy research and campaign work, this essay collection brings together all that Kimberly has learned; whether that's dismantling the myth of social mobility for those who toe the line, to understanding why her teenage Facebook posts are quite so cringe. In it, she uses her own experiences to reveal how systematic injustice impacts us all, from the pressure of nuclear families, to enduring toxic friendships, to how painful it can be t

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Book SynopsisA collection of essential writings from the iconic foremother of Black intellectual history, feminism and activismThe Portable Anna Julia Cooper will introduce a new generation of readers to an educator, public intellectual and community activist whose prescient insights and eloquent prose underlie some of the most important developments in modern American intellectual thought and African-American social and political activism.This volume brings together, for the first time, Anna Julia Cooper''s major collection of essays, A Voice from the South, along with several previously unpublished poems, plays, journalism and selected correspondences, including over thirty previously unpublished letters between Anna Julia Cooper and W. E. B. Du Bois.

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Book SynopsisCelebrating the 400th Anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare''s First FolioThis is the biography of a book: the first collected edition of Shakespeare''s plays printed in 1623 and known as the First Folio. It begins with the story of its first purchaser in London in December 1623, and goes on to explore the ways people have interacted with this iconic book over the four hundred years of its history. Throughout the stress is on what we can learn from individual copies now spread around the world about their eventful lives. From ink blots to pet paws, from annotations to wineglass rings, First Folios teem with evidence of their place in different contexts with different priorities. This study offers new ways to understand Shakespeare''s reception and the history of the book. Unlike previous scholarly investigations of the First Folio, it is not concerned with the discussions of how the book came into being, the provenance of its texts, or the technicalities of its production. Instead, it reanimates, in narrative style, the histories of this book, paying close attention to the details of individual copies now located around the world - their bindings, marginalia, general condition, sales history, and location - to discuss five major themes: owning, reading, decoding, performing, and perfecting. This is a history of the book that consolidated Shakespeare''s posthumous reputation: a reception history and a study of interactions between owners, readers, forgers, collectors, actors, scholars, booksellers, and the book through which we understand and recognize Shakespeare.Trade ReviewA fascinating and provocative book. * Daniel Swift, Spectator *Delightful. * Jerry Brotton, The Daily Telegraph *Her diligence in considering every aspect of the Folio's material existence is commendable. * Brian Vickers, Times Literary Supplement *This is a beautifully judged book about books, impeccably researched yet wry and affectionate. * Jerry Brotton, Financial Times *Smith's account of the Folio's distinguished career is very nicely written and consistently entertaining and informative... It is the modern equivalent of a magic book, and Smith's own book does justice to that magic. * Times Higher Education *Emma Smith's book comes as a welcome corrective to the fascination with Shakespeare the man ... as it is the "biography" of something far more interesting: a book. * Stuart Kelly, Independent *I've been looking forward to Emma Smith's Shakespeare's First Folio ever since I heard her give a paper that asked, "can you actually read the First Folio?" It's that sort of arresting question that wouldn't occur to many other people that makes her scholarship so inventive and absorbing. * Jem Bloomfield, Times Higher Education, Summer Reads 2016 *A charming, enlightening account, not so much of the origins, as of the fortunes over the years subsequently, of the great edition. * David Sexton, Evening Standard *Smith is one of the cleverest scholars around, but her academic weight is balanced with an accessible tone and wry humour. * Bristol Magazine *A marvelous bit of scholarship. Detailed without being dry, playful without being silly, it's a well-researched, thoroughly balanced account of this 'iconic book.' * The Oxford Culture Review *The book is well illustrated, and Smith writes with great style. * Ben Higgins, Review of English Studies *... offers a wealth of important information, fascinating episodes, and sophisticated critical insight. It will, therefore, be of great interest to a variety of scholars in different disciplines, with literary critics, cultural historians, and scholars of book history foremost among them. * José María Pérez Fernández, Bulletin of the Comediantes *[A] compassionate biography... a wonderful testimony to the 'worlds most expensive book' and the readers who keep it that way. * Charlotte Scott, Shakespeare Survey *This book is a very good read, a largely anecdotal but always entertaining account of copies of the Shakespeare First Folio from their production in 1623 to the present ... the pleasure and instruction this book will bring to the casual bibliophile or the Shakespeare enthusiast. * Alan H. Nelson, Renaissance Quarterly *Smith's second book, Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book, picks up where The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio leaves off, tracing different ways of interacting with the Folio owning, reading, forging, acting, collecting, and studying from the seventeenth century to our own time, and from Europe and America to Africa and Asia. * Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Thoroughly researched, and well-organized. * Anna Faktorovich, Pennsylvania Literary Journal *[An] excellent companion. * Camille Ralphs, Poetry Foundation *Authoritative, lively and accessible. * Rhodri Lewis, Prospect *Table of ContentsIntroduction Sir Edward Dering goes shopping 1: Owning 2: Reading 3: Decoding 4: Performing 5: Perfecting Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBeloved by children and adults worldwide, the writings of C.S. Lewis have a broad and enduring appeal. Although he is best known for the iconic Chronicles of Narnia series, C. S. Lewis was actually a man of many literary parts. Already well-known as a scholar in the thirties, he became a famous broadcaster during World War Two and wrote in many genres, including satire (The Screwtape Letters), science fiction ( Perelandra), a novel (Till We Have Faces), and many other books on Christian belief, such as Mere Christianity and Miracles. His few sermons remain touchstones of their type. In addition to these, Lewis wrote hundreds of poems and articles on social and cultural issues, many books and articles in his field of literary criticism and history, and thousands of letters. At Oxford University he became a charismatic lecturer and conversationalist. Taken together his writings have engaged and influenced, often very deeply, millions of readers. Now Lewis societies, television documentaries, movies, radio plays, and theatrical treatments of his work and life have become common, and he is frequently quoted by journalists, critics, and public thinkers. This Very Short Introduciton delves into the vast corpus of C. S. Lewis'' work, discussing its core themes and lasting appeal. As James Como shows, C. S. Lewis'' life is just as interesting as his work. A complex man, he came to his knowledge, beliefs, and wisdom only after much tortuous soul-searching and many painful events. Moving chronologically through Lewis'' life, Como provides throughout a picture of the whole man, his work, and his enduring legacy.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewJames Como, founder of the New York CS Lewis society and a world authority on Lewis, has produced a brilliant, short introduction ... that manages to say a great deal in very few words. * Church of England Newspaper *This is the single finest biographical survey yet written on C. S. Lewis ... Dr. Como's Very Short Introduction employs the best sources possible, fully understanding the evolution of Lewis's own thought and writings while also incorporating the finest reminiscences of the man. * Bradley J Birzer, The Imaginative Conservative *Como's C.S. Lewis: A Very Short Introduction is a useful text to recommend to new scholars and fans of Lewis and his work and is a refreshing reminder of how the various Lewises make up the one man. * Zachary Rhone, Mythlore Journal *Como on Lewis is like Lewis on Christianity: He says so much in so few words. It is succinctness raised to an art form. Thoroughly recommended. * Joseph Pearce, Author, Further Up & Further In: Understanding Narnia *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Lewis along the way 2: Roots 3: Lewis ascendant 4: Fame 5: Darkness and light 6: A new day 7: End game 8: The weight of glory A readers' list of C. S. Lewis's works by type Books of particular importance to C. S. Lewis A selected secondary bibliography Further reading

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Book Synopsis''Superlative... definitive and genuinely gripping'' SUNDAY TIMES''Utterly engrossing'' EVENING STANDARD''Compulsively readable... Beautifully written... Definitive'' OBSERVER Appointed by Philip Roth and granted complete access and independence, Blake Bailey spent years poring over Roth''s personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and engaging Roth himself in breathtakingly candid conversations. The result is an indelible portrait of an American master and of the post-war literary scene. Bailey shows how Roth emerged from a lower-middle-class Jewish milieu to achieve the heights of literary fame, how his career was nearly derailed by his catastrophic first marriage, and how he championed the work of dissident novelists behind the Iron Curtain. Bailey examines Roth''s rivalrous friendships with Saul Bellow, John Updike and William Styron, and reveals the truths of his florid love lifeTrade ReviewSuperlative... Bailey's account is definitive and genuinely gripping to boot... He leads us lucidly through a dense palimpsest of overlapping drafts, fictional identities, literary feuds and women. -- Claire Lowdon * Sunday Times *Compulsively readable... Beautifully written... It is hard to imagine a book that will come up with a more definitive series of answers than this one. -- Tim Adams * Observer *[A] monumental and engrossing book... Bailey brings new information and a fresh perspective... No other biographer will have known Roth so well. -- Elaine Showalter * Times Literary Supplement *Bailey's utterly engrossing biography ... shows Roth led a life just as strange and intense as his fictionalised alter egos. -- Tomiwa Owolade * Evening Standard *It's a miracle that he has published so lucid a book just three years after Roth's death - and one so packed with good anecdotes and jokes... It's an achievement for Bailey to have gained as much distance as he has. -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *Philip Roth, for all his flaws, for all that I know his legacy will continue to be judged in judgmental times and found wanting, deserves this riveting, serious and deeply intelligent biography. -- David Baddiel * Spectator *The 19th-century novel lives on. Its name today is Biography; its nature is that of Dostoyevskian magnitude. And Blake Bailey's comprehensive life of Philip Roth - to tell it outright - is a narrative masterwork.' -- Cynthia Ozick * New York Times Book Review *Unassailable as to fact... clear-eyed... quickly moving... Philip Roth seems as brightly peopled as a Victorian novel. ... What [Bailey] does superbly... is chart Roth's sexual and emotional life, and map its effects on his work. -- Michael Gorra * New York Review of Books *[A] terrific new biography... Bailey handles...difficult passages with real skill. -- Benjamin Markovits * Daily Telegraph *A colourful, confident and uncompromising biographical triumph. -- Alexander C Kafka * Independent *

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Book Synopsis''What had happened to the lost manuscripts, what train of chances took Rolfe to his death in Venice? The Quest continued''One summer afternoon A.J.A. Symons is handed a peculiar, eccentric novel that he cannot forget and, captivated by this unknown masterpiece, determines to learn everything he can about its mysterious author. The object of his search is Frederick Rolfe, self-titled Baron Corvo - artist, rejected candidate for priesthood and author of serially autobiographical fictions - and its story is told in this ''experiment in biography'': a beguiling portrait of an insoluble tangle of talents, frustrated ambitions and self-destruction.Trade ReviewPart detective story, part spiritual journey, and part meditation on biography. Steeped in arcane learning, queer encounters, and fanciful symbolist prose, it is a very peculiar operation indeed, leaving he reader unconvinced that there was ever such a real person as Frederick Rolfe - or, possibly, his biographer -- Hermione LeeA slender book, an odd book, a completely original book ... a masterpiece * Wall Street Journal *One of the genre's most notable - if also quirkiest - triumphs * New Criterion *Extraordinary ... a new template for twentieth-century biography * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisAn intimate study of three of Ireland''s greatest writers from one of its best-loved contemporary voices, Colm Tóibín__________________In Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know Colm Tóibín takes three of Ireland''s greatest writers - Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats and James Joyce - and examines their earliest influences: their fathers. With his inimitable wit and sensitivity, Tóibín introduces us to Wilde Senior, the philandering doctor whose libel case prefigured that of his son; the elder Yeats, an impoverished artist who never finished a painting; and to John Stanislaus Joyce, the hard-drinking, storytelling father of James, who couldn''t feed his own family. This is an illuminating study of how each of these men cast a long shadow not only over the lives of their famous sons, but over the works for which they are celebrated and cherished.__________________''Astonishing to read. Tóibín has a hawk-like eye for literary subtleties, and a generosity towards his subjects that is warm'' Sunday Times''Funny, exciting, illuminating, wonderful, so engaging. Tells us more than a little about our own selves along the way'' Irish Times''There is something interesting and insightful on almost every page'' Observer''Sparkling, subtle, witty and often deeply moving . . . A classic'' Fintan O''Toole, New Statesman''Scintillating, imaginative, enlightening and powerfully moving throughout'' Roy Foster, SpectatorTrade ReviewThere is something interesting and intriguing to be found on almost every page -- Rachel Cooke * Guardian *Toibin has a hawk-like eye for literary subtleties, and a generosity towards his subjects that is warm and unacademic. * The Sunday Times *Toibin has a hawk-like eye for literary subtleties, and a generosity towards his subjects that is warm and unacademic. * The Sunday Times *Full of insight and intrigue * Observer *Searching, funny, generous * Irish Times *Subtle, witty and often deeply moving * New Statesman *If there is a more brilliant writer than Tóibín working today, I don't know who that would be -- Karen Joy FowlerToibin is a supple, subtle thinker, alive to hints and undertones, wary of absolute truths * New Statesman *A consistently revealing look at how writers' relationships have influenced their work * Sunday Telegraph on 'New Ways to Kill Your Mother' *A wide-ranging and enlightening study of the potentially stifling family and the individual spirit of the writer * Sunday Times on 'New Ways to Kill Your Mother' *

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Book SynopsisIn Living to Tell the Tale Gabriel Garcia Marquez - winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude - recounts his personal experience of returning to the house in which he grew up and the memories that this visit conjured. ''My mother asked me to go with her to sell the house''Gabriel Garcia Marquez was twenty-three, a young man experimenting with his writing when this mother asked him to come back with her to the village of his grandparents and the memories of his Colombian childhood.In the first part of Gabriel Garcia Marquez''s memoir, the Nobel Prize-winning author returns to the atmosphere and influences that shaped his formidable imagination and formed the basis of his world-famous, and much-loved, fiction.''A treasure trove, a discovery of a lost land we knew existed but couldn''t find. A thrilling miracle of a book'' The Times''A marvellous journey. Never less thanTrade ReviewMárquez's greatest book. As a reading experience it is completely magical * Observer *

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Book SynopsisA fascinating journey into the life of H.G. Wells, from one of Britain''s best biographersHow did the first forty years of H. G. Wells'' life shape the father of science fiction?From his impoverished childhood in a working-class English family, to his determination to educate himself at any cost, to the serious ill health that dominated his twenties and thirties, his complicated marriages, and love affair with socialism, the first forty years of H. G. Wells'' extraordinary life would set him on a path to become one of the world''s most influential writers. The sudden success of The Time Machine and The War of The Worlds transformed his life and catapulted him to international fame; he became the writer who most inspired Orwell and countless others, and predicted men walking on the moon seventy years before it happened.In this remarkable, empathetic biography, Claire Tomalin paints a fascinating portrait of a man like no other, drivTrade ReviewYou put down Tomalin's book knowing you have met a living author * The Times *Richly informative... Tomalin admits that, although she set out to write about the young Wells, she has followed him into his forties because she found him 'too interesting to leave'. The same can be said of her book * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisReissued with a new preface to commemorate the publication of "A la recherche du temps perdu" one hundred years ago, this title portrays in abundant detail the life and times of literary voices of the twentieth century.Trade Review“Carter’s greatest contribution to date . . . [a] towering biography of Proust, meticulously researched and accessibly written.”—Adam Watt, H-France Review -- Adam Watt * H-France Review *

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Book SynopsisMost famous for The Wilder Shores of Love, her book about four women travellers, Lesley Blanch was a scholarly romantic and a bold writer. Her lifelong passion was for Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East. At heart a nomad, she spent the greater part of her life travelling the remote areas her books record so vividly.Edited by her goddaughter Georgia de Chamberet, who was working with her in her centenary year, this book collects together the story of Blanch''s marriage, previously published only in French; a selection of her journalism which brings to life the artistic melting pot that was London between the wars; and a selection of her most evocative travel pieces.Illustrated with photos alongside a selection of line drawings by Lesley BlanchTrade ReviewSumptuous and captivating Independent A medly ... of irresistible charm Literary Review On the Wilder Shores of Love brings [Lesley Blanch's] personality vividly to life Spectator Readers can enjoy Blanch's precise use of words, astonishing range of reference, and ability to get under the skin ... Blanch's account of her marriage is a politely lethal masterpiece Times Literary Supplement This volume, edited with affection and grace by de Chamberet, is a deliciously readable monument to a writer who combined a steely resilience and capacity for hard work with an elegant frivolity and a voracious appetite for love, beauty and adventure -- Jane Shilling Daily Telegraph This anthology is a delicious, readable monument to Lesley Blanch Telegraph 'Deliciously readable' Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisRichard Burton was a brilliant, charismatic man - a unique blend of erudite scholar and daring adventurer. Fluent in twenty-nine languages, he found it easy to pass himself off as a native, thereby gaining unique insight into societies otherwise closed to Western scrutiny. He followed service as an intelligence officer in India by a daring penetration of the sacred Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina disguised as a pilgrim. He was the first European to enter the forbidden African city of Harar, and discovered Lake Tanganyika in his search for the source of the Nile. His fascination with, and research into, the intimate customs of ethnic races (which would eventually culminate in his brilliant Kama Sutra) earned him a racy reputation in that age of sexual repression.Little surprise, then, that Isabel Arundell''s aristocratic mother objected to her daughter''s marriage to this most notorious of figures. Isabel, however, was a spirited, independent-minded woman and was alsoTrade ReviewScholarly ... Fabulous ... The biography shines its light on that remorselessly interesting period of British history, the Victorian era * TELEGRPAH *A monumentual biography * THE TIMES *Gripping * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *A RAGE TO LIVE is a splendid and very enjoyable book. Mary S Lovell does her hero and heroine proud * LITERARY REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisThe definitive one-volume biography of a literary legend.Trade ReviewRussian Roulette bounds along with fluency, clarity and wry humour -- John Walsh * Sunday Times *At last, a biography that does justice to Graham Greene . . . [Richard Greene] writes briskly and engagingly, with a wry wit and an endearing fondness for trivia and puns. He is also less giddy, and less of a hero-worshipper, than most of the previous biographers . . . Greene emerges from these pages in three dimensions, as a uniquely fascinating man -- Jake Kerridge * Sunday Telegraph *Nicely written and well-judged cradle-to-grave portrait that needed to be conventional and unshowy, and is all the better for it . . . Richard Greene has mastered a tremendous amount of material -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Spectator *Richard Greene-no relation-says ruefully of Graham Greene that his life is "sometimes boiled down to sex, books and depression" by critics. In his exhaustive, engaging study of Greene, his biographer attempts to reclaim him as a writer who speaks to our "unquiet world" rather than being mired in "Greeneland," a place where betrayal and guilt trudge glumly on together . . . This thoughtful book clearly shows the cost of a life lived on the run -- Alexander Larman * Prospect *Thank goodness for Richard Greene, whose splendid one-volume biography offers a succinct counterbalance to Sherry's inedible trifle and conjures the man Evelyn Waugh nicknamed "Grisjambon Vert" (French for "grey ham green") in all his perplexing variety. Where Sherry is tactless and indecorous, Richard Greene (no relation) is respectful and considered. Crisply written, Russian Roulette takes its title from Greene's vaunted flirtation with suicide as a teenager in Berkhamsted outside London, where his father was a school headmaster . . . Cogently argued and happily free of jargon, Russian Roulette offers a long-needed antidote to "dirty linen" biographers who have sought to expose a darker shade of Greene and, in consequence, lost sight of the books. At last Graham Greene has the biographer he deserves -- Ian Thomson * Evening Standard *A brilliant new biography * Daily Mail *The best biography I read this year . . . Richard Greene never met the author, but he conjures him back to life in a sensible, unsensational way -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Spectator *Well-researched, neatly written * Private Eye *Seamlessly and perceptively, Greene's life experiences are melded with the content of his novels, to establish him as a master craftsman who comes close to greatness * Daily Mail *Perceptive, refreshingly unsolemn, lively, at times funny, and shrewd throughout. It's also a wonderfully bright and entertaining read -- John Banville

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Book SynopsisAn incisive biography of E.E. Cummings' early life, including his First World War ambulance service and subsequent imprisonment, inspirations for his inventive poetry

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Book SynopsisMichael Wood was born in Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford, where he did post-graduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. A broadcaster and film-maker, he is the author of several highly praised books on English history, including In Search of the Dark Ages, Domesday and recently In Search of England. He has over eight documentary films to his name, including Art of the Western World, Legacy, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great and the highly acclaimed Conquistadors. The writer behind three BBC films about Shakespeare's early history plays, he was a contributor to Shakespearean Perspective (1985). Michael Wood is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.Trade ReviewWood's is an honest, well-organised account that will serve the reader well. * Independent on Sunday *Thanks to the author's gifts of story-teller, populariser and interpreter, Shakespeare's world is brought to life more vividly than in any other biography of him I have read. All the latest professional scholarship on the question on Shakespeare and Catholicism is effectively incorporated in the book, but where Wood has made genuine finds of his own is in the area of the dramatist's day-to-day life. * Sunday Telegraph *In this enthralling book Michael Wood evokes the physical and intellectual environment in which Shakespeare lived and worked with vivid and original immediacy. -- Professor Stanley Wells, Editor of The Oxford ShakespeareWood is a perceptive, entertaining and enthusiastic companion. * Sunday Times *Shakespeare emerges from the book as the master general he must have been. -- Clive James * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThe enormous popular appeal of Philip Larkin''s poetry has long been established; but oddly little is known to his admiring public about the personality behind the work.The Selected Letters will change this, throwing light on a more complex, and in many ways more remarkable, figure than most readers will be expecting. Whether addressing his literary friends - who included Barbara Pym, Kingsley Amis and John Betjeman - or those less prominently placed, Larkin shows himself to have been one of the frankest and most generously entertaining letter-writers of the century.Confessions, jokes, advice, scurrilities, pronouncements on literature and jazz, impromptu verses published here for the first time, gossip and wisdom abound in these pages. They give an astonishing view of a great poet''s progress from brash youth to rueful age, and, in complementing the poems, provide a biographical document that no serious reader can afford to ignore.

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Book SynopsisPronounced guilty of libel and sentenced to a year in prison, novelist Émile Zola went on the run. Zola's crime had been to defend a wrongly convicted man, in what became known as the Dreyfus Affair. Fleeing the French state with just hours to spare he ended up living in the suburbs of south London unable to speak a word of English. Michael Rosen brings to life the sleepy world of late Victorian suburbia, Zola's turbulent politics and his tangled private life. Desperate to write a novel, he was also trying to balance the extremely delicate matter of the two women in his life one the mother of his children, the other his wife. The Disappearance of Émile Zola is the incredible true story of a writer's personal bravery in the face of the greatest political scandal of the age.

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Book SynopsisThe complete guide to the inspiration that is J.R.R. Tolkien

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Book SynopsisThis edition will include updated text that highlights the new film adaptations inspired by Austen’s books and characters, and a reading guide perfect for deeper thought or book club discussions.

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Book SynopsisMark Akenside (1721-1770) was a medical doctor and literary man whose influence on the history of ideas was profound. The author recognises that there is a need to explore, re-evaluate and recognise the importance of Mark Akenside''s contribution to cultural history, in his own time and from a current perspective. Born the son of a butcher in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1721 Mark Akenside was awarded a degree in medicine from Edinburgh and Leyden Universities. He settled in London in 1743 where he was successful both as a doctor and in medical research. Above all, he was the author of The Pleasures of Imagination 1744, an epic length poem in blank verse which broke many conventions of the time, exploring ideas about human perception and the natural world. Akenside had a European reputation and became a national celebrity. He was a major influence on first- and second-generaTable of ContentsForeword Preface Introduction Chapter One: Newcastle Scholar Chapter Two: A Radical Student and Satirist Chapter Three: Akenside the Lover and Medical Man Chapter Four: A Prometheus Unbound Chapter Five: Interlude I: A Collection of Odes Chapter Six: Towards Relativity and Subjectivity Chapter Seven: Musing and Conversations Chapter Eight: Poetic Colour Chapter Nine: Interlude II: The Inscriptions Chapter Ten: A Valediction and Conclusion Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAnna Beer investigates the lives and achievements of eight women writers, uncovering a startling and unconventional history of literatureMargery Kempe. Aemilia Lanyer. Aphra Behn. Lady Mary. Jane Austen. Warned not to write - and certainly not to bite - these women put pen to paper anyway and wrote themselves into history. ‘Smart, funny and highly readable... a tour de force.’ A.L. Kennedy Ever since Sappho first put stylus to papyrus, women who write have been labelled mad, undisciplined and dangerous. Funny and provocative, Eve Bites Back offers an alternative history of English literature. Placing the female contemporaries of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton centre stage, Anna Beer builds a vibrant new canon through Restoration wits, scandalous sensation novelists and medieval mystics. Delving into the lives and work of eight pioneers - Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer, Anne Bradstreet, ApTrade Review‘A smart, funny and highly readable journey through the lives of women writers and the challenges they and their works face. It’s an informative, enthusiastic and rightly enraging tour de force.’ —A.L. Kennedy'Essential reading.' —Claire Tomalin'In this splendid alternative history of English literature, Anna Beer shows that "simply by putting words together on the page" women authors have for centuries fought back… [an] excellent study: "let’s scavenge and rebuild in the face of the destruction of women’s work…Let’s find the precious gems amidst the rubble."' —Guardian'Eve Bites Back isn’t pleading for justice for female writers, it’s indicting a system that has long ignored them and, to some extent, still does… Part polemic, part revisionist criticism, Eve Bites Back, as its title suggests, is sharp and aggressive, a book that will irritate, enlighten, persuade and provoke argument. It’s a work of correction, in every sense of the word.’ —Washington Post'A totally absorbing and enlightening tour through the work of eight significant women authors – with one of the funniest introductory chapters ever.' —Sarah Bakewell'Writing with energy, wit and at times barely suppressed fury, Anna Beer brings to life the struggle to be heard of eight women writers over 500 years. Her subtle literary excavations are both informative and a gripping read.' —David Goodhart, founder editor of Prospect'Startling stories and facts on every page. Written with a clear and authoritative voice, this is both a very entertaining and very important book about the many obstacles that women have overcome to be writers, and the long struggles even the most gifted and well-connected women authors have encountered in order to be taken seriously.' —Yasmin Khan, associate professor of history, University of Oxford'Anna Beer is one of those very rare writers who are able to combine rigorous research with a gripping and thoroughly accessible style. This is an ambitious, authoritative, feisty book and a worthy successor to her inspirational Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music.' —Kate Kennedy, author of Dweller in Shadows'Eve Bites Back … is shaped by the same principles [as Beer’s earlier work] – feminist indignation, certainly, but also a drive to share ideas and observations about a diverse body of achievement, emerging from historical periods radically different from our own … invigorating.' —Dinah Birch, TLS'A delightful, and challenging read.' —New York Journal of Books'A thorough, wide-reaching overview of women’s literary accomplishments viewed through a fresh, modern lens … Eve Bites Back is an exemplary work of literary criticism.' —Foreword Reviews'In her alternative history of English literature, Eve Bites Back, cultural historian and biographer Anna Beer takes up arms against the patriarchy… extensive and meticulous.' —Washington Independent Review of Books

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis*Pulitzer Prize Finalist* *Bonney MacDonald Award Winner for Outstanding Western Book* A biography of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry from New York Times bestselling author Tracy Daugherty.In over forty books, in a career that spanned over sixty years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West, and as the Great Plains' keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner. Larry McMurtry: A Life traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country's pioneer traditions. It follows his astonishing career as bestselling novelist, Pulitzer-Prize winner, author of the beloved Lonesome Dove, Academy-Award winning screenwriter, public intellectual, and passionate bookseller. A sweeping and insightful look at a versatile, one-of-a-kind American writer, this book is a must-read for every Larry McMurtry fan.

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Book Synopsis_The Real JRR Tolkien: The Man Who Created Middle Earth_ is a comprehensive biography of the linguist and writer; taking the reader from his formative years of home-schooling, through the spires of Oxford, to his romance with his wife-to-be on the brink of war, and onwards into his phenomenal academic success and his creation of the seminal high fantasy world of Middle Earth. _The Real JRR Tolkien_ delves into his influences, places, friendships, triumphs and tragedies, with particular emphasis on how his remarkable life and loves forged the worlds of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Using contemporary sources and comprehensive research, _The Real JRR Tolkien_ offers a unique insight into the life and times of one of Britain''s greatest authors, from cradle to grave to legacy.

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Book SynopsisFrom Normandy to the Caribbean Islands, this innovative biographical pursuit follows Adèle Hugo on her reckless journey of unrequited love and the writer who chased after her more than 150 years later.It''s 1863. The daughter of the most famous writer in the world, Victor Hugo, who has ambitions as a writer and composer, suddenly leaves her family''s home on the Channel Islands bound for Nova Scotia. She is in pursuit of a young British soldier, with whom she is desperately in love, but who has rejected her. Eight years later, after stalking him to the Caribbean, where he''s stationed with the army, Adèle Hugo is brought back to Paris by a benevolent former slave woman who has taken pity on her. She is admitted to an asylum where she dies decades later, rich from the inheritance of the rights to her father''s books. This story of hopeless love has inspired writers, composers, and a well-known film by François Truffaut. Yet much abo

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Book Synopsis*SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2025*''Remarkable... entertaining... deft... moving... refreshing''Daily Telegraph''A richly rewarding account of a resonant cultural moment''Guardian''Textured literary portraits of the masculine mind and body''Raymond Antrobus, author of The PerseveranceIn 1960, James Baldwin decisively diagnosed the troubled state of American society as a ''failure of the masculine sensibility''. Strange Relations explores this mid-century crisis through the lives and works of four bisexual writers: Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, John Cheever, and James Baldwin. In a mesmerising blend of biography and cultural criticism, Ralf Webb examines how these writers challenged the damaging restrictions of contemporary gender and sexuality, and how, through both their art and relationships, they sought a transformative new masculinity - one grounded in fluidity, love and intimacy.''Webb''s writing is of a quality rarely seen, and his book returns you to the world slightly changed, equipped with another angle of vision on the quiddity of man''Diarmuid Hester, author of Nothing Ever Just Disappears''Impeccably well researched and hugely enjoyable''Nicole Flattery, author of Nothing Special''Wise, hopeful, and exquisitely written''Will Tosh, author of Straight Acting

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Book SynopsisThe definitive biography of the undisputed giant of English literature, a man whose own true history has long been hidden behind the fictional world of his books''Compendious and compelling ... it is impossible to imagine this Life being bettered'' WILLIAM BOYD, NEW STATESMAN''Smiley himself could not have done a better job'' SUNDAY TIMESLong after The Spy Who came in from the Cold made John le Carré a worldwide, bestselling sensation, David Cornwell, the man behind the pseudonym, remained an enigma. In this definitive biography, written with unprecedented access to the man himself, Adam Sisman offers an illuminating portrait of a fascinating and enigmatic writer.In Cornwell''s lonely childhood, Adam Sisman uncovers the origins of the themes of love and abandonment which dominated le Carré''s fiction: the departure of his mother when he was five, followed by ''sixteen hugless years'' in the dubious care of his father, a man of eneTrade ReviewUltimately it's about love ... this is a very emotional book. John le Carré had an utterly heartbreaking childhood ... This is the best biography of 2015 - a rare achievement that invites rereading -- Edward Wilson * Independent *Compendious and compelling...Sisman is excellent at the nuts and bolts of writing and of being published...it must be difficult to write the life of a man who is still very much with us, and in the public eye, no matter how much liberty the biographer has been given to tell the story, warts and all. Sisman - a very fine and astute biographer - has done an excellent, not to say exemplary, job under the circumstances ... it is impossible to imagine this Life being bettered -- William Boyd * New Statesman *This is the way to do it. Why this admirably balanced, patiently detailed biography of John le Carré is not on the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist beats me ... Sisman does full justice to [the] rawness at the heart of le Carré -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *Admirable * Financial Times *Balanced, focused and compelling * Economist *The spy novelist’s life is explored and explained with immaculate care and attention to detail * Sunday Times *This book is testament to Sisman’s skill and perseverance … With his excellent grasp of the wider history, Sisman is good at anchoring Cornwell in this shadowy environment, as he guides his readers through the models for various characters … Sisman brings admirable clarity to what could have been a meander in a wilderness of mirrors -- Andrew Lycett * Spectator *A perceptive and elegant interpreter of complex lives -- Jonathan Dimbleby * Radio Times *Excellent ... Shows how memory, fact and fiction have danced in Le Carré’s life ... [A] masterful biography * Catholic Morning Herald *Absorbing new doorstopper * Western Morning News *Sisman often came to know the reality of what happened in Cornwell’s life better than Cornwell himself did * Newsweek *Respectful though far from sycophantic - Best Books of 2015 -- Gaby Wood * Daily Telegraph *This riveting, thorough biography reveals the real world of Cornwell to be every bit as fascinating as his much-loved fiction. The perfect Christmas present for the le Carré fan in your life * Sunday Times *Cornwell has admitted that he can no longer separate many of the facts of his life from his lies and fictions. For Sisman this is like a red rag to a bull and you can feel the thrill of the chase throughout his terrific John le Carré * Independent *However gripping John le Carré’s novels … Hang onto your hats, because the author’s real life story is equally thrilling. Biographer Adam Sisman peels back layers of le Carré to reveal David Cornwall ... This is a masterpiece of storytelling and factual revelations * Compass *Fascinating * Metro *John le Carré will not be the final word on this subject but it could hardly be bettered -- Robert McCrum * Observer *Sisman pulls it off: this is a well-written and highly readable book which is neither hagiography nor hatchet job ... Within that world he [John le Carré] conveys some of the truths of human nature, endeavour and fallibility. This is a real and rare achievement and in Adam Sisman he has a biographer worthy of it -- Alan Judd * Times Literary Supplement *Absorbing … An insightful and highly readable portrait of a writer and a man who has often been classified as elusive and enigmatic as his fictional heroes -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *Perceptive, entertaining * Guardian, 'Book of the Day' *A masterpiece * Irish Examiner, 'Books of the Year' *Extraordinary, absorbing … The most enthralling life of a writer I’ve read since I found myself riveted by Samuel Johnson’s Life of Milton 40 odd years ago … [A] magnificent book about an extraordinary man … Nothing about him [John le Carré] is more shrewd and wise and self-revealing than this superb biography he has elicited from Sisman * Australian *Excellent * Choice magazine *Meticulous and illuminating … Thankfully, his biography stops well short of hagiography * Tablet *[Sisman's] revealing biography, written in blessedly readable prose, makes a three-dimensional figure of a subject who can come across as something of a superman * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewFascinating book. * The Times *A brilliant biography of Orwell, reminding us that his work is as relevant as ever. * Irish Independent *Excellent. ***** * The Telegraph *Bradford gives a compelling analysis … pleasing idiosyncrasy, odd surprises and well-landed punches. * The Oldie *This authoritative and informative study is a fascinating examination of his life and ideas * Choice Magazine *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Misfit and the Pure Hell of St Cyprian’s 2. Eton 3. Burma 4. Slumming it 5. Was Orwell an Antisemite? 6. Hopeless 7. Books, Marriage, and the Journey North 8. Spain and Serious Politics 9. Between Wars 10. War 11. Explosive Journalism 12. Changes 13. Animal Farm 14. Jura 15. Nineteen Eighty-Four Epilogue Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1945, Eddy Sackville-West, Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Eardley Knollys - writers for the New Statesman and a National Trust administrator - purchased Long Crichel House, an old rectory with no electricity and an inadequate water supply. In this improbable place, the last English literary salon began. Quieter and less formal than the famed London literary salons, Long Crichel became an idiosyncratic experiment in communal living. Sackville-West, Shawe-Taylor and Knollys - later joined by the literary critic Raymond Mortimer - became members of one another''s surrogate families and their companionship became a stimulus for writing, for them and their guests. Long Crichel''s visitors'' book reveals a Who''s Who of the arts in post-war Britain - Nancy Mitford, Benjamin Britten, Laurie Lee, Cyril Connolly, Somerset Maugham, E.M. Forster, Cecil Beaton, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson - who were attracted by the good food, generous quantities of drink and exceTrade ReviewFascinating -- Laura Freeman * The Times *Very entertaining . . . the preservation of old houses, a cause with which many of the leading characters were involved one way or another, is skilfully used as a running theme in a book that, with a fine balance between nostalgia and clear-sightedness, commemorates a privileged world long since vanished. -- Peter Parker * Spectator *Highly evocative . . . a portrait of an enchanted world -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *The Crichel boys . . . left behind merely a memory of charm, kindness and generosity, to which Fenwick pays a tender tribute * Financial Times *A rich, luscious account of a postwar Britain that often gets lost * Mail on Sunday *Fenwick, it must be said, is very much at home in this somewhat rarefied milieu, writes perceptively about the quartet'sachievements and is sensitive to some of the problems caused by having four neurotic personalities intermittently at large under a single roof -- D. J. Taylor * Literary Review *Absorbing new history -- Alexander Larman * Observer *Fenwick gives us some fascinating vignettes of the often downplayed cultural life of post-war Britain * The Lady *

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Book SynopsisOver seventy years since his premature death, George Orwell (1903-50) has become one of the most significant figures in western literature. His two dystopian masterpieces, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) have together sold over 40 million copies. Even now, he continues to exert a decisive influence on our understanding of international power-politics. D.J. Taylor''s new biography, the first full-length study for 20 years, draws on a wide range of previously unseen material - newly-discovered letters to old girlfriends and professional colleagues, the recollections of the dwindling band of people who remember him, new information about his life in the early 1930s - to produce a definitive portrait of this complex, driven and self-mythologising man.Trade ReviewIf you want to know how [Orwell] became a great writer, and a tormented figure, and a national treasure, David Taylor's New Life is the doubleplusgood place to start * New Statesman *An astonishing verdict on George Orwell's virtues - and his vices . . . [The book] adds fresh material to give a fuller portrait of the real Eric Blair . . . it is hard to imagine him portrayed more sensitively or judiciously than he is here * Telegraph *Incisive * The Times *Mr. Taylor's Orwell: The New Life is a new text that completes the picture by fleshing out Orwell's emotional life with recently discovered letters and interviews with the last living people to have known him. Expertly told and subtle in judgment, The New Life will not be the last word in the ever-growing field of Orwelliana, but it will become its central monument * Wall Street Journal *Fluent, careful, nuanced and revealing . . . Taylor is excellent on how Orwell's childhood nourished and shaped his life . . . Taylor presents Orwell's deficiencies unstintingly while at the same time managing not to toxify the subject . . . illuminating, fair-minded work * Irish Independent *A full, richly detailed, admiring, illuminating account that nevertheless retains a sprightly, sometimes ironic pithiness . . . With a wealth of contextual information and access to extensive archival material, Mr Taylor assuredly traces his subject's picaresque progress * Country Life *Taylor is not only a compelling writer, but is also able to distil the essence of a notoriously elusive man . . . his prose [is] brisk and entertaining without skimping on detail . . . Orwell: the New Life comes as close to recreating the man as can be expected, and at a time when his insights are most needed * Critic *Taylor presents Orwell's deficiencies unstintingly while at the same time managing not to toxify the subject . . . [an] illuminating, fair-minded work * Irish Independent *A tour de force . . . if you read this definitive book, you'll almost feel you've been George Orwell himself * Daily Mail *This is a book which tells the story of how and why George Orwell became George Orwell, what it means and why it matters * Spectator *Orwell's voice comes alive again in a biography drawing on newly discovered letters * Guardian *[A] rich, vivid and comprehensive profile . . . DJ Taylor's landmark biography feels like the closest we will ever get to the truth behind [Orwell] * Business Post *Taylor keeps man and myth in play, always countering our idea of Orwell with Orwell's idea of himself and rendering his odd, infuriating, delightful character from the various shadows he threw * Tablet *An astonishing verdict on George Orwell's virtues - and his vices . . . [The book] adds fresh material to give a fuller portrait of the real Eric Blair . . . it is hard to imagine him portrayed more sensitively or judiciously than he is here * Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis''Sympathetic and wonderfully perceptive . . . a heartbreaking read''NICK COHEN, Critic''Wise, witty and empathetic . . . outstanding''JIM CRACE''A fascinating treatment of the age-old problem of writers and drink which displays the same subtle qualities as William Palmer''s own undervalued novels''D. J. TAYLORAn ''enjoyable exploration of an enduringly fascinating subject . . . [Palmer] is above all a dispassionate critic, and is always attentive to, and unwaveringly perceptive about the art of his subjects as well as their relationship with alcohol . . . [his] treatment is even-handed and largely without judgement. He tries to understand, without either condoning or censuring, the impulses behind often reprehensible behaviour''SOUMYA BHATTACHARYA, New Statesman''A vastly absorbing and entertaining study of this ever-interesting subject''ANDREW DAVIES, screenwriter and novelist<Trade ReviewSympathetic and wonderfully perceptive biographies of eleven novelists and poets . . . Palmer is too wise a writer to pretend that novelists are a race apart . . . a heartbreaking read if you have learned to love the writers Palmer covers . . . By the end of this humane book, you are not falling into the sentimentality of the maudlin drunk if you wish the writers whom Palmer so tenderly examines had seen through alcohol's false promises before it was too late. -- Nick Cohen * Critic *It is an achievement to take on this subject and succumb to neither puritanism nor romanticising. In Love with Hell will send you not to the drinks cabinet but back to your bookshelves to rediscover the brilliance that Palmer's writers couldn't quite drown. -- Sarah Ditum * The Times *William Palmer's wise, witty and empathetic account of the tug 'o war - and the complicity - between alcohol and the frailties of talent lines up brilliant and boozy biographies of eleven celebrated writers, each of whom was propelled by the grip of the bottle, the allure of the bar and pub, the terrors of the blank page, and the destructive perils of both failure and fame. It is outstanding. -- JIM CRACEA fascinating treatment of the age-old problem of writers and drink which displays the same subtle qualities as William Palmer's own undervalued novels. -- D. J. TAYLORA vastly absorbing and entertaining study of this ever-interesting subject. -- ANDREW DAVIES, screenwriter and novelistAn enjoyable exploration of an enduringly fascinating subject . . . [Palmer] is above all a dispassionate critic, and is always attentive to, and unwaveringly perceptive about the art of his subjects as well as their relationship with alcohol . . . [his] treatment is even-handed and largely without judgement. He tries to understand, without either condoning or censuring, the impulses behind often reprehensible behaviour. -- Soumya Bhattacharya * New Statesman *In Love with Hell is a fascinating and beautifully written account of the lives of eleven British and American authors whose addiction to alcohol may have been a necessary adjunct to their writing but ruined their lives. Palmer's succinct biographies contain fine descriptions of the writers, their work and the times they lived in; and there are convincing insights into what led so many authors to take to drink. -- PIERS PAUL READPraise for The India House:[T]he mood of gentle regret and a sense of living in a time out of place resembles no writer so much as Chekhov. -- Alex Larman * Observer *The India House builds on its somewhat dusty foundations to altogether dazzling effect. -- D. J. Taylor * Spectator *Praise for Four Last Things:The depth and eloquence of this fine collection . . . might surprise even the most ardent admirers of his novels. -- Paul Sussman * Independent on Sunday *Praise for The Pardon of Saint Anne:Palmer's beautifully crafted novel convincingly unfolds for us a story of inadvertent complicity in acts of unspeakable evil. -- Lisa Jardine * The Times *Praise for The Contract:A beautifully written exploration of a once famous case that has uncomfortable relevance to our own times. -- David LodgePraise for The Contract:A flawless and intelligent study of sex, politics and the abuse of power. It is both subtle and shocking: that is a rare and potent combination. -- Jim CracePraise for The Pardon of Saint Anne:[A] haunting work over which one wants simultaneously to hurry and to linger. -- Christopher Hawtree * The Times *Praise for Leporello:[A]n extraordinarily skilful novel. -- Piers Paul Read * Catholic Herald *Praise for The Good Republic:Mr Palmer's book set a standard for an east European historical novel that has yet to be matched - an especially impressive feat for an outsider . . . It is a tribute to his novelist's skills that anyone reading the book has the feeling of complete authenticity in both history and geography. Readers are left longing for a sequel. -- Edward Lucas * The Economist *A masterful insider's account of how alcohol ruined the sustained careers of 11 writers, including Kingsley Amis, Dylan Thomas and Jean Rhys. * Books of the Year, New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisA thrilling family story of aristocratic decadence and decline.Trade ReviewBrand has written a delectable biography and, while she never exalts the family, she can't help but be moved by that Byronic lust for life - even when it is thwarted * Sunday Times *In this luscious slice of popular history, Emily Brand knits together all the naughtiest Byrons of the Georgian period into a glittering family tapestry . . . Brand is particularly good at describing the outrageous excess of aristocratic life . . . Brand has done an excellent job of placing the sexploits of the Byron family into the context of a broader social and political history . . . this feels like a fable of our times * Mail on Sunday *A thoroughly researched, juicily readable account of how the poet Byron's ancestors drank and spent their way from being respected courtiers to penurious disgraces * The Telegraph *The effect of [Brand's] narrative elasticity is to give the book a novelistic depth, which is added to by rich topographical descriptions and a packed historical backdrop. The Byrons, she concludes, were less cursed than the product of an age of upheaval * The Spectator *[Brand] has combed through [Byron's] forebears' correspondence to show that the blend of traits that we call Byronic - violent temper, rapacious sexuality, hunger for danger, gobsmacking solipsism - was an old vintage . . . scrupulously researched * The Times *Brand, a young historian specialising in eighteenth-century romance, traces the many ways that historical events cut across their lives, complete with observations from family acquaintances Horace Walpole and Samuel Johnson. However, her history is as much caught up with the "fiddle-faddle" of the bon ton, and is all the more enjoyable for it . . . a ravishing family saga' * Sunday Times *Pacey, well observed and written with gusto * Literary Review *A story of sex and scandal, but also of the fragility of life, the unyielding passion of the human heart, and the oppressive weight of the past. From the first to the last, the ghosts of the Byrons call out to us through Brand's evocative prose. MagnificentCompellingly plotted, and Emily Brand renders a deeply imagined world * Irish Times Review *Gripping ... A tale of murder, seduction, incest, elopement and shipwreck ... Just gorgeous. * BBC History Magazine *Brand should be commended for her command of detail and use of often extremely obscure period sources to illuminate both character and setting. This will justly be regarded as the definitive work about the wider Byron family. * The Critic *Brand charts the family fortunes in a book that is both extremely well researched and brilliantly written. * NSW [PRINT] Herald Sun [AUDIENCE: 306,571 ASR: AUD 38,632] *A gloriously indulgent portrait of a flamboyant family of adventurers, artists and scandalous socialites * NATIONAL [PRINT] Australian Women's Weekly [AUDIENCE: 375,036 ASR: AUD 32,720] *A dramatic family saga [that] shows that Lord Byron's ancestors were just as wicked and salacious as he was. * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisA TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH AND PICK OF THE YEARThe extraordinary story of Frieda von Richthofen, wife of D. H. Lawrence and the inspiration for Lady Chatterley''s Lover.''Effervescent'' The Times''A convincing evocation of a remarkable woman'' Sunday Times ''Clever and deeply humane'' Observer''A lush and absorbing portrait of a fascinating woman who refused to compromise on what really matters: to be known, to love, to be beloved'' Polly Clark, author of LarchfieldGermany, 1907Aristocrat Frieda von Richthofen has rashly married English professor Ernest Weekley. Visiting her sisters in Munich, she is captivated by a city alive with ideas of revolution and free love, and, goaded by sibling rivalry with her sisters and the need to be more than mother and wife, Frieda embarks on a passionate affair that is her sTrade ReviewAbbs has a healthy disregard for the "great man" theory of literary history, and this clever and deeply humane book enables Frieda to emerge from her husband's shadow as she becomes fascinated by ideas of self-fulfilment and empowerment. With a fine eye for period detail, Abbs confirms her standing as one of the best historical novelists today. * Observer *Annabel Abbs has done a superb job of chronicling Frieda's early life . . . Abbs is brilliant at showing the tensions between Frieda's numbing role as mother to three children, and her desire to live a sensuous, vivid life . . . I adored her * The Times *Effervescent . . . a wonderful portrait of an extraordinary woman * The Times *A convincing evocation of a remarkable woman * The Sunday Times *A lushly written second novel that contrives to be at once mischievous and testing. No reader will think of DH Lawrence in quite the same way again . . . Frieda emerges as a woman at once scandalously out of step with the #MeToo movement and wholly herself and it is this contradiction that gives Abbs's exuberant novel its compelling charge * Observer *A lush and absorbing portrait of a fascinating woman who refused to compromise on what really matters: to be known, to love, to be beloved. She, and all those connected with her, live and breathe in Abbs's beautifully crafted novel * Polly Clark, author of LARCHFIELD *A sharp new novel ... She emerges as a warm, intelligent woman in this nuanced, layered portrait * Mail on Sunday *A compassionately imagined tale * Daily Mail *A brilliant example of its genre ... Frieda is hard to put down thanks to its heroine's audacity and strength * Stylist *When she meets the young writer, D. H. Lawrence, she falls so passionately in love that she gives up everything in order to be with him . . . the true and fascinating story of the real-life inspiration for Lady Chatterley's Lover * Red *Abbs succeeds in portraying Frieda as a true bohemian and the themes of gender, identity and class are as poignant here as they were in Lawrence's novel. An important book with a strong narrative, it offers an insight into a woman's psyche and the many roles she played in society, in the home, and as a literary muse. An incredible piece of storytelling. * The Lady *The fascinating life of Frieda von Richthofen, wife of D.H. Lawrence and inspiration for Lady Chatterley's Lover * Good Housekeeping *In her first novel, The Joyce Girl, Annabel Abbs explored life in the shadows of literary fame. In her second, we are again in the sphere of early 20th-century literature, but with a very different protagonist who left her echoes in the often controversial works of D. H. Lawrence . . . Frieda is an extraordinary woman who incites remarkable passions in the men who love her . . the narrative is both skilful and restrained throughout. Another absolutely superb novel from Annabel Abbs. * Historical Novel Society *I loved it. * Clare Clarke, author of In the Full Light of the Sun *Another superbly written biographical novel by an author who probes deep into her characters' lives in a way that makes them instantly accessible . . . Rush out and buy Frieda as soon as the shops are open. * Sussex Express *An enticing and well-constructed story that is also a fine study of Edwardian social mores, female sexuality and political awakening. Frieda's struggle to find her place in the world -- balancing the love for her children with wanting to break free of stifling social constructs -- is utterly compelling and also feels relevant to a modern audience. Glorious! * The Reading Agency *Frieda's complex character is brought vividly to life, while the underlying debates about feminism and the nature of emancipation still resonate today. * Hexham Courant *A compelling story . . . Abbs' book brilliantly conveys the turmoil and anguish her choice (if indeed she felt she had any choice) caused Frieda, and recreates her complex, tumultuous inner world with skill, empathy and a refreshing lack of judgement. * Viva Lewes *Poignant . . . Abbs' novel emphasises Frieda's own sense of being a person in continual construction * The Australian *Frieda really is an outstanding novel . . . glorious, vivid and immersive * Theresa Smith Writes blog *A read that combines literary research with a skill for creating a fascinating narrative, Frieda breathes new life to a literary figure, and sheds new light on a literary classic. Fascinating, beautifully written and hugely gripping, it's a read that has changed my understanding of D.H. Lawrence, and comes highly recommended -- Luke Marlowe * The Bookbag *A picture of a woman . . . with a very open and naive heart, searching for something, yet never really finding her true "self" . . . a multi-faceted novel that drew me in and took me on quite a journey. * Trip Fiction *

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Book SynopsisIncludes a new introduction from Sophie Hannah, bestselling author of THE MONOGRAM MURDERS and HAVEN''T THEY GROWNAgatha Christie was not only the biggest selling writer of detective stories the world has ever known, she was also a mystery in herself, giving only the rarest interviews, declining absolutely to become any sort of public figure, and a mystery too in the manner in which she achieved her astonishing success.H R F Keating, a crime novelist and respected reviewer of crime fiction, brought together a dozen distinguished writers from both sides of the Atlantic to throw light on this double mystery. Some analyse the art itself; some explain the reasons for her success, not just the books, but also in film and theatre.The approaches are penetrating, affectionate, enthusiastic, analytical, funny - even critical. Together, they give an almost unique insight into the life and work of the First Lady of Crime.Trade ReviewA salute by her fellow thriller writers and by those who know about her plays and films is all that is needed ... Gilbert's summary of Dame Agatha's life strikes just the right note and his handling of the 1926 "disappearance" when Dame Agatha was missing for nine days is informative ... Walter's account of Christie's sales as seen by her London publisher is full of interest * DAILY TELEGRAPH *

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Book SynopsisThe title of this book, Derivative Lives, alludes to the challenge of finding one's way within the contemporary market of virtually limitless information and claims to veracity. Amid this profusion of options, it is easy to feel lost in spaces of uncertainty where biographical truth teeters between the real and the imaginative. The title thus also points to the prolific market of biographical novels that openly and intentionally play in the speculative space between the real and the fictional. Drawing on theories of risk and uncertainty, Derivative Lives considers the surge in biofiction in Spain and globally, relating literary expression to concepts such as circumstantiality, derivatives, speculation, and game studies.Trade ReviewA brilliant analysis of the Spanish biofictional novel within the wider context of contemporary thought. Virginia Rademacher examines research from both within and beyond the field of literary criticism to show how biofiction as a genre challenges the notion of history as an abstraction or an irretrievable reality by depicting how real people deal with specific historical situations. Rademacher's command of modern history, intellectual currents, and the Spanish bio-novel is indeed impressive. * Bárbara Mujica, author of Frida, Sister Teresa, I Am Venus and Miss del Río *With case studies drawn from some of contemporary Spain’s most exciting writers, this is an original and compellingly theorized exploration of how biofiction works to understand, vex, exploit, or otherwise experiment with questions of uncertainty, identity, and risk in the supermodern present. Rademacher engages playfully and productively with disciplinary discourses emerging from fields such as law, finance and economics—which similarly contend with competing claims to truth and value—and dives deep into the circumstantial and speculative games that authors play when they write fiction about reality. * Samuel Amago, Professor of Spanish, University of Virginia, USA *Considering the rich field of Spanish biofiction in relation to concepts of uncertainty, speculation, and risk in a post-truth age, Rademacher’s Derivative Lives establishes an exciting interdisciplinary nexus. In the course of this study, Rademacher expands the scope and ambition of biofiction studies. * Bethany Layne, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, De Montfort University, UK *Derivative Lives nos ofrece una profunda, amena, necesaria y muy interesante indagación de las borrosas fronteras entre lo real y lo ficticio, en un mundo cada vez más impreciso en donde ni siquiera la propia identidad resulta fiable. Derivative Lives offers us a deep, entertaining, necessary, and very interesting investigation of the blurred borders between reality and fiction, in an increasingly imprecise world where even one’s own identity is not reliable. * Rosa Montero, writer, author of El peligro de estar cuerda (2022) *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction SECTION I The Circumstantial Case: Chasing Criminals/Tracing Traumatic Histories 1. Making the Circumstantial Case: Reasonable Doubt and Moral Certainty in Javier Cercas’ Soldiers of Salamis 2. Fugitive Biofictions: Antonio Muñoz Molina’s Like a Fading Shadow and Gabriela Ybarra’s The Dinner Guest SECTION II Speculative Truths and Derivative Fictions 3. Entertaining the What-Ifs in Rosa Montero’s The Madwoman of the House and the Ridiculous Idea of Never Seeing You Again 4. Fraudulent Pasts and Fictional Futures in Javier Cercas’ The Impostor and Adolfo García Ortega’s The Birthday Buyer SECTION III Critical Play in Biofictional Games 5. Playing for Real: Simulated Games of Identity in Lucía Etxebarria’s Courtney and I and Truth is Nothing but a Moment of Falsehood Appendices to Chapter 5 6. Literary Afterlives and Paratextual Play: Elvira Navarro’s The Last Days of Adelaida García Morales and Antonio Orejudos’s The Famous Five and Me Coda: Biofiction’s Antidotes to Post-Truth Endnotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA SPECTATOR, NEW STATESMAN AND THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘The best biography I have read in years' Philippe Sands ‘Spectacular’ Observer ‘A remarkable portrait’ Guardian W. G. Sebald was one of the most extraordinary and influential writers of the twentieth century. Through books including The Emigrants, Austerlitz and The Rings of Saturn, he pursued an original literary vision that combined fiction, history, autobiography and photography and addressed some of the most profound themes of contemporary literature: the burden of the Holocaust, memory, loss and exile. The first biography to explore his life and work, Speak, Silence pursues the true Sebald through the memories of those who knew him and through the work he left behind. This quest takes Carole Angier from Sebald’s birth as a second-generation German at the end of the Second World War, through his rejection of the poisoned inheritance of the Third Reich, to his emigration to England, exploring the choice of isolation and exile that drove his work. It digs deep into a creative mind on the edge, finding profound empathy and paradoxical ruthlessness, saving humour, and an elusive mix of fact and fiction in his life as well as work. The result is a unique, ferociously original portrait.Trade ReviewA remarkable biography . . . The first major study of revered author and academic WG Sebald reveals an obsessive and brilliant mind . . . In her long and scholarly book, a testament to the powers of research and detailed dissection, Angier has presented a remarkable portrait of a writer consumed by work * Guardian *Meticulously researched … The brilliance of [this] biography, a spectacularly agile work of criticism as well as a feat of doggedly meticulous research, lies in Angier’s ability to look her subject straight in the eye while holding on to the sense of adoration that made her want to write it in the first place * Observer *The product of years of sleuthing … Angier’s openness about the difficulties she has encountered in trying to untangle [Sebald’s] enigma if anything adds to her portrait … The portrait which ultimately emerges convinces: of a tormented man, an isolated misfit, riven by self-doubt, who wrote to stave off depressive breakdowns and even madness and suicidal impulses * Spectator *It is a considerable achievement to unpick, so convincingly, mysteries Sebald has taken care to contrive. And to do it with such respect, and indeed generosity, that the great originals are burnished -- Iain SinclairSpeak, Silence is an extraordinary achievement. Carole Angier has been able to capture the genius of Sebald without trapping him in facile definitions, allowing his portrait the many hues and changing angles that those who knew him will recognize as profoundly true -- Alberto ManguelSebald once wrote to me that he would just like to be “a guardian of the lesser domains”. His work is enough, but this enticing and thorough book on his life and art proves that he was, in spite of his tragic and early death, an absolute master of the highest domains of literature -- Javier MaríasCarole Angier extends the scope of biography by turning her intense admiration for Sebald’s work into a personal quest for this enigmatic and disturbing writer -- Hilary SpurlingA biographer of great sympathy -- Michael HolroydEnthralling . . . I was exhilarated from start to finish, by subject, style and substance. It is the best biography I have read in years -- Philippe SandsA suitably unorthodox life of this singular writer . . . Angier’s strategy pays off: this is an insightful, compulsively readable book * Atlantic *W.G. Sebald so deliberately and cunningly blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction in his books that every reader longs for a clear-eyed guide to what is invented and what is ‘real’, while at the same time dreading the damage this might do to the delicate webs he weaves. Carole Angier’s tireless detective work has cleared up many of the mysteries, both in his life and in his work, while her critical acumen and manifest admiration for the latter ensures that it emerges enhanced rather than diminished from her labours. A riveting book -- Gabriel JosipoviciRemarkable, the definitive biography . . . Deeply researched, subtle, sympathetic * Claire Tomalin on 'Jean Rhys' *An acute literary intelligence . . . The reader comes to trust instinctively Angier’s assessments * New York Times on 'Jean Rhys' *Allows us to see Levi’s life in its full historical meaning * Financial Times on 'The Double Bond: Primo Levi' *Marvellous and visionary . . . Remarkable in all senses of the word * New York Times on 'The Double Bond: Primo Levi' *Angier writes with brio and occasional brilliance . . . By the end, I felt convinced that she had got to the heart of Levi * Guardian on 'The Double Bond: Primo Levi' *

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Book SynopsisJane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall...these fictional masterpieces are all recognised as landmarks of English Literature. Still inspirational and challenging to readers today, upon release in the mid-nineteenth century they caused a veritable sensation, chiefly due to their subject matter and unconventional styles. But the greatest sensation of all came when these books were revealed to be the creations of women. This is the story of those women and of the forces that shaped them into trailblazing writers. From early childhood, literature and the world of books held the attention and sparked the fertile imaginations of the emotionally intense and fascinating Bronte siblings. Beset by tragedy, three outlets existed for their grief and their creative talents; they escaped into books, into the wild moorlands surrounding their home and into their own rich inner lives and an intricate play-world born out of their collective imaginations. In this new study, Catherine Rayner offers a full and fascinating exploration of the formative years of these bright children, taking us on a journey from their earliest years to their tragically early deaths. The Bronte girls grew into women who were unafraid to write themselves into territories previously only visited by male authors. In addition, they tackled all the taboo subjects of their time; divorce, child abuse, bigamy, domestic violence, class, female depression and mental illness. Nothing was beyond their scope and it is especially for this ability and determination to speak for women, the marginalised and the disadvantaged that they are remembered and celebrated today, two hundred years after their births in the quiet Yorkshire village of Haworth. This timely release offers a fresh perspective on a fascinating family and a unique trio of talented and trailblazing sisters whose books will doubtless continue to haunt and inspire for generations to come.

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Book SynopsisAlthough his hilariously entertaining stories have touched the hearts of generations of children, there was much more to beloved author Roald Dahl than met the eye. His fascinating life began in Norway in 1916, and he became a highly rebellious teenager who delighted in defying authority before joining the RAF as a fighter pilot. But after his plane crashed in the African desert he was left with agonising injuries and unable to fly. He was dispatched to New York where, as a dashing young air attache, he enraptured societies greatest beauties and became friends with President Roosevelt. Roald soon found himself entangled with a highly complex network of British undercover operations. Eventually he grew tired of the secrecy of spying and retreated to the English countryside. He married twice and had five children, but his life was also affected by serious illness, tragedy and loss. He wrote a number of stories for adults, many of which were televised as the hugely popular Tales of the Unexpected, but it was as a children's author that he found greatest fame and satisfaction, saying I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful. From 1945 until his death in 1990, he lived in Buckinghamshire, where he wrote his most celebrated children's books including _Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ and _Fantastic Mr Fox. _

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Book SynopsisErudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from the much-loved writer Clive James to one of the world’s most cherished poets: Philip Larkin.'This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime' – The TimesClive James was a life-long admirer of the work of Philip Larkin. Somewhere Becoming Rain gathers all of James's writing on this towering literary figure of the twentieth century, together with extra material now published for the first time.The greatness of Larkin's poetry continues to be obscured by the opprobrium attaching to his personal life and his private opinions. James writes about Larkin's poems, his novels, his jazz and literary criticism; he also considers the two major biographies, Larkin's letters and even his portrayal on stage in order to chart the extreme and, he argues, largely misguided equivocations about Larkin's reputation in the years since his death.Through this joyous and perceptive book, Larkin's genius is delineated and celebrated. James argues that Larkin's poems, adored by discriminating readers for over half a century, could only have been the product of his reticent, diffident, flawed, and all-too-human personality.'A collection to savour two-fold – for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James' – Financial TimesTrade ReviewThe brilliance of James’s analysis, his clear-sighted view of Larkin’s solitude and humanity, and the fragile friendship between the two recorded in the book’s final pages, provide a monument to human connection and isolation together. It’s a perfect example of the “almost instinct” Larkin managed to prove “almost true” (hedging his bets to the end) – that what will survive of us is love. -- Andrew Hunter Murray * Guardian *A collection of witty essays by a great critic about a great poet . . . What will survive of Larkin is the work, and this small book is a joyful immersion in it. This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime * The Times *To read a major critic on a major poet is one of the great pleasures. Clive James’s passion for the work of Philip Larkin, his intense scrutiny which reveals an extraordinary empathy makes Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin an outstanding book. -- Melvyn Bragg * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2019 *This slim collection of Clive James’ writings on Philip Larkin demonstrates both a life-long passion for the poet’s work and a deep critical endeavour to rehabilitate his reputation as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. A collection to savour two-fold – for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James * Financial Times, Best Books of 2019 *This is a tribute to Larkin’s poems. James is good at reminding us why and how they were powerful, multivalent and memorable . . . He is also unusually observant. His parallels between Larkin and Montale are elucidating * TLS *Few contemporary critics display the passionate commitment to the idea of poetry, and to the idea of poetry's centrality to civilized life, that James does -- John Banville * New York Review of Books *One of the most important and influential writers of our time -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *‘[James] was what you might call a massive Philip Larkin fan. His specific fandom was feverish and absolute – and also, because he was Clive James, deeply considered and beautifully expressed . . . it’s a privilege to look back at Larkin – all of Larkin – through the prism of [James’s] appreciation * Atlantic *Perceptive . . . This volume also allows the reader to delight in James’s own prose, which surely rivals Larkin’s in the wit and insight stakes * The Crack *The late Clive James had much in common with Philip Larkin . . . In verse and prose, both blazed with wit and wrote scores of memorable lines . . . although their work was laced with sadness, few writers since have written with such beauty and gratitude about the world * Review 31 *

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Book Synopsis'I wanted to climb inside this book and live there' PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE'This witty, fascinating book is a delight. Read it' MIRIAM MARGOLYES'Superb, sparky and reflective' The Spectator'Gender fluidity? Pansexuality? Throuples? Chosen families? Cross-dressing? Kinks? Young Bloomsbury explores a place and time when queer life blossomed' Washington Post Controversial before the First World War, the Bloomsbury Group became notorious in the 1920s. New members joined their ranks, pushing at boundaries, flouting conventions, and spurring their seniors to new heights of creative activity. Bloomsbury had always celebrated sexual equality and freedom in private, but this younger generation brought their transgressive lifestyles out into the open. Nino Strachey reveals a vivid history surprisingly relevant to our present day.'One comes away slightly breathless with the sense of having left an excellent party full of wit and intrigue' TLS 'Highly entertaining and pacy, a must for Bloomsbury fans, young or old.' Country LifeTrade ReviewI want to climb inside this book and live there -- PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE This witty, fascinating book is a delight. Read it. * MIRIAM MARGOLYES *This captivating history explores the second generation of queer British writers and artists who pushed the original Bloomsbury Group . . . to live more publicly and go farther creatively * New York Times *Gender fluidity? Pansexuality? Throuples? Chosen families? Cross-dressing? Kinks? How avant-garde - and how old-fashioned. In her colourful Young Bloomsbury Nino Strachey explores a place and time when queer life blossomed * Washington Post *A superb, sparky and reflective book charting the doings of the younger members of the artistic and intellectual coterie * The Spectator *Enjoyably intimate and assured in tone . . . packs far more of an emotional punch than its title might suggest. Nino Strachey's strength as a biographer is to draw sensitive and non-judgemental portraits of people whose private agonies seemed at odds with their outwardly confident appearance. * TLS *Like Lytton Strachey and Michael Holroyd, Ms. Strachey underpins her narrative with concerns from her own time . . . these sections are the most affecting parts of the book . . . It's only a slight exaggeration to say that the story of Bloomsbury is the story of modern literary biography itself * Wall Street Journal *Illuminating . . . Lashings of lust and society larks * Daily Mail *A highly entertaining, pacy volume, based on considerable research, and a must for modern Bloomsbury fans, whether young or old. -- Jeremy Musson * Country Life *A lively account of a group of bright young things in the 1920s. A hundred years ahead of their time, these creative souls were pushing the boundaries of gender identity and sexual expression, and - surprisingly - finding acceptance among their friends and families. * ROBERT SACKVILLE-WEST, author of The Searchers: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War *Young Bloomsbury just BRIMS with the same kind of sexy vitality embodied by the characters Nino Strachey describes in such effervescent detail. Just when you might have wondered if there could possibly be room for a new and revealing study of a group of lives which have been so meticulously and extensively documented, Nino's exhilarating lens offers an entirely original and thrilling focus. As scepticism, admiration, envy, and confusion ebb and flow between one chattering, seductive, thinking, inspiring generation and another, this is Gatsby made real. * JULIET NICOLSON *With a deft turn of the Bloomsbury kaleidoscope, and an impressive gift for finding treasures in the archives, Nino Strachey reveals colourful new patterns of experiments in living which speak trenchantly to our own cultural moment. * MARK HUSSEY, author of Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism *Great fun and, for all fans of the Bloomsbury Group, enormously informative - like being transported back to "dancing the night hours away underground in the pitch dark and smoke-filled avant-garde nightclubs of that day", you never know who you're going to meet. * SIMON FENWICK, author of The Crichel Boys *An extraordinary account of the bustling non-binary heart of the literary and artistic roaring twenties, filled with the most vivid characters, who lived and loved under the shadow of the horror of conversion therapy and yet found ways to express themselves so boldly and beautifully. Young Bloomsbury gives new context to the later stages of life for the original Bloomsbury group. I loved every page. * JACK THORNE, BAFTA, Tony and Olivier Award-winning Screenwriter and Playwright *Above all else, Bloomsbury was a liberating force, as Nino Strachey shows in her sparkling new book. The younger friends and relations of the Bells, Stracheys and Woolfs lived, worked and loved freely, finding their own ways to personal and artistic fulfilment. This book is packed with their brilliant, subversive energy * ANNE CHISHOLM, author of Frances Partridge: A Biography *A brisk, light tonic . . . Joyfully transgressive . . . Strachey provides frothy accounts of their gatherings at the Gargoyle; or at the all-male Cranium Club, founded by Bunny Garnett, where sherry was sipped from a skull and conversation permitted only on "abstract and literary subjects"; or in private homes, like Gerald Reitlinger's, at which Lytton Strachey danced with Nancy Mitford, and young men writhed in orgiastic heaps * Harper’s Magazine *The book is a rich, varied world of competing narratives . . . one would struggle to imagine anyone doing each one justice with the skill and finesse that is demonstrated here * James T Bowen, Virginia Woolf Bulletin *

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Book SynopsisThe great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) is widely recognized as one of the most consequential human beings of the twentieth century. Through his writings and moral witness, he illumined the nature of totalitarianism and helped bring down an ‘evil empire.’ His courage and tenacity are acknowledged even by his fiercest critics. Yet the world-class novelist, historian, and philosopher (one uses the latter term in its capacious Russian sense) has largely been eclipsed by a caricature that has transformed a measured and self-critical patriot into a ferocious nationalist, a partisan of local self-government into a quasi-authoritarian, a man of faith and reason into a narrow-minded defender of Orthodoxy. The caricature, widely dispensed in the press, and too often taken for granted, gets in the way of a thoughtful and humane confrontation with the “other” Solzhenitsyn, the true Solzhenitsyn, who is a writer and thinker of the first rank and whose spirited defense of liberty is never divorced from moderation. It is to the recovery of this Solzhenitsyn that this book is dedicated. This book above all explores philosophical, political, and moral themes in Solzhenitsyn’s two masterworks, The Gulag Archipelago and The Red Wheel, as well as in his great European novel In the First Circle. We see Solzhenitsyn as analyst of revolution, defender of the moral law, phenomenologist of ideological despotism, and advocate of “resisting evil with force.” Other chapters carefully explore Solzhenitsyn’s conception of patriotism, his dissection of ideological mendacity, and his controversial, but thoughtful and humane discussion of the “Jewish Question” in the Russian – and Soviet twentieth century. Some of Solzhenitsyn’s later writings, such as the “binary tales” that he wrote in the 1990s, are subject to critically appreciative analysis. And a long final chapter comments on Solzhenitsyn’s July 2007 Der Spiegel interview, his last word to Russia and the West. He is revealed to be a man of faith and freedom, a patriot but not a nationalist, and a principled advocate of self-government for Russia and the West. A final Appendix reproduces the beautiful Introduction (“The Gift of Incarnation”) that the author’s widow, Natalia Solzhenitsyn, wrote to the 2009 Russian abridgment of The Gulag Archipelago, a work that is now taught in Russian high schools. Table of ContentsForeword Chapter 1 An Anguished’ Love of Country: Solzhenitsyn’s Paradoxical Middle Path The Ideological Deformation of Reality Recovering Truth and Memory A False Consensus A “Lucid” Love of Country An Exacting Patriotism A War on Two Fronts A New Mission Self–Inflicted Wounds The Pathologies of the Russian Right Orthodox Universalism: The Other Extreme The Question of Tone A Theorist of Self–Government Beyond Tired Polemics Chapter 2 “The Active Struggle Against Evil”: Reflections on a Theme in Solzhenitsyn Vorotyntsev and Stolypin A Pusillanimous Monarch Moral Freedom and Political Liberty The Soul of Man Under Socialism The Camp Revolts Resisting Evil With Force Chapter 3 Nicholas II and the Coming of Revolution Conclusion Chapter 4 The Artist as Thinker: Reflections In the First Circle The Three Pillars The Two Versions “But We Are Only Given One Conscience, Too” A Crucial Encounter The Decisive Metanoia Beyond Fanaticism and Skepticism The Remarkable Continuities of Sotzhenitsyn’s Reflection Chapter 5 A Phenomenology of Ideological Despotism: Reflections on Solzhenitsyn’s “Our Muzzled Freedom” An Introduction: Theorizing Totalitarianism The Soul and Barbed Wire “Free Life” in a Totalitarian Regime Constant Fear Secrecy and Mistrust Complicity in the Web of Repression Betrayal as a Form of Existence Corruption versus Nobility The Lie as a Form of Existence Class Cruelty Slave Psychology Conclusion: Remembering Everything Chapter 6 Two Critics of the Ideological “Lie”: Raymond Aron’s Encounter with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Letter to the Soviet Leaders A Parisian Encounter Solzhenitsyn and Sartre Misconceptions About Russia Two Spiritual Families? Chapter 7 Solzhenitsyn, Russia, and the Jews Revisited From Belligerence to Understanding Rejecting the Temptation to Blame Renegades and Revolutionaries The Fortunes of Soviet Jewry 131 Repentance and Responsibility Solzhenitsyn’s Moral Challenge The Holocaust Solzhenitsyn’s Non Possum Chapter 8 The Binary Tales: The Soul of Man in the Soviet –and Russian–Twentieth Century Chapter 9 Freedom, Faith and the Moral Foundations of Self–Government: Solzhenitsyn’s Final Word to Russia and the West A Life Rooted in Conscience A State Prize The Prospects for Repentance An Archival Revolution Two Revolutions Two Hundred Years Together Learning About the Past Three Leaders Building Democracy From the Bottom Up A Meaningful Opposition Parties and Popular Representation Making Room for Small Businesses A “National Idea”? Russia and the West The Future of Russian Literature The Church in Russia Today A Man of Faith and Reason Three Prayers An Encounter With the Polish Pope 1 Orthodoxy and the Neo–Pagan Temptation A Calm and Balanced Attitude Toward Death Notes Appendix 1 “Really Existing Socialism” and the Archival Revolution Wooden Words Red Holocaust Black Book Gulag Memoirs Testaments to Violence and Lies History and the Totalitarian Temptation Appendix 2 Introduction: Returning to ‘The Gulag’ The Gift of Incarnation Index

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Book SynopsisBarry Lopez had no illusions about the seriousness of our global crisis, yet he also felt a deep conviction about the power of hope and the sources of renewal in the living world. Syntax of the River is an extended conversation spanning three days between Lopez and Julia Martin in which he explores what this juxtaposition means for him as a writer.On the first day Lopez reflects on years watching the McKenzie River near his home in Oregon. He describes the quality of attention he learned from intimacy with the place itself: a very fine distinction between silence and stillness, the rich complexities of the present moment, and the syntax of interrelationships between living things. The second day is concerned with craft: the work of making sentences and books. Lopez shares his practical strategies for writing and revising a manuscript and goes on to speak about vulnerability. He says he often experienced a deep sense of doubt about his capacity to achieve whatever he was trying to do in a particular project. Over time, though, this characteristic experience of not-knowing became a kind of fuel for his work, and even a weapon at times.On the final day, Lopez ponders the idea of writing as a praxis, a way of life, even a prayer for the earth, while concurrently being terrified by the portents of its destruction. Here, the experience of being an attentive participant emerges as his core teaching. Over the decades he developed a practice of attention that was endlessly curious and enthralled by the living world, what he calls its pattern or syntax. Despite acclaim as a celebrated writer, throughout his career Lopez humbly tasked himself with making a combination of wonder and horror work together to effectively communicate a life journey of contemplation, exploration, and discovery.Trade Review“When a sensational writer delivers another outstanding work, it is a gift to all of us. When he manages to do so from beyond the grave, it’s another thing entirely. Something ethereal. That’s exactly what Barry Lopez gives us with Syntax of the River. On its surface, the book is simply the transcript of a 2010 conversation between writer-professor Julia Martin and Lopez, an outdoorsman — he told Martin he wasn’t a “naturalist” — and master of multiple genres of writing. Yet it brings to life mental images of something most of us have never seen: Oregon’s McKenzie River, Lopez’s sacred place.” — Washington Independant Review of Books

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Book Synopsis

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