Biography: writers Books

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Book SynopsisA biography of Charles Chesnutt, one of the first American authors to write for both Black and white readers.In A Matter of Complexion, Tess Chakkalakal gives readers the first comprehensive biography of Charles W. Chesnutt. A complex and talented man, Chesnutt was born in 1858 in Cleveland to parents who were considered mixed race. He spent his early life in North Carolina after the Civil War. Though light-skinned, Chesnutt remained a member of the black community throughout his life. He studied among students at the State Colored Normal School who were formerly enslaved. He became a teacher in rural North Carolina during Reconstruction. His life in the South of those years, the issue of race, and how he himself identified as Black informed much of his later writing. He went on to become the first Black writer whose stories appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and whose books were published by Houghton Mifflin.Through his literary work, as a

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Book SynopsisWho are the greatest spy writers of the twentieth century? This book narrows the field down to Buchan, Fleming and Le Carre, including accounts of their lives alongside their books. Agree or disagree? Carradice makes his case!

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Book SynopsisHer intensity and intimacy are engaging' Blake Morrison, GuardianA lovely, urgent, serious book'' Tessa HadleyRefreshing and unexpected' Daisy Hay, Financial TimesBrilliantly interweaving literary criticism, biography and memoir, Look! We Have Come Through! is a captivating exhumation of an author and a compelling manifesto for exposing ourselves to difficult and dangerous views.Lara Feigel listens to birds outside her window their circling, strident calls and thinks of D. H. Lawrence. It is the spring of 2020 and, as the pandemic takes hold, she locks down in rural Oxfordshire with her partner, her two children, and that most explosive of writers.Proceeding month by month through the year, she sets out to start again with Lawrence: to find vital literary companionship; to use him as a guide to rural living and even, unexpectedly, to child-rearing; to find a way through his writing to excavate the modern world she feels he helped bringTrade ReviewTo be able to meet the world unillusioned but undismayed is what Lawrence did for Lara Feigel, and it is what she hopes he can do for us as a result of her bracing and honest book. Each chapter homes in on a major topic and Feigel has something fresh to say in every case … Some of the sharpest, shrewdest discussions I have seen of Lawrence for a long time. -- Paul Dean * The Critic *Refreshing and unexpected … The case for reading, and for thinking hard and seriously about the role of reading in a world characterised by fracture, is powerfully made. -- Daisy Hay * Financial Times *A perceptive book … a critical biography but also a pandemic memoir – a story about how an author can inform and change your life … Part of the attraction of the book is Feigel’s candour: the charting of her ups and downs as the seasons pass. If she weren’t so attuned to Lawrence, it would feel ickily self-absorbed. But she writes insightfully about his central themes, and though she torments herself unduly by taking his wackier theories too seriously, her intensity and intimacy are engaging. -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *A lovely, urgent, serious book, making me think about Lawrence and life all over again. -- Tessa HadleyThrough an intimate engagement with a brilliant, ever-provocative writer, Lara Feigel navigates the pandemic and a storm-tossed year in her own life as woman and mother. By turns troubled, tender and bold, this absorbing book brings Lawrence's vivid talent and ideas close, testing them against the pressures of the contemporary. -- Lisa AppignanesiLara Feigel wrestles with Lawrence, resents him, adores him and even tries to learn from him, all while Covid rages; it makes for a daring and unconventional bibliomemoir that might change the way you feel about sex, motherhood, work, illness and faith. -- Samantha EllisA fiercely intelligent engagement with Lawrence, half memoir and half critical biography, in which Lara Feigel comes in at a series of oblique angles to reach some startling judgments. I was highly impressed. -- D. J. TaylorFeigel’s Lawrence is an untimely, urgent teacher of life and its passions. Agile, surprising and compulsively absorbing, Look! We Have Come Through! is the perfect tonic for the cynical, jaded spirit of our time. -- Josh CohenBoth an analysis of what makes Lawrence so troublingly intoxicating, and an account of what happens when we succumb to the writers we admire. Clear-headed, yet also strangely intuitive, what makes Lara Feigel’s writing so seductive is the way she seems to absorb Lawrence’s influence so deeply into herself that he becomes her own. -- Kate KilaleaPraise for Free Woman: 'A fascinating mix of literary criticism, cultural history and memoir … Highly enjoyable * Sunday Times *An extraordinary meditation on what it means to be a clever, engaged woman … A classical, precise use of language … Most compelling … Physically and intellectually intimate * Guardian *The most intriguing and certainly the bravest work of literary scholarship I have ever read -- Deborah LevyIronic, beautiful and rather moving * Literary Review *Free Woman is not a biography, but the same artistic process is at work: as a biographer, you think you are going to possess your subject, but they always end up possessing you. It’s fertile ground, and Feigel a fine explorer. -- Sara Wheeler * Spectator *Free Woman has taken on the formidable Doris for a new generation … Feigel has the gift of converting complex thoughts into coherent sentences that delight * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''A huge, fizzing omnium-gatherum of a book . . . marvellous'' Daily Telegraph''Witty, wise and elegant . . . a classic of history itself'' The Spectator''Grave and witty, suave yet pointed . . . full of energy'' Hilary Mantel''An enthralling investigation . . . consistently entertaining'' The Times''Epic . . . whatever Cohen writes about he writes about with brio'' New YorkerWho writes the past? And how do the biases of storytellers - whether Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare or Simon Schama - influence our ideas about history today?Epic, authoritative and entertaining, Making History delves into the lives of those who have charted human history - professional historians, witnesses, novelists, journalists and propagandists - to discover the agendas that informed their world views, and which in so many ways have informed ours. From the origins of history-writing through to television and the digital age, MTrade ReviewSuperb . . . Highly entertaining . . . Witty, wise and elegant, this tremendous book deserves to become a classic of history itself * THE SPECTATOR *What a brilliant achievement! Like all Richard Cohen's writing, Making History opens a dialogue with the reader - grave and witty, suave yet pointed - erudite yet engaging and full of energy. It has huge scope, but never forfeits the telling detail. It is scholarly, lively, quotable, up-to-date and fun -- HILARY MANTELAn enthralling investigation into the ways in which the background of historians affected and affects the way they present the past. Using autobiographies, letters and the comments of contemporaries, Cohen brings to life legendary figures. Black history and "herstory", novelists and journalists, Bible stories and military campaigns, Putin's revision of Russian history: all pass under his consistently entertaining scrutiny . . . [a] historical Tower of Babel * THE TIMES *A huge, fizzing omnium gatherum of a book . . . marvellous -- Noel Malcolm * DAILY TELEGRAPH *Richard Cohen has written an utterly engaging love letter to History's hidden story tellers. Provocative, funny but scrupulously fair, Making History is a timely reminder that history doesn't write itself -- AMANDA FOREMANThis absorbing survey begins with the early historians of the classical world and continues through to the modern era * FINANCIAL TIMES *Supremely entertaining . . . epic . . . whatever Cohen writes about he writes about with brio * THE NEW YORKER *Insightful and entertaining . . . there are so many things to like about this book: its breezy tone, its author's Herodotus-like curiosity and delight in anecdote, his readiness to recognise the vices as well as the virtues of historians, and the splendid in-text illustrations . . . a gargantuan achievement * THE CRITIC *[A] magisterial and wide-ranging examination of the way that historians and other significant witnesses distort through their own prejudices what have become records of human experience * COUNTRY LIFE *With meticulous research and riveting anecdotes, Richard Cohen has peeled back the hidden history behind those who record our past. He brilliantly shows how an extraordinary gallery of characters - from prodigies to charlatans, from ideologues to heroes - has exposed, shaped and, at times, bent and even covered up the facts. In the process, Cohen has achieved what only the finest historians can: he has scrupulously and engagingly made history -- DAVID GRANN, author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of ZWhat a grand, illuminating and fun book! Richard Cohen takes us on a learned tour through the cacophony of history and of the characters who've told the stories that shape us. To understand who we are, we have to understand who we've been - and, as Cohen amply demonstrates, who's framed those understandings -- JON MEACHAM, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of PowerA fascinating and finely wrought history of history * PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, starred review *[A] love song to the profession of history . . . extremely effective. Cohen's range is admirably broad . . . insightful, thought-provoking and thoroughly researched * LIBRARY JOURNAL *

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Book SynopsisFrom Loki to Thor, Ragnarok to BeowulfA gripping and truly mesmerising delve into the Norse legendsFrom bestselling books to blockbusting Hollywood movies, the myths of the Scandinavian gods and heroes are part of the modern day landscape.For over a millennium before the arrival of Christianity, the legends permeated everyday life in Iceland and the northern reaches of Europe. Since that time, they have been perpetuated in literature and the arts in forms as diverse as Tolkien and Wagner, graphic novels to the world of Marvel. This book covers the entire cast of supernatural beings, from gods to trolls, heroes to monsters, and deals with the social and historical background to the myths, topics such as burial rites, sacrificial practices and runes.

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Book SynopsisOriginal, bold and always funny, Hanif Kureishi is one of Britain’s most popular, provocative and versatile writers.Born in Bromley in 1954 to an Indian father and white British mother, Kureishi’s life is intimately bound up with the history of immigration and social change in Britain. This is the story of how a mixed-raced child of empire who attended the local comprehensive school found success with a remarkable series of novels and screenplays, including My Beautiful Laundrette and The Buddha of Suburbia, Intimacy, Venus and Le Week-End. The book also illuminates a larger story, not only of the artist as a young man, but of the recasting of Britain in the aftermath of decolonisation.Drawing on journals, letters and manuscripts from Kureishi’s unexplored archive, recently acquired by the British Library, and informed by interviews with his family, friends and collaborators, as well with the writer himself, Ruvani Ranasinha sheds new light on how his life animates his work. This first biography offers a vivid portrait of a major talent who has inspired a new generation of writers.Trade Review'This is a magnificent, meticulous and exhaustive biography, and one worthy of its mercurial subject.’ The Spectator 'Ranasinha succeeds in her aim of appearing definitive, while establishing Kureishi’s significance to British cultural life of the past 50 years.' The Times 'Ruvani Ranasinha’s Hanif Kureishi: Writing the self is an illuminating biography; the fact that it is also a portrait of modern Britain is a tribute both to the scope of Kureishi’s work and to the thoroughness of Ranasinha’s research.'The TLS'Ruvani Ranasinha illuminates the life as well as the work of the beloved writer Hanif Kureishi. This well-researched and exhaustive biography has an aura of completeness.'Amitava Kumar, author of A Time Outside This Time'Ruvani Ranasinha's life of Hanif Kureishi is not just an impressively comprehensive portrait of the artist as a young man, it also provides an engrossing snapshot of his times. With insight and sympathy, Ranasinha captures a rare turning-point in the development of our literary tradition. For all the admirers of Kureishi and his work, this must be essential reading.'Robert McCrum, author of The 100 Best Novels in English -- .Table of ContentsPrefacePart One: OriginsPart Two: Plays Part Three: FilmsPart Four: Becoming a novelist Part Five: Fathers and sonsPart Six: Private Lives, New Beginnings Part Seven: The turn inwards: writing and psychoanalysis Part Eight: Love and Hate Part Nine: Late Style Afterword

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Book Synopsis‘An absolute gem . . . I was delightfully lost by the river throughout’ Paul Whitehouse ‘Marvellous . . . The Catch leaves both its writer and its reader wonderfully "lost in water"’ Robert Macfarlane ‘Penetrating and poetic, filled with honeyed prose and thoughtful criticism’ The Times A brilliant blend of memoir and biography, The Catch is a stunning meditation on poetry and nature, and a quiet reflection on what it means to be a father and a son. _______________ It is in the midst of a swirling river, casting a line, that Mark Wormald meets Ted Hughes. He stands where the poet stood, forty years ago, because fishing was Ted Hughes’s way of breathing – and because the poet's writing has made Mark understand that it has always been his way of breathing, too. Using Hughes’s poetry collection River and his fishing diaries as a guide, Mark returns again and again to the rivers and lakes in Britain and Ireland where the poet fished. At times, he uses Ted's fly patterns; at others his rods. It is an obsession; a fundamental connection to nature; a thrilling wildness; an elemental pursuit. But it is also a release and a consolation, as Mark fishes after the sudden death of his mother and during the slow fading of his father.Trade ReviewPenetrating and poetic, filled with honeyed prose and thoughtful criticism. -- Cal Flyn * The Times *Astute and fluent, The Catch wears its learning lightly… Compelling -- David Profumo * Country Life *Way above a mere fishing book, combining nature, personal recollections, biography, poetry, imagination and much more - BOOK OF THE YEAR * Classic Angling Magazine *Whilst Hughes’s love for angling is relatively well-known, Wormald makes a deep and sustained claim for the link between Hughes’s poetic thinking process and the act of fishing. … [But] The carrying streams of this book are not only those of Hughes’s life, and those of his family and friends, but of Wormald’s too. … Wormald’s own prose is sprung and striking [and] The Catch becomes a subtle meditation on what it is to be a father, a son, a brother. -- Rob St. John * Caught by the River *Wormald’s scene-setting and imaginative, close reading of the poems uncover new aspects of Hughes and his work, which is no easy task … Hughes thought the all-absorbing experience of fishing was much like writing poetry, and such descriptions will have the fishermen among this book’s readership nodding along. -- Richard Benson * The Mail on Sunday *Electrifyingly good -- John Clegg * London Review Bookshop *A beautiful book … Wormald is excellent at prising apart Hughes the myth from Hughes the man. -- Alex Diggins * The Critic *A profoundly reflective examination of Hughes’s fishing life, layered over with Wormald’s own … Wormald has an engaging, lyrical style, by which it’s easy to be beguiled into appreciative enjoyment and even wonder. -- Ettie Neil-Gallacher * The Field *As a feat of scholarship, angling, and creative empathy, this book is an extraordinary achievement -- Seán Lysaght * Dublin Review of Books *Beyond biographical and instead a complete immersion into the mind and life of one of our greatest writers … A dip well worth taking -- Kevin Parr * Fallon's Angler *What a marvellous book The Catch is: a time-slipping, genre-shifting exploration of lives and landscapes, in which poetry, memoir and biography swirl and braid most beautifully together. Obsessive, passionate and deep-pooled, Wormald's pursuit of Hughes becomes, over its course, unexpectedly and movingly personal: a journey inwards in spirit as well as backwards in time, moving against the flow. The Catch leaves both its writer and its reader - to borrow a phrase from the book itself - wonderfully "lost in water". -- Robert MacfarlaneHere is a book and a writer and a sense of the world and of language which are all as marvellous as the subject deserves. -- Adam NicolsonAn absolute gem ... Mark Wormald's love of angling and of Ted Hughes’s poetry come together beautifully. I was delightfully lost by the river throughout. -- Paul WhitehouseMark Wormald takes what is, on the face of it, a meaningless act – the pursuit of exact, often remote places where a famed poet and fisherman has stood, floated, angled – and makes of it a parable of what angling and poetry share. The act of stalking, the stalking of fish by man, but also the stalking by man of his true self in poetry, the moment of the catch, at the instant of self-forgetfulness. -- Harry CliftonI’m perhaps more fish than fisher, but like Ted Hughes’s River, this book tugs at an atavistic, aquatic consciousness at the base of my brain. Wormald’s quest has me swimming in the same brilliant flows, settled in the same rooty riverside nooks, vividly drowsy, deeply awake. I loved it. -- Amy-Jane BeerA torrent of a book, its swirling deeps and dark backwaters lit with hard-won insight. -- Luke JenningsEngaging and enlightening, a new and convincing key to Hughes’s extraordinary poetic gifts. -- Richard BeardA brilliant book. Complex, kaleidoscopic, brilliant in its originality, The Catch is a love song to a lifelong obsession. -- Katharine NorburyA rare piece of work - modest, brilliant, moving. Quietly profound -- Ian SansomA wonderfully beguiling and enjoyable literary pilgrimage - full of surprises and insights, to delight anyone (fisherman or not) who loves reading poetry. Truly, a remarkable book -- David Profumo

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Book SynopsisAcclaimed British historian examines the layers of craft and insight in Tobias Smollett, and discusses the particular nature of his genius and influence on British culture. Once again, Black acquaints the reader with the full range of a prolific writer's works and offers a backstage tour of the meaning and context of Britain's most beloved stories and story-tellers.

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Book SynopsisSome of the greatest writers in the history of the art-Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Jerzy Kosinski, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Virginia Woolf-all chose to silence themselves by suicide, leaving their families and friends with heartbreak and the world of literature with gaping holes. Their reasons for killing themselves, when known, were varied and, quite often, unreasonable. Some were plagued by depression or self-doubt, and others by frustration and helplessness in a world they could neither change nor tolerate.Profoundly moving and morbidly attractive, Final Drafts is a necessary historical record, biographical treatment, and psychological examination of the authors who left this "cruel world" by their own hands, either instantly or over long periods of relentless self-destructive behavior. It is also a devoted examination of references to suicide in literature, both by those who took their own lives and those who decided to live. Mark Seinfelt has selected many well-known (mostly fiction) writers, from those whose work dates to over a century ago-when the medical community was ill-equipped to deal with substance abuse and depression-to more recent writers such as Kosinski, Michael Dorris, and Eugene Izzi, who have left a puzzled literary community with a sad legacy.Seinfelt reveals that many authors contemplated ending their lives in their work; were obsessed with destroying themselves; were unable-in the case of the Holocaust-to live with the fact that their contemporaries had been killed; believed death to be a freedom from the horrors that forced them to create; and, sometimes, were simply unable to withstand rejection or criticism of their work.Other noted authors discussed in this volume include John Berryman, Ambrose Bierce, Harry Crosby, John Davidson, William Inge, Randall Jarrell, Arthur Koestler, T.E. Lawrence, Primo Levi, Jack London, Jay Anthony Lukas, Tom McHale, Yukio Mishima, Henry de Montherlant, Seth Morgan, George Sterling, Sara Teasdale, Ernst Toller, John Kennedy Toole, Sergey Yesenin, and many others

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Book SynopsisBy the 1930s, Stefan Zweig, born to an affluent Jewish family in Vienna, had become the most widely translated living author in the world. His novels, short stories, and biographies became instant bestsellers, and his cultural patronage, his generosity, and his literary connections, were legendary. In 1934, following Hitler's rise to power, Zweig left Vienna for England, then New York, and, finally, Petrópolis, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. With the destruction of the cultural milieu of pre-Nazi Europe, Zweig's life in exile became increasingly isolated. In 1942 he and his wife, Lotte Altmann, were found dead. They had committed suicide, just after Zweig had completed his famous autobiography, The World of Yesterday. The Impossible Exile tells the mesmerizing and tragic story of Zweig's extraordinary rise and fall, the gulf between the world of ideas in Europe and in America, and the alienation of the refugees forced into exile. Zweig embodied and witnessed the end of an era: the great Central European civilization of Vienna and Berlin.

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Book SynopsisWhen Otto Frank unwrapped his daughter's diary with trembling hands and began to read the first pages, he discovered a side to Anne that was as much a revelation to him as it would be to the rest of the world. Little did Otto know he was about to create an icon recognised the world over for her bravery, sometimes brutal teenage honesty and determination to see beauty even where its light was most hidden. Nor did he realise that publication would spark a bitter battle that would embroil him in years of legal contest and eventually drive him to a nervous breakdown and a new life in Switzerland. Today, more than seventy-five years after Anne's death, the diary is at the centre of a multi-million-pound industry, with competing foundations, cultural critics and former friends and relatives fighting for the right to control it. In this insightful and wide-ranging account, Karen Bartlett tells the full story of The Diary of Anne Frank, the highly controversial part it played in twentieth-century history, and its fundamental role in shaping our understanding of the Holocaust. At the same time, she sheds new light on the life and character of Otto Frank, the complex, driven and deeply human figure who lived in the shadows of the terrible events that robbed him of his family, while he painstakingly crafted and controlled his daughter's story.

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Book SynopsisA concise yet comprehensive account of D. H. Lawrence's stormy life and writing career.

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Book SynopsisNikolai Gogol was one of the great geniuses of nineteenth century Russian literature, with a command of the irrational unmatched by any writer before or since. His strange tales, though often read as forceful demands for social change, were displays of the fantasies of the human spirit. In this ideal marriage of subject and critic, Nabokov analyses his endlessly inventive compatriot, focusing on the masterpieces Dead Souls, The Overcoat and The Government Inspector.Misunderstood by his contemporaries, mishandled by theatre directors and ending his life mistreated by doctors - with medicinal leeches hanging from his exceptional nose - it took Nabokov to give Gogol, 'the oddest Russian in Russia', the critical biography he and his singular, brilliant work deserve.

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Book SynopsisSamuel Pepys walked round London for miles. The 2½ miles to Whitehall from his house near the Tower of London was accomplished on an almost daily basis, and so many of his professional conversations took place whilst walking that the streets became for him an alternative to his office. With Walking Pepys’s London, the reader will come to know life in London from the pavement up and see its streets from the perspective of this renowned diarist. The city was almost as much a character in Pepys’s life as his family or friends, and the book draws many parallels between his experience of 17th-century London and the lives of Londoners today. Colliss Harvey’s new book reconstructs the sensory and emotional experience of the past, bringing geography, biography and history into one. Full of fascinating details and written with extraordinary sensitivity, Walking Pepys’s London is an unmissable exploration into the places that made the greatest English diarist of all time.Trade Review‘… invites us to step into Pepys’s shoes’ The Telegraph; ‘The writing is crisp, the directions are clear, the maps are usable … it is as good a book of its kind as one could hope for, and I urge anyone with a fondness for Pepys to buy it.’Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisNora Ephron meets Leslie Jamison. From the acclaimedauthor of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. For the last five or six years, on many afternoons around 4 or 5 p.m., I've been overcome with the sensation that my life is effectively over. This is not a sensation of the world ending; it's a distinct feeling of being at the end of my days. My time, while technically not up, is disappearing in the rearview mirror.The fact that this feeling of ambient doom tends to coincide with the blue-tinged, pre-gloaming light of the late afternoon lends to the whole thing a cosmic beauty, as devastating as it is awe-inspiring. As such, I've dubbed this the catastrophe hour.'Written between 2016 and 2024, these essays are classic Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Delving into divorce, dating, music, friendship, beauty, aging, death and money, Daum's unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.

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Book SynopsisMinnie Pallister's life was so fantastic that not even a thriller writer could imagine it. A feminist, pacifist and socialist, she was twice accused of sedition in the First World War before travelling to Nazi Germany in late 1938 and 1939 to rescue Jews, helping bring them to Britain at the outbreak of the Second World War.

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Book SynopsisPlay bingo with the Queen of Crime - collect characters, clues and murder weapons on your bingo card to win!Follow the trail of murder, blackmail and mystery set by the Queen of Crime. Travel down the Nile, on the Orient Express and into the drawing rooms of quaint English country cottages hot on the heels of Poirot, Miss Marple and other famous characters while you play this entertaining bingo game. Includes a booklet packed full of Agatha Christie trivia for discerning crime fans.FUN FOR DETECTIVE NOVEL FANS - the whole family will love this high-stakes game featuring 64 characters and clues from Agatha Christie''s novelsPLAY AND LEARN - this bingo set comes with one game board, 12 game cards, 64 tokens and 200 counters, plus a booklet packed full of Agatha Christie trivia. Learn about Poirot''s toughest cases, Agatha Christie''s medicine cabinet and more!SOMETHING TO TREASURE - this is a quality product made to last, with b

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Book Synopsis54-CARD DECK: A set of playing cards featuring illustrations of Dickens' most famous characters. Features standard playing card suits, numbers and court cardsFUN, COLOURFUL ILLUSTRATIONS: Illustrator Barry Falls perfectly captures Dickens' most memorable characters. Suits are themed on character traits, with hearts for the Heroines and Heroes and spades for the Villains and RevengersBOOKLET INCLUDED: The accompanying booklet includes information about each character and an introduction to contemporary card games and their mentions in Dickens' novelsEASY HANDLING: The cards will not crack or bend when shuffled or flexed. Neatly boxed, these cards are perfect for taking anywhere on the goGIFTS: Charles Dickens Playing Cards make the perfect gift for any bookworm Play cards with Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger, keep your eye on Scrooge and Uriah Heep as 'Ace' Villains, and

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Book SynopsisJames Herriot grew up in Glasgow and qualified as a veterinary surgeon at Glasgow Veterinary College. Shortly afterwards, he took up a position as an assistant in a North Yorkshire practice where he remained, with the exception of his wartime service in the RAF, until his death in 1995. He wrote many books about Yorkshire country life, including some for children, but he is best known for his memoirs, beginning with If Only They Could Talk. The books were televised in the enormously popular series All Creatures Great and Small.Trade ReviewBulls with sunstroke, pigs on the run and a cake-eating Peke with a betting habit . . . I grew up reading James Herriot's book and I'm delighted that thirty years on they are still every bit as charming, heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny as they were then. -- Kate HumbleIt’s a pleasure to be in James Herriot’s company. * Observer *After an evening among his tales, anyone with as much as a dog or a budgerigar will feel he should move to Darrowby at once. * Yorkshire Post *

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Book SynopsisIn spring 2004, Susan Sontag was diagnosed with the incurable blood cancer. She had a huge appetite for experience, and a wild, extravagant desire to live. Rieff writes movingly about being by her side during that last year and at her death, and about his own contradictory emotions: his guilt both for not consoling her enough, and for somehow colluding with her in her belief that she could beat the disease. Drawing on Sontag's journals and letters, which Rieff read after her death, and on the writings about the deaths of other great thinkers, Swimming in a Sea of Death provides a vivid portrait of Sontag in the last year of her life and a haunting meditation on mortality.

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Book SynopsisVolume Two covers the early years of his editorship of The Criterion (the periodical that Eliot launched with Lady Rothermere''s backing in 1922), publication of The Hollow Men and the course of Eliot''s thinking about poetry and poetics after The Waste Land. The correspondence charts Eliot''s intellectual journey towards conversion to the Anglican faith in 1927, as well as his transformation from banker to publisher, ending with his appointment as a director of the new publishing house of Faber & Gwyer, in late 1925, and the appearance of Poems 1909-1925, Eliot''s first publication with the house with which he would be associated for the rest of his life. It was partly because of Eliot''s profoundly influential work as cultural commentator and editor that the correspondence is so prolific and so various, and Volume Two of the Letters fully demonstrates the emerging continuities between poet, essayist, editor and letter-writer.

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Book SynopsisUnravel the history, themes, and language of Shakespeare''s plays, poems, and sonnets with this beautifully illustrated guide to his life and works.Comedy and romance, history, and tragedy, Shakespeare''s canon has it all. Some 400 years after they were written and first performed, his works still remain fresh and relevant today. Discover the work of the world''s most celebrated playwright with:- A clear and accessible format- Act-by-act plot summaries of all of his 39 plays with lists of characters- Guidance on how to read and interpret his great sonnets and narrative poems- Plays ordered by time and genre, helping readers to trace the development of Shakespeare''s topics, themes, and artistry- Sidebars that clarify the mythological, geographical, and historical context of each play and decode its language, dramatic action, and themesShakespeare fans will revel in the marvellous depiction of the Stratford-upon-Avon-born Bard hiTrade Review"Should one attempt a complete front-to-back reading, the result would be a thorough grounding in Shakespeare's work and an enlarged astonishment at the range of his imagination." (Previous Edition, 2004) * The New York Times *

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Book Synopsis'They were not just reporters; they were also pioneers, and Judith Mackrell has done them proud.' –SpectatorGoing with the Boys follows six intrepid women as their lives and careers intertwined on the front lines of the Second World War.Martha Gellhorn got the scoop on D-Day by traveling to Normandy as a stowaway on a Red Cross ship; Lee Miller went from being a Vogue cover model to the magazine’s official war correspondent; Sigrid Schultz hid her Jewish identity and risked her life by reporting on the Nazi regime; Virginia Cowles, transformed herself from ‘society girl columnist’ to combat reporter; Clare Hollingworth was the first English journalist to break the news of the war, while Helen Kirkpatrick was the first woman to report from an Allied war zone to be granted equal privileges to her male colleagues.Barred from official briefings and from combat zones, their lives made deliberately difficult by entrenched prejudice, all six set up their own informal contacts and found their own pockets of war action. In this gripping, intimate and nuanced account, Judith Mackrell celebrates these extraordinary women and reveals how they wrote history as it was being made, changing the face of war reporting forever.'This is a book that manages to be thoughtful and edge-of-your-seat thrilling.' – Mail on Sunday 'Like the copy filed by her subjects, it is an essential read.' – BBC History MagazineTrade ReviewWomen's ability to cope was apparently beyond military imagination, yet ironically, as Judith Mackrell's compelling book shows, navigating newspaper bias and military restrictions often gave women the professional edge . . . They were not just reporters; they were also pioneers, and Judith Mackrell has done them proud. -- Clare Mulley * Spectator *Hugely entertaining and informative . . . the author is excellent on the way that being a girl in a man's world had serious dangers . . . This is a book that manages to be thoughtful and edge-of-your-seat thrilling. -- Katherine Hughes * Mail on Sunday *[Mackrell] has done an extraordinary job of mining their reportage, interviews and memoirs, and creates an experiential tapestry based on their experiences . . . a powerful complement to previous histories of Second World War correspondence. -- Anne Nelson * TLS *Although Mackrell reminds us male war correspondents still roughly outnumber women by three to one, the women in her book prove gender is no barrier to doing the job well. -- Helen Brown * Daily Mail *This book is a salutary reminder that it is not only men who experience wars, and it is not only men who report on them . . . Like the copy filed by her subjects, it is an essential read. -- Lucy Noakes * BBC History Magazine *The female journalists who feature here were pioneers in their fields. -- Frances Cairncross * Literary Review *Brutality goes hand in hand with high spirits. Danger was inseparable from exhilaration . . . This book could easily become a television drama. What women they were, in pursuit of war. -- Sarah Sands * Oldie *An engrossing book, highly recommended. * Choice Magazine *The strength of Mackrell’s insightful book is the way she shows just how many obstacles this courageous sextet faced in getting to the front . . . Women reporting the news from dangerous places may be a common sight today but reading Judith Mackrell’s Going with the Boys is an important reminder that it was not always so. -- Anne Sebba, author of Les Parisiennes and That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of WindsorIt’s excellent — beautifully researched, deeply sympathetic, and particularly insightful about Martha Gellhorn and Clare Hollingworth. They and the other women who went to war were pioneers in a dangerous profession who overcame fear and discrimination with grace and skill. Judith shows us clearly why their example is so important to today’s journalism. I really enjoyed it. -- John SimpsonThese six remarkable women writers shared courage, intelligence, competitiveness and a determination not be sidelined into the woman's angle; more than that, they left a legacy for war reporting that has shaped all those who have followed in their steps. -- Caroline Moorehead, Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisted author of Village of SecretsFast-paced and informative, [Going With The Boys] puts these women’s trail-blazing accomplishments in the social, military, and historical contexts we need to grasp how remarkable they were . . . Highly recommended, especially for readers who want to learn about the challenges met by these female pioneers. -- Carolyn Burke, author of Foursome and Lee Miller: A LifeA brilliant, gripping account of six journalists covering World War Two from deep inside the danger zone. Mackrell’s writing so captures the drama of the period that you can almost hear her characters’ typewriter keys tapping out their reports amid the rumble of tanks . . . one of the best books I have read in years. It is thrilling from the first page to the last -- Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street WomenA vivid portrait of the women whose clear-eyed reporting brought home the tragedy and heroism of one of history’s most pivotal conflicts. We owe these journalists a great debt. -- Liza Mundy, author of Code GirlsDefinitive, deeply researched, and beautifully told . . . reminds us how a few brave souls can blaze a trail and change the world -- Keith O’Brien, author of Fly GirlsBold newswomen such as Clare Hollingworth and Martha Gellhorn wrote the first draft of World War II, now Judith Mackrell gives us a chance to learn about the lives behind the headlines -- Sarah Rose, author of D-Day Girls[An] immersive and revealing group biography . . . Sparkling quotations from the reportage are woven throughout, and colorful biographical details shed light on the correspondents’ defiance of conventions . . . A rousing portrait of women who not only reported on history, but made it themselves. * Publishers Weekly *An exhilarating read packed with emotion and genuine humanity. A vivid portrayal of six remarkable women who made history reporting on World War II. * Kirkus *

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Book SynopsisA compelling, timely exploration of Fernando Pessoa's profound, innovative ideas.

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Book SynopsisFrom Collins Classics, short stories from the author of The Great Gatsby' and including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.In these eleven stories, Fitzgerald depicts the Roaring Twenties as he lived them. He masterfully blends accounts of flappers and the smart set with more fantastical visions of America, always imbuing his narratives with his trademark themes of money, class, ambition and love. In May Day', Fitzgerald weaves an account of a raucous Yale alumni party, the participants of which are oblivious to the violent socialist demonstration being acted out around them. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is an unorthodox account of a man who ages backwards, and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz' tells the story of a young man who discovers that his friend's family possesses a diamond that is literally larger than the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. This 1922 collection confirmed Fitzgerald as the voice of his generation.Trade Review"Tales of the Jazz Age is a superb edition of classic literature that would grace any academic or library collection –and is 'must' reading for F. Scott Fitzgerald enthusiasts and fans." The Midwest Book Review

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Book SynopsisThe authorized biography of a literary legend, written with unique access to all of Sassoon's previously unseen papers. âUnmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoonâ D. J. Taylor, IndependentTrade Review'Sassoon is the ultimate ambiguous man, and Egremont does him full justice . . . he has honoured him with a biography of subtle affection and truth' Sebastian Barry, Financial Times 'Egremont's work outclasses his predecessors . . . this is an outstanding and original biography' Max Hastings, Daily Telegraph 'Unmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoon' D J Taylor, Independent ‘Egremont’s work outclasses its predecessors . . . This is an outstanding and original biography’ Max Hastings, Daily Telegraph‘Sassoon is the ultimate ambiguous man, and Egremont does him full justice . . . he has honoured him with a biography of subtle affection and truth’ Sebastian Barry, Financial Times‘Unmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoon’ D. J. Taylor, Independent‘Comprehensive and perceptive . . . Egremont has produced a thorough, sympathetic, balanced, engrossing account’ Alan Judd, Spectator‘Egremont is the first biographer to gain unimpeded access to the poet’s previously unseen papers . . . Like a great arc-light, this biography illuminates a room previously lit by torches’ John Stuart Roberts, Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisTake a firsthand journey into a time, society and world full of intrigue. In the tenth century, Japan stood physically and culturally isolated from the rest of the world. Sei Shonagon—a young courtesan of the Heian period—kept a diary, which provides a highly personal account of the intrigues, dalliances, quirks, and habits of Japan's late tenth-century elite. She was a contemporary and acquaintance of the well-known courtesan Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Japanese masterpiece The Tale of Genji. A perfect companion to that work, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon brings an added dimension to Murasaki's timeless and seminal novel and further illuminates Japanese court life in all its ritualistic glory. Through his elegant and readable abridged translation, Arthur Waley perfectly conveys Sei Shonagon's girlish temperament and quirky personality. In a place and time where poetry was as important as knowledge and beauty was highly revered, Sei Shonagon's private writings offer a charming, intimate glimpse into a world of innocence and pale beauty. A new introduction by respected Japanese literary scholar Dennis Washburn provides historical insight into Japanese culture, Sei Shonagon's world, and Waley's translation.Trade Review"His [Waley's] is the most appealing version for the general reader." --Michael Dirda, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist"In a small diary, a young courtesan of the Heian period gives her account of the Japanese courts of the day, providing perspective on a unique time in Japanese history. A contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu, the author of The Tale of Genji, Sei Shonagon's commentary brings an added dimension to that timeless and seminal work." --Svetlana's Reads and Views blog

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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 ReviewFew 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 *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 *One of the most important and influential writers of our time -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *In Somewhere Becoming Rain, Clive James’s collected essays on the poetry of Philip Larkin, the 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 *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 -- Best Books of 2019 * Financial Times *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 *[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 SynopsisOne of Ireland''s greatest contemporary writers turns her attention to one of the country''s greatest novelists: James Joyce and his relationship with Nora Barnacle - in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the iconic classic ULYSSES.''Both Joyce and O''Brien have a gift for beauty distilled . . . a work of love''Daily Telegraph''Short, poetic and powerful''Irish Times It was June 10th, Barnacle Day. He saw her in Nassau Street and they stopped to talk. She thought his blue eyes were those of a Norseman. He was twenty-two, and she, Nora Barnacle, was twenty and employed as a chambermaid in Finn''s Hotel. They agreed to meet on June 14th, outside No. 1 Merrion Square, the home of Sir William Wilde, but Nora did not turn up. After a dejected letter from Joyce they met on June 16th, a date which came to be immortalized in literature as Bloomsday.Edna O''Brien paints a miniature portrait of an

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Book SynopsisThe lives and achievements of eight women writers – a startling and unconventional history of literatureTrade 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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Book SynopsisMarking the centenary of Yeats's Nobel Prize, a timely guide to the work of Ireland's national poet and the changing Ireland he lived through.

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Book SynopsisThe Irish Times bestseller 'A gripping tale of savagery and courage' Noam Chomsky 'Fascinating and captivating' Irish Times 'A beautiful book... Full of pain and longing but also joy, adventure, and excitement' Janine di Giovanni 'A superb account of the life and work of the best reporter I have ever known' Patrick Cockburn When Lara Marlowe met Robert Fisk in 1983 in Damascus, he was already a famous war correspondent. She was a young American reporter who would become a renowned journalist in her own right. For the next twenty years, they were lovers, husband and wife and friends, occasionally angry and estranged from one another, but ultimately reconciled. They learned from each other and from the people in the ruined world they reported from: Lebanon, torn apart by a vicious civil war as well as Israeli and Syrian occupations; Iran, where they were the only journalists to interview the Middle East's chief hostage-taker and dispatcher of suicide bombers; the Islamist revolt that claimed up to 200,000 lives in Algeria; the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and two US-led wars on Iraq. This is at once a portrait of a remarkable man, the story of a Middle East broken by its own divisions and outside powers, and a moving account of a relationship in dark times.Trade ReviewPart biography, part autobiography, part love story and part a forceful condemnation of war, this is a fascinating and captivating book * Irish Times *This book is deeply honest and true, and reveals so much about Robert Fisk, his work and his engagement with the world. He and Lara Marlowe worked on the frontline of human experience, braided together by love and language and war. This is a portrait of a couple bound in a lovesong, which like all such songs confronts the vagaries of leaving, longing and loss -- Colum McCannThis is a superb account of the life and work of the best reporter I have ever known. Robert Fisk was unswerving in his defence of the weak and the powerless and in exposing the crimes of governments past and present. This book shows how he did it -- Patrick CockburnA beautiful book that chronicles the story of two people whose relationship and careers were shaped by the journalism of a different era. It is full of pain and longing but also joy, adventure, and excitement -- Janine di Giovanni, Foreign PolicyA gripping tale of savagery and courage, of history in the making, intertwined with rich personal reminiscences – and through it all, a captivating portrait of the life and work of Robert Fisk, a truly great journalist -- Noam ChomskyWorking alongside Robert Fisk was a joy – it was life on a roller-coaster, full of stories, insight, and boundless energy. His fierce independence was legendary: he looked for the raw truth, however uncomfortable -- Kate AdieA vivid memoir of life during wartime with a journalistic legend * Sunday Business Post *Saga of love, adventure, courage, and heartache * Irish Examiner *This is at once a portrait of a remarkable man, the story of a Middle East broken by its own divisions and outside powers, and a moving account of a relationship in dark times * Clare Champion *A genuinely 'unputdownable' and moving story, a fierce rebuke of violence and war, the arrogance and indifference of others. It is a great testament to the victims and survivors of conflict, and to the absolute necessity and importance of journalists such as Fisk and Marlowe -- David Peace

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Book SynopsisA Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020Radical Wordsworth deserves to take its place as the finest modern introduction to his work, life and impact' Financial TimesRichly repays reading It is hard to think of another poet who has changed our world so much' Sunday TimesA dazzling new biography of Wordsworth's radical life as a thinker and poetical innovator, published to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth.William Wordsworth wrote the first great poetic autobiography. We owe to him the idea that places of outstanding natural beauty should become what he called a sort of national property'. He changed forever the way we think about childhood, about the sense of the self, about our connection to the natural environment, and about the purpose of poetry.He was born among the mountains of the English Lake District. He walked into the French Revolution, had a love affair and an illegitimate child, before witnessing horrific violence in Paris. His friendship with Samuel Taylor ColeridgTrade Review Shortlisted for Lakeland Book of the Year 2021 ‘An entertaining biography … Excellent, intellectually rousing’The Times ‘This new book, like everything Bate writes, richly repays reading … He is illuminating on the sources of Wordsworth’s nature worship … He carefully and persuasively re-examines the effects of the revolution on Wordsworth … Bate shows that it was Wordsworth who inspired the founders of the National Trust … It is hard to think of another poet who has changed our world so much’Sunday Times ‘A bold and bracing account, masterful with its material, patiently brilliant in reading the poems, and gloriously convincing about its subject’s social significance’Daily Telegraph ‘Bate’s stirring biography … is neither rushed nor reductive. It is full of sharp anecdotes that evoke the lives of the Wordsworths … Bate is able to set the poetry amid the personal’Spectator ‘A pacy writer and doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to Wordsworth’s later poetry … When he was at his best, Bate says, his poems were as powerful as any since Shakespeare and they ‘uphold and feed’ the spirit of anyone who reads them’ Daily Mail ‘As when a conservator carefully swabs away from an oil painting the crusty accretions and gunk of ages to reveal shining colours and unexpected detail – so Jonathan Bate sets about the youthful Wordsworth, and shows us, page by page, just how world-changing he really was … With wonderful elan, close reading and detective work, Bate blows the chalk-dust away’ Kathleen Jamie,New Statesman ‘Bate is a supremely capable guide, steeped in the poet’s work and milieu … Radical Wordsworth deserves to take its place as the finest modern introduction to his work, life and impact’ Financial Times ‘[A] marvellous new biography of Wordsworth … Exhilarating … his inspiriting fleet-footed book …embroiders together life, poetry and landscape with such dexterity’Observer

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Book SynopsisAn intimate portrait of Patrick O'Brian, written by his stepson Nikolai Tolstoy.Patrick O'Brian was one of the greatest British novelists of the twentieth century, securing his place in literary history with the bestselling AubreyMaturin series, books that have sold millions of copies worldwide and been hailed as the best historical fiction of all time.An exquisite novelist, translator and biographer, O'Brian moved in 1949 to Collioure in the south of France, where he led a secluded life with his wife Mary and wrote all his major works. The twenty books that make up the beloved AubreyMaturin series earned O'Brian the epithet Jane Austen at sea' for their authentic depiction of Nelson's navy, and the relationship between Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin. Outside his triumphant popularity in fiction, O'Brian also wrote erudite biographies of both Pablo Picasso and Joseph Banks, as well as publishing translations of Simone de Beauvoir and Henri CharrièTrade Review Praise for Nikolai Tolstoy: 'One of the most gripping literary biographies of recent years' Sunday Times Culture 'Admirers of O'Brian's work will regard it as required reading' Guardian ‘Tolstoy writes with that passion to understand that characterises the best biographies’ Spectator ‘Reading Tolstoy is like reading a fine, detailed detective story … To be treasured because it exposes and rebuts much falseness that has been written about O'Brian.’ The Times

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Book SynopsisAn absolute belter of a biography' MARINA HYDEA Times Literary Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022An LA Times Best Book of the Year 2022An intimate, revealing and profoundly moving biography of Jean Rhys, acclaimed author of Wide Sargasso Sea. An obsessive and troubled genius, Jean Rhys is one of the most compelling and unnerving writers of the twentieth century. Memories of a conflicted Caribbean childhood haunt the four fictions that Rhys wrote during her extraordinary years as an exile in 1920s Paris and later in England. Rhys's experiences of heartbreak, poverty, notoriety, breakdowns and even imprisonment all became grist for her writing, forming an iconic Rhys woman' whose personality vulnerable, witty, watchful and angry was often mistaken, and still is, for a self-portrait.Many details of Rhys's life emerge from her memoir, Smile Please and the stories she wrote throughout her long and challenging career. But it's a shock to discover that no biographer until now has researcheTrade Review‘This is a first-class life and a rollicking read. Seymour skilfully interweaves the autographical stories and novels with the people and fortunes in Rhys’s crazily adventurous life. She’s warmly sympathetic to the young ingénue of 17, and only slightly less so to the old bat of 87. She’s also the only Rhys biographer who travelled to Dominica to see what it was about the island — its colours, smells, conflicted history and voodoo sorcery — that haunted Rhys all her days but fired her imagination. The result is close to a masterpiece’John Walsh, Sunday Times ‘Her intimate and insightful biography … certainly reads like a novel. [Seymour] is a bewitching writer … gives us Rhys in all her glory’Laura Freeman, The Times ‘The superb achievement of Miranda Seymour’s painstaking and compassionate new biography is to dispel forever the idea that Rhys was simply a naïve chronicler of her own experiences … in terms of sheer technique, she was a virtuoso’Spectator ‘[A] slyly compelling new biography of Jean Rhys … The narrative has the tension of a thriller as Rhys struggles to finish Wide Sargasso Sea’Rachel Cooke, Observer ‘Seymour,a masterful biographer… tells her story with empathy, precision and a keen eye for the telling detail’LA Times, A Book of the Year 2022 ‘An exhaustive, definitive ride around both the idea and the reality of Jean Rhys … Seymour addresses a writer and woman who is at once self-absorbed and thoughtful, sardonic and sensitive’Siobhán Kane, Irish Times ‘An absolute belter of a biography . . . don’t read if you are afraid of monsters’ Marina Hyde, Favourite Reads of 2022 ‘A very impressive piece of work. A long and tangled life most authoritatively pieced together. I was completely absorbed’Michael Frayn, author of Noises Off

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Book SynopsisOrwell has become one of the most potent and symbolic figures in western political thought. Even the adjective ''Orwellian'' is now a byword for a particular way of thinking about life, literature and language yet, despite this iconic status, the man who was born Eric Blair in 1903 remains an enigma. Drawing on a mass of previously unseen material, D J Taylor offers a strikingly human portrait of the writer too often embalmed as a secular saint. Here is a man who, for all his outward unworldliness, effectively stage-managed his own life; who combined chilling detachment with warmth and gentleness, disillusionment with hope; who battled through illness to produce two of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century. Moving and revealing, Taylor''s Orwell is the biography we have all been waiting for, as vibrant, powerful and resonant as its extraordinary hero.Trade ReviewTaylor wins the biographical contest...[He] is an accomplished literary critic and he illuminates Orwell's work in the context of his life elegantly and expertly * Guardian *Taylor's book has the unmistakable depth of flavour that comes from long, slow, careful cooking-pithy and fascinating -- Jan Dalley * Financial Times *Taylor writes with such skill and aplomb that it's impossible not to be swept along by the intelligence and observations * Independent on Sunday *Taylor's biography is a persuasive and profoundly moving exploration of the ways in which Orwell's work was constructed from the stones of a ruined life-[it] is likely to prove in many ways definitive * Daily Telegraph *Fetchingly original...Taylor's [biography] is pacy socio-journalism -- Ian Thomson * Scotland on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisAnthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917 and educated at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He served in the British army from 1940 to 1946 and was a schoolteacher in England before becoming a colonial education officer in 1954. His Malayan trilogy of novels and a history of English literature were published while he was living in Malaya and Brunei.He became a full-time writer in 1959 and achieved a worldwide reputation as one of the most versatile novelists of his day. His writings include biographies of Shakespeare and Hemingway, critical studies of James Joyce, stage plays, and two volumes of autobiography. His work as a composer and librettist includes the Broadway musical, Cyrano, and Blooms of Dublin, an operetta based on Joyce's Ulysses.His 33 novels continue to be published all over the world. They include A Clockwork Orange, Nothing Like the Sun, The Complete Enderby, Earthly Powers, NapoleonTrade ReviewBright, racy...knowledgeable and humorous, alternately sensible and quirky. -- Terry EagletonAnthony Burgess's wonderfully well-stocked mind and essentially wayward spirit are just right for summoning up an apparition of the Bard which is more convincing than most -- David Holloway * Daily Telegraph *Animated by affection and an understanding of the creative imagination that only a creative writer can bring to bear * Atlantic *A smooth-flowing narrative, often enlivened by Anthony Burgess's Joycean appetite for linguistic fantasy * The Economist *

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Book SynopsisJonathan Bate''s Soul of the Age brings us closer than ever to understanding what being Shakespeare was actually like.How did plague turn Shakespeare from a jobbing hack into a courtly poet? How did Bottom''s dream rewrite the Bible? How did Shakespeare''s plays lead to the deaths of an earl and a king? And why was he the one dramatist of his generation never to be imprisoned?Weaving a dazzling tapestry of Elizabethan beliefs and obsessions, private passions and political intrigues, Soul of the Age leads us on an exhilarating tour of the extraordinary, colourful and often violent world that shaped and informed Shakespeare''s thinking. Written by one of the world''s leading experts, it combines almost everything there is to know about the man and his work in one sensational narrative.''Bate probably knows as much as any single person can know about Shakespeare ... Surprising, fresh, exhilarating, brilliant'', Guardian''Intensely enjoyable ... you find yourself gasping with pleasure'' John Carey, Sunday TimesJonathan Bate is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick, chief editor of The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works and the author of many books, including most recently John Clare: A Biography, which won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature and the James Tait Black Prize for Biography. A Fellow of the British Academy, he was awarded a CBE in 2006.Trade Review'An excellent writer ! he achieves a resonant and complex portrait, constantly alert to new lines of enquiry and unexpected conclusions ... A triumph of precision, learning and intelligent innovation' - Charles Nicholl, Sunday Telegraph, Book of the Week 'Bate probably knows as much as any single person can know about Shakespeare ... Surprising, fresh, exhilarating, brilliant' - Richard Eyre, Guardian 'Wholehearted applause for Bate's portrayal of Shakespeare's world ... it is pure pleasure ... I defy any reader, no matter how saturated in Shakespeare, not to find something new here' Independent on Sunday

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Book SynopsisA sparkling translation that gives new life in English to Dante’s Vita Nuova, his transcendent love poems and influential statement on the art and power of poetry, and the most widely read of his works after the Inferno A Penguin Classic Dante was only nine years old when he first met young Beatrice in Florence. Loving her for the rest of his life with a devotion undiminished by even her untimely death, he would dedicate himself to transfiguring her, through poetry, into something far more than a muse—she would become the very proof of love as transcendent spiritual power, and the adoration of her a radiant path into a “new life.”   Censored by the Church, written in the Tuscan vernacular rather than Latin, exploding the courtly love tradition of the medieval troubadours, and employing an unprecedented hybrid form to link the thirty-one poems with prose commentary, Vita Nuova, first published in 1294,Trade Review“This pitch-perfect translation, accompanied by a splendid introduction and the original Italian, beautifully captures the marvelous strangeness of young Dante’s ‘new life’ as the lover and poet of Beatrice, and will be the go-to English edition for many years to come.” —Guy P. Raffa, author of Dante’s Bones: How a Poet Invented Italy“This lucid translation, paired here with the original Italian, allows readers to experience Dante’s narrative, poetic, and critical innovations in a fresh, contemporary idiom and produces a dialogue that reveals hidden dimensions of Dante’s rich and puzzling work that will surprise both familiar and new readers.” ―Martin Eisner, author of Dante’s New Life of the Book“Virginia Jewiss’s edition of the Vita Nuova provides an old book with a new lease on life. Her concise introduction is fresh and inviting, her translation faithful to Dante’s thirteenth-century Italian but with an ear for the sound of contemporary English. Newcomers to the work as well as its seasoned readers have a treat in store.” ―Peter S. Hawkins, author of Dante’s Testaments and Dante: A Brief History“A sheer joy. Virginia Jewiss has captured the riveting intensity of this strange, enthralling tale with language of rare beauty, deploying the ancient English repertory of alliteration, assonance, and poetic meter to evoke, rather than reproduce, Dante’s rhymed verse. Her introduction and notes help further to unlock the mystery of a poet just reaching the height of his powers and the blazing passions he transformed into a work that still pulses with the spontaneity of his first improvisations.” ―Ingrid D. Rowland, author of From Pompeii, Giordano Bruno, and The Culture of the High Renaissance“On my library shelf are ten translations of Dante’s Inferno, but only one translation of his spiritual autobiography the Vita Nuova. This imbalance may reflect our enduring human preoccupation with the hellscape we have made of the world. But there is no reason this should be so. Our own age is also in love with hybrid literary texts, with textual instability, and with hypertext. Virginia Jewiss’s new translation of the Vita Nuova reintroduces us to a great original in Western literature, with its multiple narrative perspectives and its enigmatic interplay among poetry, memoir, and glossing. By the grace and intelligence of her work, Jewiss foreshortens the enormous distance separating us from the culture of Dante’s time, so that Dante’s spiritual passion burns undimmed.” ―Karl Kirchwey, author of Stumbling Blocks: Roman Poems“Dante’s Vita Nuova remains a well-head of lyric art. For its fidelity and its poetry, Virginia Jewiss’s translation proves the best in English.” ―Peter Campion, poet“This brilliant translation faithfully renders the complexity of Dante’s autobiographical novel and, with rare expertise, wonderfully brings to light the deliberate ambiguities of his poetry.” ―Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University“In this luminous labor of love, Virginia Jewiss gives new life to the feverish, shimmering Vita Nuova, which Dante wrote when he was in his twenties, to quench the flames of a life-changing love. Some seven hundred years later, her lapidary new translation can perhaps give new life to grateful readers, too.” ―Andrew Hui, Yale-NUS College

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Book Synopsis''A joyful examination of two artists from different centuries and the unlikely parallels in their life and work'' Guardian''An ardent fan letter from Hornby that makes you want to reread Great Expectations whilst listening to Sign o''the Times'' Vogue_____________________The essential gift for lovers of Prince, Dickens and everyone in between!In Nick Hornby''s completely joyous and original new book two great figures share the stage. Charles Dickens and Prince. Two wildly different artists who caught fire and lit up the world in ways no others could. Where did their magic come from? How did they work so hard and produce so much? How did they manage or give in to the restlessness and intensity of their creativity? How did they use it, and did it kill them?With wit, curiosity and deep admiration Nick Hornby traces their extraordinary lives - from their difficult beginnings to the women they fell for to theiTrade ReviewA joyful examination of two artists from different centuries and the unlikely parallels in their life and work * Guardian *Well, here's something you didn't expect - a joint biography of Charles Dickens and the pocket-sized popster Prince. And why not? The Fever Pitch chappie explores the nature of genius and what unites the inimitable Boz and the Imp of the Perverse * The Times, Best Books for Autumn *I love this. It's smart and funny and elegantly persuasive -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of Becoming DickensFrom rocky beginnings to too-early endings, Hornby traces the lives of two very different artists and shows they have more in common than we might think. Dickens & Prince is a playful, illuminating book * The i, 40 Best Books to Read this Autumn *An enjoyable and educational read that will leave fans of either figure positively enlightened * The Independent *An ardent fan letter from Hornby that makes you want to reread Great Expectations whilst listening to Sign o'the Times * Vogue *A winningly grounded manifesto for artists: forget the preciousness so often urged as the route to brilliance, and embrace prodigiousness instead – and don’t forget to make sure you get paid * Sunday Times *Beneath the surface of this fascinating biography there lies a warm and wise craft book about what it takes to make great art in any century * Esquire *A fascinating little book * Irish Times *Hornby’s admiration for his subjects is infectious . . . a zesty tribute to two cultural legends not often spoken about in the same breath * Publishers Weekly *This pairing – two magnificent creatives, centuries and genres apart – makes stunning sense in the hands of their wisest, wittiest fan * People Magazine *Hornby’s love for the work, for the sheer unbelievably prodigal output of both artists, is intense. And when he does write about Prince and sexuality, he is almost jarringly illuminating, particularly when he wrestles with Prince as shapeshifting sexual avatar * Daily Beast *

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Book SynopsisUnited States Poet Laureate and winner of the 2022 Academy of American Poets Leadership Award Joy Harjo examines the power of words and how poetry summons us toward justice and healingTrade ReviewPraise for Joy Harjo: “I turn and return to Harjo’s poetry for her breathtaking complex witness and for her world-remaking language.”—Adrienne Rich “[Harjo’s] poetry is light and elixir, the very best prescription for us in wounded times.”—Sandra Cisneros, The Millions

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Book SynopsisWhen we think of great events in the history of the world, we tend to think of war, revolution, political upheaval or natural catastrophe. But throughout history there have been moments of vital importance that have taken place not on the battlefield, or in the palaces of power, or even in the violence of nature, but between the pages of a book. In our digitised age of instant information it is easy to underestimate the power of the printed word. In his fascinating new book accompanying the ITV series, Melvyn Bragg presents a vivid reminder of the book as agent of social, political and personal revolution. Twelve Books that Changed the World presents a rich variety of human endeavour and a great diversity of characters. There are also surprises. Here are famous books by Darwin, Newton and Shakespeare - but we also discover the stories behind some less well-known works, such as Marie Stopes'' Married Love, the original radical feminist Mary Wollstonecraft''s A Vindication ofTrade ReviewBragg writes with passion...and once again, shows his capacity to make science and technology both exciting and accessible. * Independent *'Bragg has established himself over the past decades as a fearlessly dedicated, popular educator . . . a highly and easily readable book.' * John Sutherland, The Sunday Times *'It can charm almost anyone of any age . . . yet again Bragg has displayed his extraordinary and unique gifts as a communicator' * Christena Appleyard, Daily Mail *'This is an inspiring, fascinating and stimulating book with marvellous illustrations' * Niall MacMonagle, Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive biography of this undervalued writer, who was considered ''far and away the best living woman poet'' in her day.Andrew Motion''s Spectator Book of the Year.One of the many achievements of This Rare Spirit is its rejection of that tired view of the poet as mouse that barely roared in favour of a true sense of a spikily modern woman, bound by various obligations but resilient, headstrong, and poetically inventive . . . Copus's diligent, scholarly, sensitive work should help Mew's pipe play on for years to come.' Declan Ryan, Los Angeles Review of Books''[A] supreme biography . . . It is hard to do justice to the breadth of research Copus has done here, or the compassionate, detailed conjuring of Mew and her milieu . . . An essential book, a classic work of literary biography.'' Seán Hewitt, Irish Times''[K]eenly intelligent, fascinating and nuanced biography . . . Save Charlotte Mew! And

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