Biography: writers Books

Book SynopsisErnest Hemingway has enjoyed a rich legacy as the progenitor of modern fiction, an oversized character in literary lore who wrote some of the most honest and moving accounts of the twentieth century, set against such grand backdrops as the bullrings of Spain, the savannahs of Africa and the rivers of the American Midwest. Verna Kale challenges many of the long-standing assumptions Hemingway's legacy has created. She offers a real-life portrait of the historical figure as he really was: a writer, a sportsman and a celebrity with a long and turbulent career.Ernest Hemingway follows Hemingway's adventures as a Red Cross volunteer in the First World War, an expatriate 'Lost Generation' poet in 1920s Paris, a young novelist navigating the burgeoning middlebrow fiction market, and a seasoned writer trying to craft his masterpiece - a novel that would blow open the boundaries of American fiction. Exploring his four marriages, his struggles with his celebrity and craft and the steep decline of his health in later life, this concise biography offers an insightful portrait of one of the most important figures of American arts and letters.

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Book SynopsisOrwell's Nose, now available in paperback, is an original and imaginative account of the life and work of George Orwell, exploring the 'scent narratives' that abound in Orwell's fiction and non-fiction. This illuminating and irreverent book provides a new understanding of one of our most iconic and influential writers.Trade Review'Sutherland is able, with the straightest of faces, to talk about Coming Up for Air being "the most aromatic of Orwell's novels" - a book that, his researches insist, "fairly caresses the nostrils". A conventional academic critic - which Sutherland is not - would probably throw up his or her hands in horror at this insouciance, but it takes only the briefest saunter through the Eng Lit canon to establish that the University of London's former Lord Northcliffe Professor is on to something, not merely in the matter of Orwell's nose but with literary life in general.' - DJ Taylor, The Times; 'This clever little book packs in a great deal: a prefatory essay on smell in literature, a breakneck biography of George Orwell and three quirky appendices including "smell narratives" of two of his books. Sutherland has an impressive nose for the pongs in Orwell's prose ... this biography is redolent, above all, of Sutherland's enduring enthusiasm for a writer he has been reading for more than half a century.' - Sunday Times Culture; 'Orwell's Nose is highly readable in a quick, casual style with many felicities ... this book sent me walking about nose aloft, like a Bisto Kid, hungry for (in Sutherland's phrase) "life's olfactions".' - Financial Times; 'Orwell's Nose is an olfactory cornucopia, a brilliant thematic biography and a compassionate exposure of an almost clean conscience in an invariably dirty age.' - Wall Street Journal; 'In this "pathological biography," a noted critic rereads Orwell and determines that the writer "was born with a singularly diagnostic sense of smell." In addition to the infamous assertion in The Road to Wigan Pier that "lower classes smell," Sutherland, who recently lost his own sense of smell, turns up other pungent landmarks of Orwell's life.' - The New Yorker; 'Do we need another biography of George Orwell? The answer is yes, if it is as racily readable as Orwell's Nose.' - David Lodge

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Book SynopsisRimbaud was the original enfant terrible. A poetic genius, he destroyed all those who attempted to befriend him, most notoriously wrecking the marriage and sanity of the poet Verlaine. Having conquered the literary world of Paris, he abandoned France and in the dogdays of August 1880 he disembarked in Aden, on the coast of Yemen, a lean twenty-five-year-old Frenchman carrying only a brown suitcase fastened with four leather straps and a touch of fever. The subsequent period, the lost years , is the subject of this biographical quest.

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Book SynopsisWhen Rilke died in 1926, his reputation as a great poet seemed secure. But as the tide of the critical avant-garde turned, he was increasingly dismissed as apolitical, too inward. In Rilke: The Last Inward Man, acclaimed critic Lesley Chamberlain uses this charge as the starting point from which to explore the expansiveness of the inner world Rilke created in his poetry. Weaving together searching insights on Rilke's life, work and reception, Chamberlain casts Rilke's inwardness as a profound response to a world that seemed ever more lacking in spirituality. In works of dazzling imagination and rich imagery, Rilke sought to restore spirit to Western materialism, encouraging not narrow introversion but a heightened awareness of how to live with the world as it is, of how to retain a sense of transcendence within a world of collapsed spiritual certainty.Trade Review“Deeply perceptive and passionately argued study of Rainer Maria Rilke... always illuminating.” --John Banville, The New York Review of Books

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Book SynopsisNational Geographic Traveller's the best books on European cities, 2019In the autumn of 1948 Hemingway was approaching fifty and hadn't published a novel in nearly a decade. He travelled for the first time to Venice and there, at a duck shoot in the lagoon he met and fell in love with Adriana Ivancich, a striking young Venetian woman just out of finishing school. What followed was a platonic love affair; he continued to visit her in Venice; she in turn came to Cuba while he wrote The Old Man and the Sea. This is the illuminating story of a writer and a muse that intimately examines both the cost to Adriana and the fractured heart and changing art of Hemingway in his fifties.'Hemingway [is] an enduringly fascinating character, one whom di Robilant, with his easy-paced style, has sympathetically brought to life.' Literary Review'Effortlessly and expertly explores the secret desires, successes, and depressive obstacles that shrouded Ernest Hemingway's final productive years.' New York Journal of BooksTrade ReviewA saga that grips and enthrals from start to finish. * Sunday Times *Hemingway [is] an enduringly fascinating character, one whom di Robilant, with his easy-paced style, has sympathetically brought to life. -- Andrew Lycett * Literary Review *Effortlessly and expertly explores the secret desires, successes, and depressive obstacles that shrouded Ernest Hemingway's final productive years. * New York Journal of Books *Fascinating and mildly addictive * Culture Calling *Rich with new material, some based on Italian sources, di Robilant's lively and affecting double portrait brings a fresh perspective to the much-examined life of an all-too-human writer. * Booklist (starred review) *A sensitive recounting of a writer's doomed fantasy. * Kirkus Reviews *An evocative and alluring tale of love and death . . . In his effusive letters to Adriana, Hemingway laid bare his extremely passionate, generous, and contradictory nature. * La Stampa (Italy) *One of the most wrenching and scandalous love stories in all of literary biography . . . di Robilant reconstructs their tale with remarkable precision and a wealth of unpublished materials . . . what emerges is an ample, finely detailed fresco of the last stage of Hemingway's life, a kaleidoscopic succession of relationships, passions, trips, editorial disputes, drinking binges, set against the backdrop of northeast Italy . . . [Autumn in Venice] has all the intrigue and emotion of a novel. * Il Piccolo (Italy) *

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Book Synopsis'A dazzling celebration and recalibration of Mozart's genius, written with an energy to match its subject' Ian Bostridge Mozart is one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture, but how much do we really understand of his music, and what can it reveal to us of the great composer? In exhilarating, transformative prose, Patrick Mackie mixes biographical storytelling with deep dives into the experience of listening to Mozart''s music to reveal a musician in dialogue with culture at its most sweepingly progressive, when Europe was caught between two historical worlds. We follow Mozart from his adolescence in Salzburg to his early death; from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments; from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard. Mackie leads the reader through the major and lesser-known moments of the composer''s life and brings alive the teeming, swivelling, modernity of eighteenth-century Europe. In this era of rococo painting, surrealist aesthetics and political turbulence, Mozart reckoned with a searing talent which threatened to overwhelm him, all the while pushing him to extraordinary feats of musicianship. Returned to the volatility of the eighteenth century, we hear Mozart''s music in all its audacious vividness, gaining fresh perspectives on why his works still move us so intensely today, as we continue to search for a modernity he imagined into being.Trade ReviewAn exhilarating and stimulating new survey of one of our civilization's greatest creative figures. Mackie sheds new light on both Mozart's music and his motivation, with an often piercingly original sideways glance - typically, Mackie ends his molto allegro romp through the works not with Mozart's famous unfinished Requiem but with a tiny keyboard Gigue that sums up his genius -- Nicholas Kenyon, Managing Director, Barbican CentreThis book is like a set of virtuoso cadenzas on themes from Mozart's life and works: improvisatory, thought-provoking, quirky and constantly inventive -- Stephen HoughA dazzling celebration and recalibration of Mozart's genius, written with an energy to match its subject -- Ian Bostridge, author of Schubert's Winter JourneyWritten with the kind of energy and inventiveness of its subject, Mozart in Motion brings Mozart and his milieu into focus in a startling and original way. At once vividly evocative and dazzlingly informative and informed, this book changes the way we think about how art works, and how writing about art should work -- Adam PhillipsAs "kaleidoscopic" as the composer's own genius... an immersive and thought-provoking experience that will send you back to Mozart's oeuvre with a renewed appetite * Financial Times *Some sections flare into flame... he brings into vivid life the decadence of 18th-century Paris as it slides towards the Revolution... this book is as much about literary virtuosity as anything else * BBC Music Magazine *A brilliant whirlwind of a book that makes us listen to Mozart's music in new ways and brings new ideas about the enlightenment, modernity, the rococo, Goethe, Kant, Prince -- Lara Feigel, Books of the Year * White Review *Patrick Mackie's book places us firmly in [a] new world, and that's the best part of it - a feeling of looking over Mozart's shoulder * TLS *[Mackie's] sentences sizzle and explode from the page like an elaborate firework display... Luminous * Morning Star *Erudite, ambitious and elegantly written . . . Mackie's assertions about the ways Mozart's identification with his era come through in the music are intriguing and insightful . . . His writing is fresh and imaginative, showing feeling for the musical character and dramatic narrative of a piece * New York Times Book Review *An exemplary intervention in this kind of cultural critique . . . Mackie is a sensitive and highly intelligent appraiser of musical form, with a gift for analyzing Mozart's music as the dynamic enactment-rather than the simple expression-of larger cultural and biographical energies * New Yorker *[A] stimulating, often profound exploration... Mr. Mackie gives us fresh, revealing and poetic perceptions... He demonstrates persuasively-and passionately-how the nuances of a Mozart score don't merely reflect but embody the central concerns of biography and history... Such resonant understanding of the deep implications of Mozart's music is the main reason to read yet another book on Mozart, though I don't want to minimize Mr. Mackie's excellence as a traditional biographer * Wall Street Journal *Mackie's extraordinary knowledge, thoughtful insights, and exemplary prose make the book insightful, thought provoking, and enjoyable. Reading the essays is like attending a concert with a friend who is exceptionally well-read and articulate. Rare is the reader who will digest these essays without immediately wanting to listen to whatever piece of music has just been examined * Christian Science Monitor *Writing a biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart nowadays is no easy task . . . But Patrick Mackie exploits his background in both poetry and academia in an effort to bring Mozart to life in new ways . . . The result is still a familiar portrait of Mozart, but one that is painted in new colors * Associated Press *A book that will unquestionably stand among the more poignant investigations of Mozart and his genius, Mozart in Motion . . . is a serious study of the composer's character and music as it first within the context of European manners and mores in the second half of the eighteenth century * Chicago Review of Books *Delightfully instructive... Mackie achieves for Mozart what Mozart himself did for music, time and time again: to make the old new, and intelligible as such * New Criterion *Ambitious and brilliant: a book that rethinks Mozart's place in history and one that should win him new fans along the way... A unique, wide-ranging study of the canonical composer * Kirkus Reviews *In an intriguing blend of biography and deft musical analysis, poet Mackie creates a gallery of the composer's masterpieces expertly framed in the cultural setting of eighteenth-century Europe... Clear and insightful... After perusing the pages of this thoughtful and beautifully written book, readers will want to discover, or rediscover, the timeless music of this beloved composer * Booklist *Patrick Mackie's vibrant biography has something of the 18th-century dash and panache that he evokes in Mozart . . . Mr. Mackie is a soloist who writes on a world stage with a sententiousness that made 18th-century biography seem not merely the story of another's life, but a story that could only emanate from a singular voice that had something unique to tell us * New York Sun *Mackie's prose gathers momentum by tackling the music's rich contradictions . . . If Mackie's voice flirts with pretense, a close reading reveals keen ears and a lively imagination, especially for opera fans . . . Mackie challenges received ideas and offers descriptions that may yet prove worthy of his subject * Truthdig *

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Book SynopsisPatrick Deeley's train journey home to rural East Galway in autumn 1978 was a pilgrimage of grief: his giant of a father had been felled, the hurley-making workshop silenced. From this moment, Patrick unfolds his childhood as a series of evocative moments, from the intricate workings of the timber workshop run by his father to the slow taking apart of an old tractor and the physical burial of a steam engine; from his mother’s steady work on an old Singer sewing machine to his father’s vertiginous quickstep on the roof of their house. There are many wonderful descriptions of the natural world and delightful cameos of characters and incidents from a not-so-long-ago country childhood. In a style reminiscent of John McGahern’s Memoir, Deeley’s beautifully paced prose captures the rhythms, struggles and rough edges of a rural life that was already dying even as he grew. This is an enchanting, beautifully written account of family, love, loss, and the unstoppable march of time.Trade ReviewA glorious book, a perfect elegy, a gorgeous tumble of memories of life, death, love and, above all, family.The Hurley Maker's Son is suffused with warmth and joy and an ineffable sadness. The closing passages, like many in this book, are exquisite and almost unbearable. -- Donal RyanThere is something both eerie and deeply convincing about Deeley's re-inhabiting of the landscape that formed him, the family that shaped and nourished him. Every sentence rings true, like an axe biting into seasoned wood, a hurley striking the ball cleanly. -- Theo DorganBeautifully written. -- Michael HardingA courageous and heartfelt work, a lament and an act of recuperation, deceptively artless and engagingly plainspoken. -- George O'Brien * Irish Times *Gloriously poetic . . . Every sentence counts in this beautiful, evocative memoir. The prose shimmers. I adored it. -- Sue Leonard * Irish Examiner *

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Book Synopsis'Hastings is one of our greatest living biographers' Simon Heffer, Daily TelegraphSybille Bedford's life contained all the grand feeling and seismic events of the twentieth century: war and peace, love and trauma, friendship and death. Her father died when she was just fourteen and her mother, a great socialite and litterateur, fell victim to a debilitating morphine addiction. A bon viveur, she roamed from country to country in search of fresh experience, with ear and eye attuned to her surroundings, typewriter at the ready. Full of intense friendships (Aldous Huxley, Martha Gellhorn and Elizabeth Jane Howard among them), a fierce commitment to the craft of writing, as well as an insatiable appetite for love and sex, Sybille Bedford blazed her own path in her life and her art.'Selina Hastings' wonderful, gossipy biography is a gem, revealing not just the shy writer, but also the colourful, turbulent 20th-century literary world in which she lived' Sunday Times, Books of the Year'A wonderful biography' Sara Wheeler, Spectator'An extraordinary story' The Times'A richly entertaining biography' Daily Mail, Books of the YearTrade ReviewA wonderful biography... Elegant, deft and restrained -- Sara Wheeler * Spectator *[An] elegantly written, intimate biography... This is a remarkably candid, minutely detailed and compulsively readable book about a life lived to the full -- Rebecca Wallersteiner * Lady *So good, so full of naughty detail, evocation and grudging affection that you can enjoy it without ever having to read the works of Sybille Bedford -- Barry Humphries * Oldie *Selina Hastings's wonderful, gossipy biography is a gem -- Lucy Atkins * Sunday Times, *Books of the Year* *[Bedford's life is] elegantly related by Selina Hastings -- Brooke Allen * New York Times *

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Book Synopsis*A NEW STATESMAN AND THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR**WINNER OF THE TONY LOTHIAN PRIZE*'Interesting women have secrets. They also ought to have sisters.'From the beginning of their lives, the Olivier sisters stood out: surprisingly emancipated, strikingly beautiful, markedly determined, and alarmingly 'wild'. Rupert Brooke was said to be in love with all four of them; D. H. Lawrence thought they were frankly 'wrong'; Virginia Woolf found them curiously difficult to read. In this intimate, sweeping biography, Sarah Watling brings the sisters in from the margins, tracing lives that span colonial Jamaica, the bucolic life of Victorian progressives, the frantic optimism of Edwardian Cambridge, the bleakness of two world wars, and a host of evolving philosophies for life over the course of the twentieth century.Noble Savages is a compelling portrait of sisterhood in all its complexities, which rediscovers the lives of four extraordinary women within the varied fortunes of the feminism of their times, while illuminating the battles and ethics of biography itself.Trade ReviewThe best group biography of the year – of many years, in fact – is Sarah Watling’s Noble Savages, the story of the four Olivier sisters... Their mother was the model for Tess of the D’Urbevilles, their joint best friend was Rupert Brooke, and they had, said Virginia Woolf, strange glass eyes which they took out at night. But this is not why they are interesting. After feral childhoods in Surrey, where their parents lived in a Fabian utopia, each woman struggled with postwar realities: insanity, grief, poverty, catastrophic marriages. Elegantly structured in “seven fragments”, Watling’s book gives us a riveting drama that begins as pastoral comedy and ends as tragedy. -- Frances Wilson * New Statesman, Books of the Year *This is the first time [the Olivier sisters] have had a biography to themselves, and a very fine job Sarah Watling makes of it… thoroughly fascinating... This book is interesting on a dozen levels. * Daily Telegraph *Four remarkable sisters born at the end of the 19th century, and I didn’t know about any of them before reading this utterly absorbing book in which their whole lives are laid before us. Their story has opened my eyes to whole new areas of early 20th-century British life. * Daily Mail *In this compelling biography Sarah Watling tells [the Olivier sisters’] tale for the first time. It is the story of the end of Victorianism and the birth of the modern age. It is also, grippingly, the story of the early feminist movement, and a vital contribution to the construction of an alternative women’s history… [Watling] is quite brilliant. * Guardian *A story of four girls rebelling against Edwardian stuffiness is vividly told… in this thoughtful, compassionate biography… I found much to celebrate and admire here. * The Times *

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Book SynopsisAmid the flames of the culture wars, politicians have taken up arms over controls on literary culture, spurred on in part by universities 'triggering' canonical texts. Jonathan Swift's 'Battle of the Books' has flared up again. But is 'triggering' utter wokery or responsible pedagogic practice? Through dozens of case studies of triggered works, from Romeo and Juliet to Gender Queer, John Sutherland explores the recent phenomenon of triggering and its consequences for university English departments and literature itself. He maintains that what is routinely overlooked in the heat of polemic is that triggering is categorically different from traditional institutional (religious, educational, dictatorial) controls on literature. Triggering is in essence an alert. Done responsibly it does not erase or meddle; it stimulates curiosity and thought. It honours the fact that great literature is great because it is, as Franz Kafka says, powerful. In this characteristically nuanced and calmly objective study, the witty literary critic guides us through the increasingly rocky terrain of triggering. His advice rings clear: literature matters, to us and what we make of our world, and it must be handled with critical care.

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Book SynopsisPart memoir, part manifesto, part history, We Are What We Read is not just about how education can place you back on the right side of the tracks. It is also a rallying cry for the importance of literature in a world where the arts are being squeezed out at every level and where book bans in schools and libraries have surged to record highs.

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Book SynopsisA Book of the Year in The Times & Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Spectator, Irish Times and TLS. 'Superb' Daily Mail, 'Book of the Week''Brilliant' The Times, 'Book of the Week''[A] vivid, detailed account' Guardian, 'Book of the Week''Hugely enjoyable' Daily Telegraph'Fascinating' SpectatorCharles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Slight of build, with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died. Although he specified an unpretentious funeral, it was inevitable that crowds flocked to his open grave in Westminster Abbey. Experiencing the worst and best of life during the Victorian Age, Dickens was not merely the conduit through whom some of the most beloved characters in literature came into the world. He was one of them.Filled with twists, pathos and unusual characters, The Mystery of Charles Dickens looks back from the legendary writer's death to recall the key events in his life. In doing so, A. N. Wilson seeks to understand Dickens's creative genius and enduring popularity. Following him from cradle to grave, it becomes clear that Dickens's fiction drew from his own experiences - a fact he acknowledged. Like Oliver Twist, Dickens suffered a wretched childhood, then grew up to become not only a respectable gentleman but an artist of prodigious popularity. Dickens knew firsthand the poverty and pain his characters endured, including the scandal of a failed marriage.Going beyond standard narrative biography, Wilson brilliantly revisits the wellspring of Dickens's vast and wild imagination, revealing why his novels have such instantaneous appeal and why they continue to resonate today. He also uncovers the double standards of both the man and his times.Trade ReviewDelightful, riveting... In this superb book, [Wilson] has succeeded in prising open the layers and revealing the inner child inside Charles Dickens. * Daily Mail, 'Book of the Week' *Fascinating... The greatest compliment one could pay this book is to say that it doesn't only read like something written about Dickens; animated by a restless, rummaging critical intelligence, and a curiosity about many of the things others simply take for granted, at times it reads more like something written by Dickens. * Spectator *This is the stylish and outspoken A N Wilson at his provocative best. * 'Books of the Year', Daily Mail *A brilliant denunciation of the sickness of Victorian England.[Wilson] is especially vivid on the moral horror of a self-confident, capitalist society without a safety net for those at the bottom. * The Times, 'Book of the Week' *Hugely enjoyable... A wonderfully fresh and vivid account, fluently integrating life and work, teasingly constructed without being relentlessly chronological, and personally charged by an impassioned gratitude to Dickens... Wilson's unquenchable gusto, sharp critical intelligence and buoyant prose make compelling reading - a vindication not so much of the mystery of Charles Dickens as the miracle. * Daily Telegraph *Wilson's attempt to pin down the Dickens we don't know is energetic. He leads the reader, like one of the ghosts in A Christmas Carol, to visit moments in the writer's life... Compelling * Financial Times *A sprightly retelling of a well-known narrative... vivid, detailed. * Guardian, ‘Book of the Week’ *Enthralling... In each section, themes and ideas spool out with Wilson's characteristic fluency and narrative flair. He both loves and is appalled by Dickens * Literary Review *Utterly satisfying... A marvelous exploration by an author steeped in the craft of his subject's elastic, elusive work. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Beyond the eye-opening analysis, Wilson also offers a moving personal account of why Dickens has meant so much to him * Booklist (starred review) *Charles Dickens had succeeded in lodging all his phobias and foibles within his characters without leaving many traces of his personal life in Tolstoy-like autobiographical confessions. But A. N. Wilson, who three decades ago wrote one of the best biographies of Tolstoy, shows in The Mystery of Charles Dickens that similar demons haunted the nightmarish duality of Dickens's personality as well. * Zinovy Zinik, 'Books of the Year', TLS *Table of Contents1: The Mystery of fifteen pounds, thirteen shillings and ninepence 2: The Mystery of his childhood 3: The Mystery of the cruel marriage 4: The Mystery of the charity of Charles Dickens 5: The Mystery of the public readings 6: The Mystery of Edwin Drood 7: The Mystery of Charles Dickens

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Book SynopsisJohn Berger was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of postwar Europe. As a novelist, he won the Booker Prize in 1972, donating half his prize money to the Black Panthers; as a TV presenter he changed the way we looked at art in Ways of Seeing; as a storyteller and political activist he defended the rights and dignity of workers, migrants and the oppressed around the world. In 1953 he wrote: "Far from dragging politics into art, art has dragged me into politics." He remained a revolutionary up to his death in January, 2017. In A Writer of Our Time, Joshua Sperling places Berger's life and works within the historical narrative of postwar Britain and beyond. The book also explores, through the work, the larger questions that vexed a generation: the purpose of art, the nature of creative freedom, the meaning of commitment. Drawing on extensive interviews, close readings and a wealth of archival sources only recently made available, the book brings the many different faces of John Berger together and shows him as one of the most vital, and brilliant, thinkers and storytellers of our time.Trade ReviewThe remarkable John Berger has gotten the thoughtful, sensitive study he deserves. Joshua Sperling is at ease in every aspect of this extraordinarily multifaceted writer's life: his art criticism, his fiction, his passionate political commitment, his immersion in the lives of Alpine villagers, and more. Lovers of Berger's work will find a rich array of background here, and those who don't yet know Berger will, I hope, be inspired to read him -- Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s GhostThe author of G., A Seventh Man and Ways of Seeing was of course a lifelong controversialist and revolutionary. But, ultimately, he was a man 'defined less by what he was against than by what he loved.' Occasionally critical, always passionate, Joshua Sperling's study of John Berger is as observant, rigorous, profound and as surprisingly entertaining as its subject. -- David Edgar, author of Written on the HeartAcross the 90 years of John Berger's life, he was by turns, and sometimes at the same time, an art critic and novelist, documentarian and screenwriter, farm laborer and historian, poet and polemicist...Does this mass of apparent contradictions add up to anything? The trick for any would-be biographer of John Berger is to find the unity in variety. Joshua Sperling is up to the task. -- Robert Minto * LARB *With sophistication and passion to match his subject, Sperling unfolds a chronological and thematic assessment of Berger...[A Writer of Our Time] is a lively and astute contribution to the writing on Berger, as well as to scholarship on the last 50 years of the cultural left in general. * Publishers Weekly *This engaging intellectual biography traces Berger's creative evolution, analyzes highlights from his vast output ... and situates them within his empathetic Marxism. * The New Yorker *A Writer of Our Time, switches expertly from the political to the personal and back, mapping the highs and lows of an eventful-and sometimes turbulent-life. * Sunday Guardian Live *Switches expertly from the political to the personal and back, mapping the highs and lows of an eventful-and sometimes turbulent-life. * Sunday Guardian *Excellent ... Sperling writes crisply as a Berger fan without hagiography. * Sydney Morning Herald *An excellent introduction not only to Berger but also to the aesthetic and political issues of his era. Sperling is a clear and elegant writer, and the book is very well researched. * Choice *A first-order intellectual biography of John Berger . . . Sperling explores the context of Berger's development with reference to the rapidly evolving social and political climate. * Choice, editor's picks *Sharp, moving, and immensely readable -- Bruce Robbins * The Nation *Sperling provides context for the art and political movements of Berger's years such that we now have a full context for the evolution of his ideas and style-and the remarkable variety of his sustained output. ... There is no question that Berger is one of the most influential arts and culture intellectuals of the past 50 years. -- Ron Slate * On the Seawall *An extraordinary and analytical biography of an extraordinary and influential life, A Writer of Our Time: The Life and Work of John Berger is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library Contemporary Biography collections in general, and John Berger supplemental studies reading lists in particular * Midwest Book Review *

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Book SynopsisBooks about the work of James Joyce are an academic industry. Most of them are unreadable and esoteric. Adrian Hardiman's book is both highly readable and strikingly original. He spent years researching Joyce's obsession with the legal system, and the myriad references to notorious trials in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Joyce was fascinated by and felt passionately about miscarriages of justice, and his view of the law was coloured by the potential for grave injustice when policemen and judges are given too much power. Hardiman recreates the colourful, dangerous world of the Edwardian courtrooms of Dublin and London, where the death penalty loomed over many trials. He brings to life the eccentric barristers, corrupt police and omnipotent judges who made the law so entertaining and so horrifying. This is a remarkable evocation of a vanished world, though Joyce's scepticism about the way evidence is used in criminal trials is still highly relevant.Trade ReviewEven to those who find Ulysses somewhat impenetrable and to those who never even attempt to read Finnegans Wake, Joyce in Court is a pleasure to read and a real treasury of Joycean history in context * Dublin Sunday Business Post *He has the gifts of clarity, expertise and a deep knowledge of what he is talking about... This book is a worthy tribute to a person of many talents who fortunately chose to devote a lot of them to a body of work which was ideally suited for him' * Irish Times *Hardiman has approached the oeuvre with refreshing clarity... he is a highly enlightened and consistently humane reader of Joyce' * Daily Telegraph *This tremendously well-researched and marvellously insightful book is a delight for lawyers and lovers of literature alike * Irish Independent *With forensic care, Hardiman takes us through the trials of Emmet and the invincibles. His advantage is that he knows the book as well as he knows the law, and so misses no chance to connect what happened legally with what enters the minds and conversations of the fictional characters... [Hardiman] writes with clarity and with a lawyer's eye as he describes what the authorities did to prevent the book being published' -- Colm Toibin, GuardianHardiman's enthusiastic tracing and interpretation [...] does it a great service * The Sunday Times *Hardiman's detailed survey of [insurance law, libel, the tort of criminal conversation] undoubtedly renews and enriches our reading of Joyce's work as a whole... Its treatment of individual cases is fascinating' * Literary Review *The book reads like one of [Hardiman's] elaborate court arguments and it is redolent with the knowledge for which he was renowned. It is a seemly memorial of his professional life in the courts as well as his parallel life as historian and literary scholar * Irish Examiner *A fascinating exploration of Joyce's obsession with the legal system that looks at the many trials referenced in Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake * Irish Times, Best books of 2017. *[Hardiman] sheds new light on James Joyce's Ulysses by way of the 18 civil cases referred to in its text... Provides an insightful consideration of Joyce's masterpiece from a refreshingly different angle' * Publishers Weekly. *Consistently informative and entertaining, and very often fascinating. It deserves a place in ever Irish lawyer's library * Law Society Gazette *

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Book Synopsis"And now comes a man who thinks like, looks like, talks like and is as close to the real Conan Doyle as possible. He is Mark McPherson."- John Bennett ShawBut on his own account, since childhood Mark McPherson''s interest in the worlds of Arthur Conan Doyle and his Great Detective have become a realized dimension of his life. A professed student of the mysterious and arcane who turned his love toward investigation, he would eventually create the DAEDALOS Investigative Agency and address a host of the world''s greatest literary, historical, paranormal, and criminal enigmas. Called "a real life Sherlock Holmes" and "Michigan''s Indiana Jones," McPherson''s explorations have involved the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster, the probing of sacred sites of Egypt''s Giza Plateau and a methodical pursuit of the Shakespeare Authorship Mystery. He has also examined the enigma of the Shroud of Turin, conducted The Final Houdini Séance and sponsored an underwater hunt for Atlantis and numerous archaeological expeditions in Britain in quest of the mytho-historical Arthurian legends. Reflecting his enduring interest in the subject of Sherlock Holmes, Mark McPherson sought and found the Dartmoor location of the "true Baskerville Hall" in conjunction with the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and in 1979 consulted with Scotland Yard in the unparalleled manhunt for the "Yorkshire Ripper." He was the first to present a commemorative plaque at the legendary site of "221B, Baker Street" in London in 1978. Nine years later he would confer with his friends Dame Jean Conan Doyle and Richard Lancelyn Green to create a dramatic "Evening With Sir Arthur Conan Doyle," followed by a decade-long series of critically acclaimed performances throughout America, Britain and Canada. As a popular lecturer, journalist, author, actor, playwright, film-maker and historical detective, Mark McPherson''s personal adventures have garnered him many distinctions, not the least of them being his honorific investiture as "Cecil Barker" for the Baker Street Irregulars. A member of the Amateur Mendicants and Old Soldiers of Baker Street, he was founder of the Napoleons of Crime of Detroit. He has also received numerous accolades from the Arthur Conan Doyle Society and a host of international scion organizations. Currently residing at "Gray Gables," a 169-year-old riverfront manse on the island of Grosse Ile, Michigan, Mark McPherson currently shares his reputedly haunted residence with his wife Dori and his ever-faithful "canine Watson," Bradbury. By his own Profession, An Irregular Life is "the first and last of my memoirs."

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2022 Plutarch Award A Washington Post 2021 Non-Fiction Book of the Year New York Times Review of Books Editors' Choice Non-Fiction Title Longlisted for the 2022 PEN / Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography A Sunday Times Best Paperback of 2022 'Brilliant, heart-stopping ... reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction all at the same time ... magical and compelling' Washington Post 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,' Elizabeth Barrett Browning famously wrote, shortly before defying her family by running away to Italy with Robert Browning. But behind the romance of her extraordinary life stands a thoroughly modern figure, who remains an electrifying study in self-invention. Elizabeth was born in 1806, a time when women could neither attend university nor vote, and yet she achieved lasting literary fame. She remains Britain's greatest woman poet, whose work has inspired writers from Emily Dickinson to George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. This vividly written biography, the first full study for over thirty years, incorporates recent archival discoveries to reveal the woman herself: a literary giant and a high-profile activist for the abolition of slavery who believed herself to be of mixed heritage; and a writer who defied chronic illness and long-term disability to change the course of cultural history. It holds up a mirror to the woman, her art - and the art of biography itself.Trade ReviewBeautifully told. It is high time Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Aurora Leigh were once again household names -- Frances Wilson * Mail on Sunday *Sampson explores Elizabeth's long illness ... with compassion and scepticism ... Sampson is an astute, thoughtful and wide-ranging guide * The Times *A fine contribution to a growing number of biographies that try to pick off the barnacles of rumour and legend that have attached themselves to the lives of writers, and instead reveal them as they really were. -- Robert Douglas Fairhurst * Spectator *This new biography [shows that she was ... determined, ambitious and engaged in the public debates of her day. It] restores her to her proper place as one of the leading voices of the Victorian era ... This book is an empathetic - and much-needed - reassessment which tells a fascinating story. The decision to use the present tense [may not be to every reader's taste, but it] underlines the sense that the biographer is bringing her subject back to life. Most importantly, Sampson makes one want to read Barrett Browning -- Lucasta Miller * Telegraph *The first biography of Barrett Browning in more than 30 years is a nuanced and insightful account, dismantling previous studies [that viewed the poet only in relation to her domineering father or husband]. Fiona Sampson, a poet herself as well as a biographer of Mary Shelley, argues that central to Barrett Browning's story is the construction of identity - both in her life and the myth-making that surrounds it. Such a construction is itself a two-way creation, argues Sampson. "That the life of the body both enables and limits the life of the mind is the paradox of the thinking self." * New Statesman *"[It is [the] publicly engaged Elizabeth that Fiona Sampson sets before us in] this fine biography, the first since Margaret Forster's more than 30 years ago. For her frame and point of reference Sampson uses Aurora Leigh... [which tells the story of a young female writer's early career, specifically an artist's development. At first glance this might seem to mark a retreat to the personal and the biographic, but] Sampson's point is that Aurora Leigh provides us with a model for understanding how Barrett Browning forged a new relationship between female subjectivity and public utterance. ... The content... is spot-on. Sampson is particularly interested in Barrett Browning's personal and political entanglement with empire and race. ... Sampson is not too fastidious to deprive herself - or us - of the schlockier pleasures of biographical speculation. ... Sampson is ... judicious... but she understands enough about the pleasures of transgression to leave ... possibility in play. -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *The award-winning poet Fiona Sampson ... in her intriguing biography of and meditation on EBB, making the convincing claim that she was the first female lyric poet ... Sampson's book is timely [in its examination of EBB's political awakening] ... as a poet she puts the work before the life, and that surely is the right way round. -- Daisy Goodwin * Sunday Times *Brilliant, heart-stopping ... reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction all at the same time ... magical and compelling -- Charlotte Gordon * Washington Post *Two-Way Mirror pushes back against the neglect, bordering on amnesia, that has descended on a poet once widely celebrated ... battling polite silence more than the mistakes or omissions of earlier critics and biographers, Sampson wants readers to see Barrett Browning afresh -- John Plotz * The New York Times *Sampson's central argument is that the real drama and interest of EBB's life are to be found in her work ... Sampson has written an often absorbing study of EBB's risk-taking and originality as a poet, covering ground missing from Margaret Forster's biography, published in 1988 -- Claudia Fitzherbert * Literary Review *Fiona Sampson [is] a sympathetic biographer -- Constance Craig Smith * Daily Mail *Fiona Sampson's passionate and exacting biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a surprisingly compact volume, a bristling lyric sandwich of philosophy and action. It is also a page-turner. ... Sampson addresses her subject as "Elizabeth" rather than "Barrett Browning", rendering her intense sustained gaze extraordinarily intimate. Her deep sense of identification and unerring detail reels the reader in. ... Two-Way Mirror is a long overdue remaking of Barrett Browning's extraordinary appropriated life ... Each chapter is prefaced by a short philosophical lyrical essay or "frame", each a meditation on portraiture and reflection which doubles as an act of self-examination for Sampson ... It feels as if the stakes couldn't be higher for Sampson, and this gives an enormous charge to a vividly personal account... -- Martina Evans * Irish Times *Sampson treats the couple's marriage and elopement with tenderness and realism ... Sampson evokes a privileged world that occasionally smacks of Bridgerton ... yet which was starting to fulfil Blake's dark satanic vision ... and one of Sampson's key arguments is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's role in shaping and defining the poetic tastes of the time. ... Two-Way Mirror successfully sent me back to my selection of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems ... -- Harry Cochrane * Tablet *It takes a biographer of Fiona Sampson's lateral brilliance to re-argue EBB's importance [and to put her verse novel Aurora Leigh ... back where it belongs among the great works of the period]. She does by very carefully framing not just the life, which is far more vivid and complex than usually supposed. .. Sampson is superb on how much EBB's work is ... "written on the body". ... Armed with Sampson's complex portrait, with its multiple frames and mirror effects, it's possible ... to read Elizabeth Barrett Browning again ... She has come suddenly up to date -- Brian Morton * Herald *

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Book SynopsisBook of the Week on Radio 4, and in the Observer, Sunday Times, Daily Mail and The Week 'Riveting, and immaculately written' Sunday Telegraph 'A superb psychological study of a literary genius' Business Post 'A rounded picture... and gets to Dahl's flawed, human core' Country Life 'Crisply done and well-judged' TLS A brand-new biography of Roald Dahl, re-evaluating the received narrative surrounding the life of the much-loved author and creator of numerous iconic literary characters – from one of our finest contemporary biographers. Roald Dahl was one of the world’s greatest storytellers. He considered his vocation to be as bold and exciting as an explorer’s and, in his writing for children, he was able to tap into a child’s viewpoint throughout his life. He crafted tales that were exotic in scenario, frequently invested with a moral, and filled with vibrant characters that endure in the public imagination to the present day.Trade ReviewDevotes a large chunk of his book to Dahl's Norwegian family and schooldays; their combination of warmth, tragedy, inspiration and savagery is brilliantly evoked... [His account] makes you feel grudging admiration for a bully whose self-belief was, in a way, heroic * Sunday Times *Superb psychological study of a literary genius... Matthew Dennison's biography of Roald Dahl manages to peel back the layers of an infamously complex man * Sunday Business Post *Matthew Dennison's streamlined text clips along with an economy befitting Dahl's brusque manner... Dennison presents a rounded picture [...] and gets to Dahl's flawed, human core * Country Life *A well-researched, compact book * Observer *This book is riveting, and immaculately written * Sunday Telegraph *Brace yourself for Dahl mania... Documenting the multi-layered life of Roald Dahl as a creative maverick who created some of the most well-loved characters in literature, this biography reevaluates Dahl by examining his surviving relics * Tatler *A crisply done and well-judged survey of the outline of the life * TLS *[An] impeccably balanced new biography * Mail on Sunday *An intriguing read about a vastly talented but morally weak man * The Anglo-Celt *Dennison recasts the narrative of the daredevil pilot and spy-turned-author as a rule-breaker, romantic and ultimately a child's friend * School House *An elegant new biography... capturing [Dahl’s] grandiose, tragedy-specked life. * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisWhen he arrived in Moscow in 1851, a young Leo Tolstoy set himself three immediate aims: to gamble, to marry and to obtain a post. At that time he managed only the first. The writer’s momentous life would be full of forced breaks and abrupt departures, from the death of his beloved parents to an abandonment of the social class into which he had been born. Andrei Zorin skilfully pieces together Tolstoy’s life, offering an account of the novelist’s deepest feelings and motives, and a brilliant interpretation of his major works, including the celebrated novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

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Book SynopsisBorn in Poland in 1857, Joseph Conrad is one of the great writers of the twentieth century. This book traces Conrad's life from his childhood in a Russian penal colony, through his early manhood in Marseille and his years in the British Merchant Navy, to a career as a novelist. It describes how these experiences inspired Conrad's work, from his early Malay novels to his best-known work, Heart of Darkness. Robert Hampson discusses Conrad's important relations with other writers, including Henry James and Ford Madox Ford, as well as his late-life political engagements and his relationships with women. Featuring new interpretations of all of Conrad's major works, this is an original interpretation of Conrad's life of writing.Trade Review"Concise, lucid, balanced, precise, and reliable, the book interweaves skillfully the analyses of the literary works and the unfolding of Conrad's life. What results is a clear, proficient, and moving account of a complex and exemplary genius."--Cedric Watts, emeritus professor of English at the University of Sussex, author of Joseph Conrad: A Literary Life "Insightful, judicious, and elegant, Joseph Conrad marvelously distills a lifetime of learning by one of the world's leading Conrad scholars. Hampson guides us sure-footedly through Conrad's fascinating life--as a Polish immigrant, a professional sailor, and a belatedly successful writer--while deftly examining the critical themes of all his works. Conrad remains a complicated and controversial figure, and Hampson's Conrad--as an introduction for students, a reference for scholars, or a meditation for general readers--delivers the best short guide to his life available."--Maya Jasanoff, Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University, author of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World

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Book SynopsisOne should either wear a work or art, or be a work of art', Wilde once declared. In The Invention of Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel explores Wilde's self-creation as a 'work of art' and a carefully constructed cultural icon. Frankel takes readers on a journey through Wilde's inventive, provocative life, from his Irish origins - and their public erasure - through his challenges to traditional concepts of masculinity and male sexuality, to his criminal conviction and final years of exile in France. Along the way, Frankel takes a deep look at Wilde's writings, paradoxical wit and intellectual convictions, as well as his marriage and affairs with a series of attractive young men, including his great love Lord Alfred Douglas.Trade Review‘Oscar the man, Oscar the life, Oscar the tragedy, Oscar the standard bearer for art, Irishness, queerness, intellect and wit we all know. But there is Oscar the idea too: the symbol, the representative, the totem, the global icon which looms above the other identities. It is an identity whose construction Wilde himself began, but on which subsequent generations build. There is no one better to unwrap the mystery and challenge of this Oscar than Nicholas Frankel, whose previous work has already established him as one of the world’s foremost Wildeans. This book is such an invaluable and permanent addition to the literature.’ – Stephen Fry

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Book SynopsisAldous Huxley was one of the twentieth century's most prescient thinkers. This new biography charts the phases of Huxley's life and writing: from the early satirist who depicted the glamorous despair of the postwar generation, to the committed pacifist of the 1930s, the spiritual seeker of the 1940s, the psychedelic sage of the 1950s who affirmed the spiritual potential of mescaline and LSD, to the New Age prophet. While Huxley is best-known as the author of Brave New World, Poller argues that it is The Perennial Philosophy, The Doors of Perceptionand Island- Huxley's blueprint for a utopian society- that have had the most impact on culture at large. A rich and lucid account of Huxley's life and work.Trade ReviewJake Poller, in his new biography of Aldous Huxley, does the impossible. He covers the ground revealed previously by other scholars, but also manages to add fresh details, knowledgeable insights and astute critiques-and in far fewer pages than in any earlier treatments. This book is not only a marvel of concise and readable scholarship but a welcome and necessary update of the life of one of the 20th century's most provocative intellectuals.-Dana Sawyer, professor of religion and philosophy, Maine College of Art and author of Aldous Huxley: A Biography (2015)

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Book SynopsisFord Madox Ford had a fascinating life, spent among several of the most important groups of artists and writers of his time. Friends with Henry James, H. G. Wells and above all Joseph Conrad, Ford was a leading figure of the avant-garde in pre-First World War London, publishing Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis and D. H. Lawrence in The English Review. After the warhe founded The Transatlantic Review in Paris, helping to launch Hemingway and Jean Rhys. A prolific writer in his own right, Ford’s best-known books are the modernist tour de force The Good Soldier (1915) and the Parade’s End tetralogy (1924–8). Drawing on recently discovered correspondence and photographs, this cogent new critical biography demonstrates Ford’s vital contribution to modern fiction, poetry and criticism.

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Book SynopsisH.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961) was one of the first writers of free verse in English, best known for her sparse Imagist poems. For over forty years she wrote poetry that resurrected forgotten ancient goddesses, and autobiographical prose that explored her trauma, her desires, and the unique struggles of a twentieth-century woman writer. She was also a scholar of religion, mythology and history, a translator of ancient Greek, and worked in early avant-garde film. Dubbed the ‘perfect bi-’ by Sigmund Freud, she placed issues of sexuality and gender at the centre of her writings. This new biography explores the fascinating life and work of this important modernist figure, once written out of literary history but now receiving the attention she deserves.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: ‘Inexorably entangled’, 1886–1911 Chapter 2: ‘My pencil run riot!’, 1911–14 Chapter 3: 'The black cloud fell’, 1914–18 Chapter 4: ‘To make a self’, 1919–26 Chapter 5: ‘The perfect bi-’, 1927–39 Chapter 6: ‘This is not writing . . . this is burning’, 1939–46 Chapter 7: ‘Content, besieged with memories, like low-swarming bees’, 1946–61 References Select Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisA new portrait of Dylan Thomas, which reveals an inventive, dedicated writer.

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Book Synopsis'He was "not of an age, but for all time".' (Shakespeare's contemporary Ben Jonson) No writer, before or since, has matched Shakespeare in terms of influence, critical acclaim or popular success. His genius lay in his sheer dramatic skill, his powerful use of imagery and his astonishing ability to create richly imagined characters. Packed full of the Bard's clever insights, witty asides and timeless nuggets of wisdom, and complemented by fascinating facts about his life and talents, this Little Book showcases some of the most remarkable lines ever crafted in the English language.SAMPLE QUOTES: 'What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet.' - Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2'We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.' - The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1'Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.' - Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2SAMPLE FACT: There is evidence that Shakespeare wrote a play called Cardenio, which was performed by the King's Men in 1613. No known copy of the play exists today.Table of ContentsLove and Friendship • Ambition • Loyalty and Betrayal • Revenge • Family • Wit and Wisdom

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Book Synopsis'The greatest writer of his time.' (George Orwell)The author of 20 much-loved novels and novellas, Charles Dickens combined humour and pathos to explore Victorian society in all its shades. Widely praised for his rich narratives and larger-than-life characters, he was not only a celebrity author but also an admired social reformer. Moving from the refined drawing rooms of the upper classes to the horrors of the workhouse or the filthy back streets of London, Dickens' writings shone a light on the harsh inequalities of the times.The Little Book of Charles Dickens showcases wonderful quotes from the author's writings, alongside fascinating facts about his life and achievements. By turns witty, comic, insightful and wise, this delightful volume is a fitting tribute to a literary giant.SAMPLE QUOTE: 'It is said that the children of the very poor are not brought up, but dragged up.' Bleak HouseSAMPLE FACT: When Dickens was 12 years old, his father was sent to a debtor's prison. Forced to become the family's main breadwinner, the young Dickens worked at Warren's Blacking Factory, where he was paid a pittance for pasting labels onto bottles of shoe polish.Table of ContentsPoverty and Social Class • Crime and Corruption • Loyalty and Betrayal • Innocence and Guilt • Relationships • Wit and Wisdom

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Book SynopsisThe writer who changed America's literary landscape.One of the great novelists of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway's spare, precise prose captivated critics and readers alike, while his swaggering personality made him a star beyond the literary scene. The author's world was full of daring and danger: he drove an ambulance during the First World War, had a love of bullfighting and boxing, and rushed to see action in the Spanish Civil War. His travels and adventures fuelled his art, while his troubled and often chaotic life was central to his creativity. Packed full of insightful quotes and fascinating facts about Hemingway's life and work, this little book creates an intriguing portrait of the complex man behind the writer.Sample Quotes: 'But man is not made for defeat... A man can be destroyed but not defeated.' - The Old Man and The Sea, 1952'Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.' - Hemingway, in a personal letter to the publisher, Charles Scribner IV'But life isn't hard to manage when you've nothing to lose.' - A Farwell to Arms, 1929Sample Facts: While serving as an ambulance driver during the First World War, Hemingway was badly wounded by mortar fire. He managed to help an Italian soldier reach safety, an action that earned him an Italian Silver Medal of Valour.Hemingway was an avid hunter and fisherman. His zeal for both pursuits worked their way into his fiction, such as the prize-winning novel The Old Man and the Sea and the acclaimed short story 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'.Table of ContentsThe Man and the Myth • Journalist and War Hero • Adventures Abroad • Boxing and Bullfighting • Literary Friendships • Wisdom and Wit.

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Book SynopsisThe Blue Light is an autobiographical novel in chapters and vignettes that travels through memory, time, and language. Hussein Bargouthi tells his story with Bari, a Turkish American Sufi, during Bargouthi’s years as a graduate student at the University of Washington in the late 1980s. The Blue Light has several beginnings and many returns—from Beirut’s traumatic sea to musings on color and identity, from Buddhist paths to Rajneesh disciples, from military rule to colonial insanity, from drug addiction to sacred rock. Written and lived between Arabic and English, this is a unique book whose depth is as clear as its surface. It will tempt you to dismiss it as it compels you to devour it for illumination. Merging memoir with fiction, and the hallowed with the profane, The Blue Light is a meditation on and liberation from madness—a brilliant, inimitable literary achievement.Trade Review"The Blue Light is philosophically capacious: Barghouthi explores spirituality and sociality, as well as knowledge, creativity, and writing." * Full Stop *

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Book Synopsis'Theirs was a pre-urban world in the glow of its last sunset, without a care or doubt, in which it seemed as if nothing could ever come to harm. Here was their version of that ideal world that has haunted the dreamer, rebel and pastoral poet for centuries.'Between 1850 and 1939 such well-known writers as Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf and Richard Jefferies came to Sussex, a county already home to the likes of Wilfrid Blunt, Hilaire Belloc and others. The result was an explosion of literary creativity which rejected modernity and the London scene, and instead developed writing imbued with a sense of nature and landscape.In this, his last book, Peter Brandon (1927–2011) has drawn on his vast knowledge of the Sussex landscape to show how such writers, seeking a foil to London, were inspired by their surroundings and found peace and a tranquillity which existed in few other places.

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of a home. A story rooted in love. The story of a poet born of an Irish jazz musician and a Jamaican go-go dancer, an absent father and a resilient mother. In Springfield Road, Salena Godden evokes an era when oranges seemed bigger and summers were longer, a world of half-penny sweets, free school milk, hand-me-downs and Thatcher''s Britain, for those too young to remember and for those old enough to know. For Salena, it was a time for learning that life can be brutal with first betrayals and first losses, but also that there are endless riches to uncover in the world. In equal parts powerful, tender and fearless, Springfield Road shows us where, in a world full of shadows, hope is to be found.

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Book SynopsisA holistic approach to the monumental modernist writer Christopher Isherwood.

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Book SynopsisThink you already know the story of Charles Dickens' life? Think again.Almost everything you're familiar with was first mentioned in an authorised biography written by Dickens' close friend John Forster 150 years ago. It's the version of events that Dickens himself chose to make public, and newly accessible archives reveal that it's crammed with gaps, inconsistencies, and outright lies. There's the sister whose existence Dickens kept secret and the Jewish relations whose faith he strove to conceal. There's plagiarism, fraud, and suicide.And that's only for starters. Helena Kelly, author of the acclaimed Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, retells Dickens' story from his childhood to his deathbed, uncovers the truths he tried to keep hidden, and offers a fresh - and deeply troubling - perspective on the man who remains one of Britain's best-known novelists.You won't be able to look at him - or his work - in the same way again.Trade ReviewA literary bio that deftly untangles truth from untruth. Diligent research and incisive close readings of Dickens' writings ground Kelly's investigation into the gaps, contradictions, and inconsistencies in the manipulated, self-serving story that many subsequent biographers have repeated. -- Kirkus ReviewsSpeaking of his fiction, when it comes to literary analysis, Kelly isn't just unimpeachable - she's energizing * The New York Times *As this fascinating book reveals, we don't actually know the truth at all ... for the real story, check out Helena Kelly * Daily Express *Praise for Jane Austen, the Secret Radical:"Bracing. Plausible and vivid."-- "The Atlantic""Jane Austen, The Secret Radical is wonderful; a revelation. It's difficult to stand out from the crowd when writing about such an influential figure, but Helena Kelly has certainly achieved that with this smart, knowing, perceptive book."--Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire"A fresh take on the life and work of the beloved writer Jane Austen. Reveals the subversive rebel soul behind such towering classics as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park."-- "Elle""A thoroughly engaging read." - The Times Literary Supplement"An important revisionary work. Helena Kelly provokes."-- "The New York Times""Amply shows her deep research. She exposes a depth beyond what at first may seem to be silly characters. A fine-grained study that shows us how to read between the lines to discover the remarkable woman who helped transform the novel from trash to an absolute art form." - Kirkus Reviews"Ambitious. Illuminating, provocative. Kelly offers a salutary argument for reading Austen's novels with the serious attentiveness they invite and deserve."-- "The Spectator""Do we read Jane Austen's novels as she intended? In this riveting literary-biographical study, the answer is a resounding no. An interpretive coup that is dazzling and dizzying . . . You won't read Austen the same way again."-- "The New Yorker""Essential. What this radical re-reading of the novels does so brilliantly is to exhort us all to chuck out the chintz, and the teacups, and all the traditional romantic notions about Austen's work that have been fed to us for so long."-- "The Bookseller (London)""Helena Kelly makes the case for Austen as an author steeped in the fear of war and revolution. Meticulously researched. Kelly shows us that the novels were about nothing more or less than the burning political questions of the day. A sublime piece of literary detective work that shows us once and for all how to be precisely the sort of reader that Austen deserves."-- "The Guardian (London)""Kelly argues passionately and engagingly. Her critical method is . . . generating meaning from the smallest details of the novels."-- "The Washington Post" * Praise for Jane Austen, A Secret Radical *Helena Kelly's book presents a fresh view of Dickens, just as her previous book, Jane Austen the Secret Radical, did for Austen * The Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis'Puts Cavendish back into the literary history books where she belongs' Kate Mosse 'Scholarly, articulate, and never less than fascinating' Alice Loxton A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous, seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. ‘My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress of a whole world.’ Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in 1623 to a wealthy family. In 1644, as England descended into civil war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria at Oxford, before following the court into exile in France. It was there that she met her much older lifelong partner, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Cavendish was a revolutionary writer. At a time when literature was dominated by men, she wrote passionately on gender, science and philosophy, defied convention by publishing under her own name, and advocated for women in work that predates the feminist movement. In 1666, she published The Blazing World, a brilliant, trail-blazing proto-novel thought to be one of the earliest works of science fiction. But her legacy divides opinion. And history has largely forgotten her. In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock shines a spotlight on the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial life of Margaret Cavendish.Trade ReviewIt’s a gripping read, wonderfully researched and puts Cavendish back into the literary history books where she belongs. I loved it. * Kate Mosse *Fascinating * William Boyd *Well-written, well-researched, interesting and peppy. * The Observer *5 STARS... Margaret Cavendish was a woman out of time. This blazing biography does her proud * The Telegraph *[An] erudite and entertaining book * The Spectator *Scholarly, articulate, and never less than fascinating, this is a sensational debut. * Alice Loxton *[A] sparky celebration of a remarkable woman * Financial Times *Pure Wit is thorough and scholarly * Literary Review *A stellar debut. Francesca Peacock is as bold, bright and witty as her subject. Margaret Cavendish sears through every page and so does her blazing world. * Jessie Childs *This is historical biography as it should be written: intelligent and nuanced, witty and thoroughly riveting. * Lucasta Miller *A fascinating book on a fascinating woman, who was not the “crazy duchess” of hostile legend, but a daring feminist pioneer. * Penelope Corfield *Francesca Peacock adroitly recounts Cavendish’s ordeals as a monarchist under Cromwell, her years in exile in Paris, her supportive marriage, her ennoblement and fame. * New Statesman *[Peacock's] enjoyable book is enriched by accounts of other women who lived remarkably in those remarkable times. * The Times *Perceptive and nuanced. A blazing account of a blazing woman. * Holly Kyte *

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Book SynopsisThis is the first full-scale biography of Osip Mandelstam to combine an analysis of his poetry with a description of his personal life, from his beginnings as a young intellectual in pre-revolutionary Russia to his final fate as a victim of Stalinism.The myth has grown up that Mandelstam was a gloomy, miserable figure; Dutli deconstructs this, stressing Mandelstam's enjoyment of life. There are several underlying themes here. One is Mandelstam's Jewish background in pre-1914 Russia, which he rejected as a young man, but reaffirmed in later life. Another is the inescapable impact of Russia's political and social transformation.His evolution as a poet naturally occupies a large place in the biography, which quotes many of his most famous poems, including his devastating anti-Stalin epigram. He produced wonderful poetry before the October Revolution, but did not reach his full poetic stature until the 1930s when in exile in Voronezh. He was never an official Soviet poet, and it was only thanks to the intervention of Bukharin that he was brought back from utter impoverishment.The biography gives full weight to his emotional life, beginning with his friendship with two other Russian poets, Marina Tsvetaeva and Anna Akhmatova, followed by love and marriage to Nadezhda Khazina."One of the century's greatest lyric poets." - Elaine Feinstein, Sunday Times"Mandelstam's poems are both bold and delicate. His imagery can seem both profoundly startling yet entirely natural". - Robert Chandler"Mandelstam was a tragic figure. Even while in exile in Voronej, he wrote works of untold beauty and power. And he had no poetic forerunners. In all of world poetry, I know of no other such case. We know the sources of Pushkin and Blok, but who will tell us from where that new, divine harmony, Mandelstam's poetry, came from?" - Anna Akhmatova"Russia's greatest poet in the twentieth century." - Joseph BrodskyTrade ReviewA timely reminder of both the long history of repression in Russia and the powerful role that literature can play. Dutli's rounded portrait of a Russian poet unafraid to speak truth to power brings to life the man and his time. -- Carl Wilkinson, Best Books of the Year * Financial Times *Likely to become the standard reference work for the English reader ... enlightening -- Donald Rayfield * Literary Review *Deftly examines [Mandelstam's] literary legacy and explains why, in the opinion of the Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, [he] can be considered the greatest Russian poet of the 20th century -- John Thornhill * Financial Times *[Dutli's] understanding of his subject is profound and his assessments informed ... his sympathetic grasp of Mandlestam's artistic genius should yet be enough to encourage readers to explore some of the greatest poetry of the 20th century. -- Mark Glanville * Jewish Chronicle *Compelling ... [Dutli] provides a vibrant, deeply informed guide to the life, the writing and the tumultuous age that shaped them. -- Clare Cavanagh * Times Literary Supplement *The author, Ralph Dutli, approaches the poet unobtrusively and sensitively. He deconstructs the myths that have surrounded him, such as the notion that he was a restless ascetic who never put down any roots or settled anywhere. It was sheer necessity that forced him to move from place to place. Dutli brings out the sensual and witty side of Mandelstam, who was full of the joys of life. -- Marion Lülte * Die Tageszeitung *This biography crowns Dutli's work as editor of the poet's oeuvre. Thanks to Ralph Dutli, the German public now have the best conceivable access to Mandelstam's work. Dutli hasn't just told the story of Mandelstam's life; he has included in an appendix a range of comments by other poets, the most remarkable of them being that by Pasolini. -- Christoph Bartmann * Süddeutsche Zeitung *This is a biography written with insight and precision, which can be recommended unreservedly. The aim of the book is to explain how Mandelstam managed to retain his enjoyment of life and clarity of vision despite all his suffering. This is a successful biography written with empathy, sobriety and a wealth of information. -- Renate Wiggershaus * Frankfurter Rundschau *A model biography by Dutli, who is better qualified than anyone else to do this, because he has a precise knowledge of every facet of the poet's life and work. He corrects the picture presented by Celan, whose translations overemphasised the tragic, elegiac aspect of Mandelstam's poetry. -- Ulrich M. Schmid * Neue Zürcher Zeitung *The details of the road that led to Mandelstam's death have never been presented to the German public so precisely and with so much tact, as here. Dutli's language is muscular, warm and colourful. -- Andreas Isenschmid * Die Zeit *Dutli is able to illuminate the interaction between the poet's life and his work in a masterly fashion, without reducing his poems to a mere reflection of aspects of his biography. -- Michael Braun * Deutschlandfunk *

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Book Synopsis'You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.' Such were the words of the master detective Sherlock Holmes to Dr Watson, as he noted how his friend failed to implement Holmes's techniques. In How to think like Sherlock you will learn how to increase your powers of observation, memory, deduction and reasoning using the tricks and techniques of the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. The book incorporates the latest techniques and theories across a range of topics: NLP, memory mapping, body language, information shifting and speed reading - this is a supremely practical book that will make you look at the world in a new light, and more importantly, impress those around you. Packed full of case studies, quotes and trivia from Arthur Conan Doyle's original novels and short stories, How to think like Sherlock also includes a series of fun tasks and games for you to complete that will ensure that when you reach the end of the book you will be thinking like Sherlock Holmes, the master of the science of deduction. You will never look at a shirt cuff, trouser hem or scuff of dirt on a shoe in the same way again!Other books in the series include: How to Think Like Stephen Hawking, How to Think Like Churchill and How to Think Like Steve JobsTrade Reviewideal present or stocking filler... gives you the chance to improve your deductive powers * Choice *A supremely practical book that will make you look at the world in a new light, and more importantly, impress those around you * Sherlockology *Smith is obviously a man who knows his Holmes and he uses Holmes' strengths to tutor his readers * The Bookbag *

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Book SynopsisEmily Dickinson is regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time, but she has come to us as an odd and helpless woman living a life of self imposed seclusion. Lyndall Gordon sees instead a volcanic character living on her own terms and with a steely confidence in her own talent; a woman whose family feuded over a hothouse of adultery and devastating betrayal and a woman who had her own secret. After her death the fight for possession of Emily and her poetry became the feud's focus.'Lives Like Loaded Guns has cracked one of poetry's most enduring enigmas . . . It rescues Dickinson from the image of the passive, heart-broken recluse. It is a worthy monument to a poet even more extraordinary than we realised' Olivia Cole, Financial TimesFrom the acclaimed biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft, T.S. Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf and Henry James.

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Book SynopsisNancy Durrell was a woman famous for her silences. Anaïs Nin said 'I think often of Nancy's most eloquent silences, Nancy talking with her fingers, her hair, her cheeks, a wonderful gift. Music again.' As the first wife Lawrence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet, it is perhaps surprising that she is an unknown entity, a constant presence in the biographies of Durrell and others in the Bloomsbury set, yet always a shadowy figure, beautiful and enigmatic. But who was the woman who was with Durrell during the most important years of his development as a writer? Joanna Hodgkin decides to retrace her mother's fascinating story: the escape from her toxic and mysterious family; the years in bohemian literary London and Paris in the 1930s; marriage to Durrell and their discovery of the 'Eden' of pre-war Corfu and her desperate struggle to survive in Palestine alone with a small child as the British Mandate collapsed. Amateurs in Eden is a fascinating biography of a literary marriage and of an unusual woman struggling to live an independent life.Trade ReviewFrank and captivating . . . rich in charm and pathos . . . Hodgkin has done both Nancy and herself proud with this fresh portrait of a marriage we thought we knew, and of a woman we have never known well enough -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times *It's a cracking story, and Hodgkin is a meticulous researcher -- Olivia Laing * Observer *The animating spirit that pulses through this joint biography is to be thoroughly applauded -- D.J Taylor * Literary Review *This is not just a memoir of her mother. This is the history of a literary wife. On both counts, Hodgkin succeeds beautifully . . . Her story is not a footnote; it is absolutely central * Independent *A truly fascinating account of one of those many women, the wives and the girlfriends and the sisters of famous literary men, who have lived a twilight existence in the shadows of the historical canon. A particularly rich and honest account * Scotland on Sunday *An enjoyable, revisionist account of a bohemian marriage -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisCharlotte Brontes years in Belgium (184243) had a huge influence both on her life and her work. It was in Brussels that she not only honed her writing skills but fell in love and lived through the experiences that inspired two of her four novels: her first, The Professor, and her last and in many ways most interesting, Villette. Her feelings about Belgium are known from her novels and letters her love for her tutor Heger, her uncomplimentary remarks about Belgians, the powerful effect on her imagination of living abroad. But what about Belgian views of Charlotte Bronte? What has her legacy been in Brussels? How have Belgian commentators responded to her portrayal of their capital city and their society? Through Belgian Eyes explores a wide range of responses from across the Channel, from the hostile to the enthusiastic. In the process, it examines what The Professor and Villette tell Belgian readers about their capital in the 1840s and provides a wealth of detail on the Brussels background to the two novels. Unlike Paris and London, Brussels has inspired few outstanding works of literature. That makes Villette, considered by many to be Charlotte Brontes masterpiece, of particular interest as a portrait of the Belgian capital a decade after the country gained independence in 1830, and just before modernisation and expansion transformed the city out of all recognition from the villette (small town) that Charlotte knew. Her view of Brussels is contrasted with those of other foreign visitors and of the Belgians themselves. The story of Charlotte Brontes Brussels legacy provides a unique perspective on her personality and writing.Trade ReviewWhile we may know plenty about what Charlotte Bronte made of Brussels and its people, what about the other way round? What did Brussels, and indeed Belgium as a whole, make of the shy young Englishwoman who, having been rejected by one of their countrymen, unleashed a stream of invective against their country? This is the question that long-time resident and Bronte scholar Helen MacEwan attempts to answer in this fascinating and important book [She] skilfully decentres the Bronte myth and re-reads it, this time through Belgian eyes.Kathryn Hughes, Times Literary Supplement, 18 May 2018

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Book SynopsisThe first ever book about Mary Lavin's 16-year working relationship with The New Yorker and a fascinating insight into the lives of two brilliant 20th-century literary women.

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Book SynopsisElizabeth Jane Howard (1923-2014) wrote brilliant novels about what love can do to people, but in her own life the lasting relationship she sought so ardently always eluded her. She grew up yearning to be an actress; but when that ambition was thwarted by marriage and the war, she turned to fiction. Her first novel, The Beautiful Visit, won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize - she went on to write fourteen more, of which the best-loved were the five volumes of The Cazalet Chronicle. Following her divorce from her first husband, the celebrated naturalist Peter Scott, Jane embarked on a string of high-profile affairs with Cecil Day-Lewis, Arthur Koestler and Laurie Lee, which turned her into a literary femme fatale. Yet the image of a sophisticated woman hid a romantic innocence which clouded her emotional judgement. She was nearing the end of a disastrous second marriage when she met Kingsley Amis, and for a few years they were a brilliant and glamorous couple - until that marriage too disintegrated. She settled in Suffolk where she wrote and entertained friends, but her turbulent love life was not over yet. In her early seventies Jane fell for a conman. His unmasking was the final disillusion, and inspired one of her most powerful novels, Falling.Artemis Cooper interviewed Jane several times in Suffolk. She also talked extensively to her family, friends and contemporaries, and had access to all her papers. Her biography explores a woman trying to make sense of her life through her writing, as well as illuminating the literary world in which she lived.Trade ReviewHugely absorbing * Guardian *A careful and accurate portrait * Daily Telegraph *Cooper has assiduously gathered material from everyone involved, and the details and perspectives are tantalizingly fresh * The Times *Looks set to be the literary biography of the autumn * Good Housekeeping *In this fascinating biography, Artemis Cooper paints a picture of a complex and tricky woman * Sunday Express *A careful portrait of a fascinating woman * Sunday Telegraph *Compelling * Sunday Times *An unexpected treasure . . . It is as compelling and unified as a novel, while recounting a full, messy, complex human story . . . Cooper is respectful but never sycophantic, clear-eyed but never mocking. Familiar stories are retold but also reconsidered, and set in context. And the book pays the literary biography's ultimate compliment - it will send even those most familiar with the novels back to their bookshelves to revisit them * Financial Times *Elegant, sympathetic but clear-sighted * Mail on Sunday *I inhaled every blissful word. A sad, revelatory, brilliantly written account of one remarkable woman's life in writing, cooking, and having sex. An unexpected triumph -- Rachel Johnson * Daily Mail *Artemis Cooper's biography of Howard asserts the importance of Howard the writer, but also paints a painful portrait of a woman whose emotional life was often determined by the approval and attention of men * Guardian Review *Cooper's biography is a careful portrait of a woman bursting with every talent except the capacity to inspire enduring love * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisA reader-friendly, fully illustrated colour guide to Robert Burns' time in Edinburgh, with fresh research, maps and illustrations of the key people Burns met, with 27 relevant poems by Burns throughout. With over 100 illustrations by David Alexander and 80 photographs by Jerry Brannigan of key people and places Burns encountered. Easy to follow routes and walking guides in Edinburgh arranged by area and place/people. Tourist information about each site. Robert Burns came to Edinburgh in November 1786 and stayed for 14 months. His book, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, Kilmarnock Edition , went on sale on July 31, 1786 and was an immediate success throughout Scotland. Suddenly,he was being spoken of the length and breadth of the land. His plan to emigrateto Jamaica with any profit from the sales of the book was abandoned. Burns's life was about to change! Dr Thomas Blacklock, known as the Blind Poet, came to know of the book. Blacklock was a much respected poet and critic, acquainted with the cream of literary society in Scotland and he advised Burns to travel to the nation's capital where a larger edition was promised. Blacklock was sure it would have a more universal circulation than "anything else that had been published within his memory". So it was that on November 27, 1786 that Robert Burns, on a borrowed pony, set off on the two-day journey to Edinburgh. It was at the peak of the Scottish Enlightenment. Edinburgh at the time was home to great philosophers, world-renowned economists, engineers, scientists, writers and poets. Enterprise and industry were flourishing. Robert Burns was to find himself thrust into the midst of the social and academic whirlpool that was Edinburgh in 1786, establishing him as a vital part of the Scottish Enlightenment. This book chronicles the places he visited and the brilliant, eccentric, but always fascinating people he met during his stay. Places including Lodge Canongate Kilwinning No. 2, The Kirk of the Canongate, Old Calton Burial Ground, St. Cecilia's Hall, Pear Tree House, The Luckenbooths and many more. People including, The Duchess of Gordon, Lord Monboddo, James (Balloon) Tytler, Bishop John Geddes, (Indian) Peter Williamson and a host more. Learn of his meeting with a young Sir Walter Scott, and - let's not forget - Mrs Agnes McLehose, his Clarinda, and inspiration for Ae Fond Kiss. Robert Burns left Edinburgh on March 24, 1788. He was only 29. He was to die in Dumfries eight years later at the age of 37.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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