Biography: writers Books

Book SynopsisThe Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft is the acclaimed bestselling biography by Claire TomalinWinner of the Whitbread First Book PrizeWitty, courageous and unconventional, Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most controversial figures of her day. She published A Vindication of the Rights of Women; travelled to revolutionary France and lived through the Terror and the destruction of the incipient French feminist movement; produced an illegitimate daughter; and married William Godwin before dying in childbed at the age of thirty-eight. Often embattled and bitterly disappointed, she never gave up her radical ideas or her belief that courage and honesty would triumph over convention.''Tomalin is a most intelligent and sympathetic biographer, aware of her impetuous subject''s many failings, yet with the perception to present her greatness fairly. She writes well and wittily'' Daily Telegraph''A vivid evocation not only of what Mary went th

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Book SynopsisAn arresting study of the life, times, and achievement of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth centuryTrade Review“Benjamin Taylor’s Proust: The Search is a marvel of brief biography, reanimating the hapless, almost Chaplinesque figure who by all logic should never have accomplished what he did. With a kind of worldly tenderness, Taylor shows Proust’s work accruing amid personal pratfalls, French anti-Semitism and the catastrophe of World War I.”—Thomas Mallon, New York Times Book Review“This engaging book, invitingly elegant to handle with its beautiful deckle-edged pages, should encourage those who have quailed at the thought of Proust’s colossus to have another go.”—John Carey, Sunday Times“Taylor’s loose, multi-clausal sentences are as bendy as the master’s, and there is the same shimmery quality to the prose, like sunlight glancing off a shallow Normandy sea.”—Kathryn Hughes, Guardian“An excellent brief biography of Proust.”—Andrea Barrett, New York Times Book Review“Taylor’s slim and elegant biography will bring new readers to Proust, and remind us to see him as a true modern.”—Ingrid Wassenaar, Times Literary Supplement“An important contribution to the study of this complex individual. . . . A riveting summary of the rampant anti-Semitism found in late 19th-century France. . . . Excellent analysis of the Dreyfus affair and how it split French society. . . . A noteworthy biography of a great writer.”—Library Journal“Deeply researched, and immensely well considered, Benjamin Taylor’s own search is an outstanding addition to Proust studies.”—Robert McCrum, The Observer“If you’ve read Proust’s novel, Taylor is entertaining and tells you things you didn’t already know, deepening your appreciation of Proust and his world. For those who have been so far put off reading him, this biography is a peerless introduction.”—Max Liu, The Independent“Because Taylor has been willing to learn from Proust how to write his biography—be enjoyably clever but not too presumptuous—his book is unusually instructive about how we can read Proust. . . . Explains both formally and intimately, through straightforward documentary narrative and engaging interpretation, the facts and fictions of Proust’s extraordinarily improbable life.”—Adam Phillips, London Review of Books“Benjamin Taylor’s short readable biography of Proust . . . tells Proust’s life story briefly and well.”—David Herman, Jewish Chronicle“Benjamin Taylor’s brief life is immaculately executed. He writes with lithe concision, wry wit and deceptive lightness about his formidable and demanding subject. There are no cloying moments, but Taylor’s perceptive tenderness will bring tears to the eyes of dedicated Proustians. Every page has charm and acumen.”—Richard Davenport-Hines, The Oldie“Situates Proust in the milieu that nurtured his genius, at once specific and universal. . . . An important work. What he demonstrates about Proust’s life is true of everyone. We all change with time and time changes us all. Pass the madeleines, s’il vous plait.”—Elka Weber, Segula“Those who found reading Proust too grand an undertaking over the years because of distractions and deficiencies of their own, might well rush to reconsider after confronting this dazzlingly elegant biography.”—Philip Roth“Taylor’s endeavor is not to explain the life by the novel or the novel by the life but to show how different events, different emotional upheavals, fired Proust’s imagination and, albeit sometimes completely transformed, appeared in his work. The result is a very subtle, thought-provoking book.”—Anka Muhlstein, author of Balzac’s Omelette and Monsieur Proust’s Library

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Book SynopsisA biography of Ann Hathaway and a social history of Shakespeare's time by the redoubtable Germaine GreerTrade Review‘Greer dares to think the unthinkable ... this is a bold and imaginative book' * Independent *‘Excellent ... a marvellous imagining of the life of Shakespeare's wife and a devastating exposure of the misogyny of the male biographers who have disparaged her' * Sunday Telegraph *‘This is a spirited, voluble, scholarly book which gives some depth and some dignity to the marginalised Mrs Shakespeare' * Guardian *‘A refreshing corrective to the usual portrait ... Greer is impressive when it comes to detailing their Stratford life and times ... It's robust, lively stuff' * The Times *

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Book SynopsisPigeonholed as a Jazz Age epicurean and an emblem of the Lost Generation, Fitzgerald was at heart a moralist struck by the nation’s shifting mood and manners after WWI. Placing him among Progressives such as Charles Beard, Randolph Bourne, and Thorstein Veblen, David Brown reveals Fitzgerald as a writer with an encompassing historical imagination.Trade ReviewBrown’s book is a useful corrective to the figure of F. Scott Fitzgerald as a hopeless drunk and unrestrained reveler—diving into the fountain at the Plaza and all that—which has been vastly overdone…One of the splendid services rendered by Brown is to have convincingly made the case that F. Scott Fitzgerald was an original in a way much grander than he himself realized. -- Joseph Epstein * Wall Street Journal *[An] excellent book… Paradise Lost…conjures up an entirely different portrait from the one painted by previous biographers… Brown’s book,…in its breadth of perspective and seriousness of intent, makes most biographies seem to consist mainly of tittle-tattle and random gossip. -- John Banville * New York Review of Books *With a surer sense than more gossipy writers, [Brown] fits Fitzgerald's life into the broader American history. -- Sam Tanenhaus * New Republic *[An] incisive biography. * New Yorker *What I admire about Paradise Lost is that it moves well beyond the hackneyed images in which the author lives in the prison house of his own fragile dreams, a sybaritic social climber who squanders his talent by drinking…This biography seems wildly relevant in a time when raw wealth has again taken on such an emblematic value…More than any biographer before him, Brown reveals the degree to which Fitzgerald understood the politics of his era…A splendid biography. -- Jay Parini * Literary Review *Brown has delivered an insightful, thought-provoking and at times entertaining rendering of [Fitzgerald’s] life…For fans of The Great Gatsby, there is much to like in Paradise Lost. -- James McGrath Morris * Dallas Morning News *Brown gets closer to a real Fitzgerald than anyone else. -- Brian Morton * The Herald *The book is rich with detailed historical, philosophical, and sociological examples that place Fitzgerald’s work within a historical situation that isn’t simply the stereotype of ‘Jazz Age Excess.’…Brown re-shapes the standard understanding of the Fitzgeralds as rapacious consumers into something more nuanced…By writing this respectful yet critical biography, David S. Brown has done much to add to the now-prodigious legacy of a man who, like Jay Gatsby, died alone despite having done so much for so many. -- Eric Rovie * PopMatters *Brown produces the most clearly written biography of his subject. -- Paul Gottfried * American Conservative *Sometimes when a historian turns to a literary figure the results are refreshing. Think of David Donald writing about Thomas Wolfe and now David S. Brown on Fitzgerald… What sets this biography apart from the others is its emphasis on Fitzgerald's ‘historical sensibility.’ -- Carl Rollyson * New Criterion *[A] thorough biography. -- Alex Harvey * London Review of Books *Brown’s biography strives to forgo the well-known anecdotes to instead reinsert Fitzgerald into his historical context. -- Carl Wilkinson * Financial Times *Paradise Lost accomplishes much in its aim to contextualize Fitzgerald within both American historical and literary historical parameters. This new biography manages to get past the trappings of Fitzgerald’s boozy flapper-era persona and to credit his talent for taking the pulse of the America in which he lived. -- Christina Hunt Mahoney * Irish Times *[An] insightful history of Fitzgerald’s main characters and themes. -- David Leigh * America *Brown writes a tight, finely observed character study of F. Scott Fitzgerald…Brown deftly explores the great uncertainties of social class in Fitzgerald’s day and the outsider feelings that clouded his life and psyche. Making sense of his time-bound views of African Americans and women proves more of a challenge. Carefully researched and a pleasure to read, Brown’s persuasive, original account will entice Fitzgerald fans and cultural historians alike. * Publishers Weekly *Looks beyond Gatsby and the famous stories of Fitzgerald’s excesses, and instead explores his correspondence with the Progressive intellectuals of his day to show that—if his prose left any doubt—Fitzgerald held a dim view of the decadent world in which he found himself trapped. -- Mene Ukueberuwa * New Criterion *A worthy and readable addition to the always-widening shelf of Fitzgerald biographies. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *[An] engaging portrait…Brown draws extensively on the autobiographical aspects of Fitzgerald’s novels and stories. * Kirkus Reviews *[An] enjoyable biography…Brown’s Paradise Lost is welcome in that it filters some of the poor-boy-in-life-and-love consensus. -- N. J. McGarrigle * Irish Times *David Brown provides the kind of context that other biographers, caught up in the myths that Scott and Zelda created about themselves, have not provided. A pleasure to read. -- James L. W. West III, Pennsylvania State UniversityIn this masterful book, Brown brings an extensive knowledge of American cultural, social, and political history to the details of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life and works. The result is a study that allows the reader to consider Fitzgerald from a new perspective. -- Bryant Mangum, Virginia Commonwealth University

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Book Synopsis''A brave process of healing and self reconstruction'' Observer''Simply one of the best writers working today. Here''s to family, to glamour, and to love'' Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic YearsI looked around at my flat, at the woodchip wallpaper and scuffed furniture, and realised that I did have a life after all. What it didn''t have in it was a cat.When Rhiannon fell in love with, and eventually married her flatmate, she imagined they might one day move on. But this is London in the age of generation rent, and so they share their home with a succession of friends and strangers while saving for a life less makeshift. The desire for a baby is never far from the surface, but can she be sure that she will ever be free of the anxiety she has experienced since an attack in the street one night? And after a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother does she really want to devote herself to motherhood?Moving through the seasoTrade ReviewRhiannon Lucy Cosslett is simply one of the best writers working today. She conjures a heady, terrifying time in beautiful detail. Here's to family, to glamour, and to love -- Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic YearsAcutely evocative... Ripples with those rare nuggets of wisdom that feel as though their author has reached into your head and pulled out something you have been on the verge of saying all your life. * 'I Newspaper *What Cosslett so beautifully captures is that liminal period before any life-changing decision, when anguished uncertainty morphs into sudden resolve. * New Statesman *The most beautiful paragraphs in The Year of the Cat remind me what a rare gift Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett possesses: expansive compassion, empathy and warmth, but a scalpel precision with words. Memories are conjured so headily it feels, to the reader, less like reading than experiencing déjà vu -- Emma Forrest, author of Busy Being FreeA nuanced calibration of care, desire, trauma and anxiety that made me feel so energised. A superbly written, special book -- Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum RoadSuch a moving, unique and elegant book, examining mental health, motherhood, creativity, love, life, youth, femininity, family and friendship. But above all, Cosslett takes her place in a long history of genius writers in the meowmoir genre by celebrating her strong bond with a true hero -- Mackerel the cat. I loved this book, and if you have a heart, you will, too. -- Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the CityThe Year of the Cat is a tender and wise meditation on trauma and the fragmentation of memory. Weaving together a history of women and their feline companions, Cosslett charts the emergence of a lasting love, while grappling with deeper anxieties: what it means to be a carer, and a mother, in precarious times. With her signature wit and radiant prose, Cosslett has produced a remarkable work, one that speaks for her generation -- Jessica Cornwell, author of Birth NotesI feel like I have been waiting my whole life for this brilliant book, alive with Rhiannon's characteristic blend of gorgeous prose, razor-sharp analysis and enormous amounts of empathy and honesty. You'll come back to it again and again, as I have -- Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of I Choose ElenaSharp and accurate...a brave process of healing and self reconstruction * Observer *Admirable and affecting * Guardian *A meditative read on what it means not just to be a mother, but a human being just trying to navigate all that life throws at us * Red Online *I loved it. Such a strong, nuanced book; Rhiannon's writing is as sharp as her thinking. It's funny, human, rich with thought and care * Rebecca Watson *At once thoughtful and thought-provoking. There are more and more books on the experiences of motherhood, but few make room for what Cosslett describes as 'not motherhood, or almost motherhood'... Here she is changing the game, finding a new way of writing it -- Chloe Ashby * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisFrom a master biographer and leading scholar of eighteenth-century literature comes an award-winning new portrait of the greatest satirist in the English languageTrade Review“Damrosch’s approach is forensic. . .For me the Swift who emerges from these patient investigations is a more rounded personality.”—George Walden, The Times -- George Walden * The Times *‘If Damrosch follows Ehrenpreis in anything, it’s in the ambition, indicated by his ‘life and world’ subtitle, to ground biography in social context. He does that job with efficiency and a sure touch.’—Thomas Keymer, London Review of Books -- Thomas Keymer * London Review of Books *“Convincing and vivid. . . . Damrosch has . . . let us glimpse the human roots of Swift’s sometimes inhuman irony.”—John Mullan, The Guardian -- John Mullan * Guardian *“Damrosch is incisive about Swift’s personality . . . and writes with fine Swiftian clarity, but does not simplify. He acknowledges that, investigating Swift, you run into a revolving door of contradictions. . . . But Damrosch sees him, rightly, not just as a tragic figure but as a fearless thinker whose works are an antidote to optimism's happy lies.” — John Carey, London Sunday Times -- John Carey * The Sunday Times *“[Damrosch] writes elegantly, has exactly the right mix of empathy and detachment, and is admirably open-minded in his approach to complex evidence – some of it the product of very new scholarship. . . this will be the definitive life of Swift for years to come.”—Jonathan Bate, New Statesman -- Jonathan Bate * New Statesman *‘. . .an oxygenated account that blows fresh air on Swift, the most readable account in recent times’ —Brean Hammond, History Today -- Brean Hammond * History Today *'The book, far from being a dry academic analysis based on sketchy records, is a romp through the years when Britain became established as a world power. . .Damrosch writes with wry humour and clarity of detail, often cuttingly disputing the theories of previous Swift biographers. To read this hefty book is to get a highly enjoyable education.’—Claire Looby, The Irish Times -- Claire Looby * The Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisUpon publication, "Don't Panic" quickly established itself as the definitive companion to "Adams" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". This edition comes up-to-date, covering the movie, "And Another Thing" by Eoin Colfer and the build up to the 30th anniversary of the first novel. Acclaimed author Neil Gaiman celebrates the life and work of Douglas Adams who, in a field in Innsbruck in 1971, had an idea that became "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". The radio series that started it all, the five - soon to be six - book 'trilogy', the TV series, almost-film and actual film, and everything in between.Trade Review"It's all devastatingly true - except the bits that are lies" - Douglas Adams * "Hilarious fun... a source of much delightful trivia" - Publisher's Weekly"

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Book SynopsisFor nearly sixty years Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was one of the most famous writers in the world. An enormously successful playwright and the author of over a hundred short stories and twenty-one novels - several of which are now established classics - Maugham expertly concealed a private life. Predominantly homosexual, and deeply in love with the charming but dissolute Gerald Haxton, he made a disastrous marriage to Syrie Wellcome which he would escape by travelling and writing extensively in the Far East. A talented linguist, during both world wars Maugham worked for British Intelligence. In between he moved in literary and theatrical circles in London, New York and Hollywood and entertained lavishly at his luxurious villa in the south of France. Outwardly his life was richly rewarding, but privately he suffered anguish from an unrequited love affair and a shocking final betrayal.Acclaimed biographer Selina Hastings has had access to Maugham''s extensive private correspTrade Review'This steady-eyed biography of an extraordinary, extravagant, generous and bitter artist will not only fascinate its readers but encourage some to go to his work for the first time' * Times Literary Supplement, Jeremy Treglown *'Hastings' Life of Maugham is pitch-perfect: supple, confident and written with something of the same beady detachment (and enjoyable signature streak of malice) as the great tale-teller himself' * Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph *'Hastings provides a searing emotional history...her closing chapter...is so powerfully written, in places so shocking, as to give a series of physical jolts to the reader. Hastings's book cannot be bettered' * Richard Davenport-Hines, Sunday Telegraph *'Every so often, a biography appears of such authority and such power that it is more than a chronicle of a human life, it is a work of art...brilliant...such is Selina Hasting's skill that this horrible story is richly enjoyable' * A. N. Wilson, Reader's Digest *'Engrossing . . . a brilliant evocation' * Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times *'The year's best biography by far' * Sunday Express *'Selina Hastings has coped manfully with the task of summarising Maugham's huge oeuvre without distracting her readers from his long and eventful life' * The Oldie *'Supple, confident and written with the same beady detachment shown by the writer himself * Daily Telegraph *'Here's Selina Hastings at her best, which is saying something . . . thoroughly researched and elegantly written' * Sunday Telegraph (Seven) *'In a period when literary biographies have fallen out of favour, Hastings's magisterial life shows ut he peaks that the genre can reach . . . The book teems enjoyably with stars, spies and scandals' * Independent *'Compelling' * Daily Express *'Brilliantly researched, Hastings captured the turmoils and tragedies that shaped the great writer's life' * Sunday Mail Adelaide *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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