Published diaries, letters and journals Books

Book SynopsisA collection of inventive writings in letter form from a sixteenth-century star of commedia dell'arte. Isabella Andreini (1562–1604) was a commedia dell’arte diva who toured Italy and France as part of the Compagnia dei Comici Gelosi. Letters is a collection of epistles written by Andreini in fictional, anonymous, male, and female voices, a “hermaphroditic” alternation of gender unlike any that had been seen in letter writing to that time. In her letters, Andreini remade the humanistic epistolary genre into a distinctive fusion of literary and dramatic performance. The guise of epistolary intimacy cedes to a knowing artificiality, which allows for the emergence of Andreini’s modern critique of the gendered self as a uniform entity. The collection centers on love and examines—from surprising perspectives—pertinent issues such as death, the birth of a girl, prostitution, patriarchal marital practices, love in old age, courtiership, country and city life, human nature, and defenses and critiques of both sexes. Trade Review"Paola De Santo and Caterina Mongiat Farina’s critical edition and translation of Isabella Andreini’s Letters (1607) is a long-awaited resource for English readers and scholars of Renaissance and early modern studies. This monumental volume showcases De Santo and Mongiat Farina’s strong translation skills, as well as their deep knowledge of Andreini’s work and the rich trove of classical and Renaissance sources from which she drew her copious allusions. Their erudite notes contextualize the letters well for the modern reader. On the whole, the volume provides an eminently readable and enjoyable translation of this work that found enduring fame in Italy and abroad during the seventeenth century." -- Julie D. Campbell, Professor of English, Eastern Illinois UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Illustrations Introduction The Other Voice Life, Works, and Authorship Isabella Andreini and Women’s Writing in Early Modern Italy The Question of Genre: Pushing the Boundaries of the Letterbook Summary and Analysis of the Letters Love as the Beginning, Middle, and End of the Letters A Discordant Harmony: Paired and Thematically Grouped Letters The Actress as Writer: Thematic and Stylistic Aspects of the Letters Rhetoric and the questione della donna in the Letters Reception and Afterlife Translators’ Note Letters of Isabella Andreini Permission Dedicatory Letter Encomiastic Verses and Anagrams Table of All the Letters Contained in the Work Letters AppendixComparative Table of the Letters’ Summaries: 1607 Edition and This Edition Gender Designations of Letter Writers and Recipients Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first translated collection of Hortense Mancini's correspondence. During the seventeenth century, Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin (164699), became an icon of women's emancipation. In 1668, she shocked Europe when she fled her coercive husband and began a nomadic exile. Her notoriety increased in 1675 with the publication of her memoirone of the first to appear in French by a womanand was later magnified by her stint as the royal mistress of Charles II of England and by her establishment of a freethinking salon in London. As a salonnière, an exile, and a litigant fighting for legal separation from her husband, Mancini's letters were a means of connection, collusion, and survival as well as cultural collaboration. Collected and translated here for the first time, this correspondence charts her struggle for autonomy in her own words.

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Book SynopsisLetters From a Yankee Doughboy is a collection of more than 125 letters written by Private 1st Class Raymond W. Maker, to his sister, Eva, a county nurse living in Framingham, Massachusetts, describing his everyday service in combat during World War 1. These letters, edited by Private Maker’s grandson, Major Bruce H. Norton (USMC retired) are accompanied by 365 pocket-diary entries that Raymond religiously kept throughout the year 1918.Private Maker was assigned to Company C, 101st Field Signal Battalion, as a wireman, whose duty was to repair and replace the communications lines that were destroyed by artillery and mortar barrages during the horrific battles that took place between German infantry forces and the 26th “Yankee” Division of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), in France, from October of 1917 until the end of the war.Assigned to the 104th Infantry Regiment, Private Maker saw the very worst of ground warfare. He fought at the Battle of Belleau Wood; was gassed by German artillery forces at the Battle of Château-Thierry and was wounded by artillery fire outside of Verdun, just one day before the Armistice was signed. The theme of his letters will vividly evoke memories in the tens of thousands of men and women who have served their country and their friends and loved ones.As a postscript, toward the end of the war, Raymond took the key to the North Gate of Verdun as a battlefield keepsake and mailed it home to his sister, instructing her to “keep that key, as someday it will be of value.” On November 11, 2018 – the centenary of Armistice Day – the author returned that key to Thierry Hubscher, the Director of the Mémorial de Verdun, to be placed on display in that great Museum, closing a 100-year chapter in Raymond’s life.

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Book SynopsisOn the envelopes of letters sent to a dear friend, the famed artist and writer Edward Gorey drew dozens of original illustrations?illustrations now collected in this volume along with marvelously playful selections from the correspondence, all never before seen by the public until now.From Ted to Tom will be published in the centenary year of Edward Gorey''s birth.When Tom Fitzharris met Edward "Ted" Gorey in 1974, the two quickly struck up a friendship. Over the next year Gorey sent a total of fifty letters to Fitzharris. Every envelope Fitzharris received was illustrated by Gorey, and filled with surprises: typewritten letters with news and opinions from Gorey''s life, handwritten note cards with unexpected quotes, sketches, inside jokes, and a host of other joyous miscellany.Assembled here for the first time, these envelopes and their contents deliver all the humor, imagination, gossip, and wonder that came with being Edward Gorey''s pen pal.

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Book Synopsis“Farley and Claire is a love story, a biography, a Tale of Two Farleys, or perhaps three: the public one, the private one, and the secret one.”—Margaret AtwoodThe tumultuous, enduring love story between iconic writer Farley Mowat and his wife Claire, including excerpts from their passionate letters, published here for the first time.When Farley Mowat met Claire Wheeler in August 1960, the attraction was immediate, and within days they were lovers, despite the fact that Farley was already married. Their affair—partly aided and abetted by publisher Jack McClelland—included an extended correspondence until several years later, when Farley finally obtained a Mexican divorce and the two were married in Texas. They were together until Farley’s death 54 years later.Claire, a brilliant diarist, has given author Michael Harris complete access to her journals and letters, as well as Farley’s letters, and Harris has conducted extensive interviews with her and original research. The result is a literary love story for the ages, complete with photos of the couple who defied conventions of their time to be together.Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.Trade Review"[R]ecounts the passionate love affair between Farley Mowat, a Canadian naturalist and popular environmental author, and Claire Wheeler, his second wife... A revealing look inside a literary love affair."—Publishers Weekly"Great love stories involve intense passion and a monumental impediment to its fulfilment. Farley and Claire is one such tumultuous, whirlpool of a love story that makes us long to be lovestruck again, and beloved."—Susan Musgrave, author of Exculpatory Lilies"Farley and Claire is a gripping and surprisingly suspenseful story of two writers in love that takes us on a ribald, rollicking journey full of books, boats, voyages, friendships, and feuds."—Stephen Mayer, journalist and author of Salvage"Michael Harris, ace investigative journalist, uses his skills to lay bare secrets of the human heart, and he triumphs. He’s got the documents—fiery, frank, lusty letters between emerging icon Farley Mowat and the young Claire Wheeler—as their creative souls merge and clash."—David Beers, Founding Editor, The Tyee"Michael Harris's beautifully written and richly detailed Farley and Claire: A Love Story is both laugh-out-loud entertaining and heartbreaking. Told with so much colour, grace, and style, this great love story between Canadian author Farley Mowat and Claire Wheeler is a page-turner and a beautiful book."—Kate Malloy, Editor, The Hill Times"Delving through 54 years of love letters between the irascible Farley Mowat and the lovely Claire Wheeler, Harris traces the arc of a Canadian marriage like no other, yet somehow like every other marriage: a country of dark forests, graceful clearings, and deep waters that sustain our thirst for love. Readers will find this stark romance between two very different soul-friends the right sort of tonic for these hateful times."—Andrew Nikiforuk, author of Empire of the Beetle and The Energy of Slaves"Farley Mowat was Canada's greatest iconoclastic environmental icon—fearless, uncompromising, and mischievous. Michael Harris reveals another Farley—angst-ridden and focused on Claire, the love of his life, enmeshed in the strictures and values of a time now gone. I wept, laughed, and commiserated as I followed this amazing love story with a happy ending."—David Suzuki"Farley and Claire is a love story as intimate and enduring as the love it portrays."—Wayne Grady, author of Pandexicon and The Good Father"I proudly published the remarkable Farley, and knew Claire for many years, but now find that their greatest work—about their love—was hidden and is now revealed here so unforgettably by Michael Harris."—Douglas Gibson, former President and Publisher of McClelland & Stewart and author of Across Canada by Story

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Book SynopsisWhen hospital-trained midwife Penny Armstrong takes on a job delivering the babies of the Amish, she encounters a way of life deeply rooted in the earth. As she renews her respect for nature, she discovers an approach to giving birth which would change her life forever. A gripping first-hand account of Armstrong's journey from student midwife in Glasgow to running her own practice in rural Pennsylvania, A Midwife's Story is a life-affirming book that never fails to enlighten, inform and surprise. Honest and ultimately very moving, it is inspirational reading for everyone interested in the art and humanity of midwifery.Trade ReviewRemarkable... as wonderful about the Amish as it is about midwifery--The New York TimesTable of Contents1 Preface; 2 Acknowledgements; 3 1. Their Way; 4 2. Home; 5 3. Midwife; 6 4. Wifie; 7 5. Booth; 8 6. Paradise Visited; 9 7. Paradise Considered; 10 8. Spring Road; 11 9. The Country Hospital; 12 10. In the Fields; 13 11. The Viewing; 14 12. The Home Delivery; 15 13. Getting Married; 16 14. China; 17 15. Losses; 18 16. The Office; 19 17. Mothers and Fathers; 20 18. Giving Yourself Up; 21 19. Love; 22 20. Home; 23 21. Leah

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Book SynopsisJames Douglas (1753-1819) was a polymath, well ahead of his time in both the fields of archaeology and earth-sciences. His examinations of fossils from the London Clay and other geological formations caused him to conclude that the Earth was much older than the 4004 BC allotted to it by his contemporaries. He had come to this conclusion by 1785 and published these findings in that year, long before other researchers in the same field. His Nenia Britannica, published in 1793, reveals a remarkably accurate grasp of the dating of Anglo- Saxon burials; further illuminated by the contents of his common-place book for 1814-16, discovered by the author in a second-hand bookshop. This common-place book, correspondence with his contemporaries and other sources resulted in the present publication recounting his archaeological and other activities in Sussex during the first two decades of the 19th century.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. The Excavations; 3. Megaliths in the Brighton area; 4. Sussex Placename derivations and miscellania.; 5. Epilogue; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisLambda Literary Award Finalist - LGBTQ AnthologyWritten by and for trans and non-binary survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, Written on the Body offers support, guidance and hope for those who struggle to find safety at home, in the body, and other unwelcoming places. This collection of letters written to body parts weaves together narratives of gender, identity, and abuse. It is the coming together of those who have been fragmented and often met with disbelief. The book holds the concerns and truths that many trans people share while offering space for dialogue and reclamation. Written with intelligence and intimacy, this book is for those who have found power in re-shaping their bodies, families, and lives.Trade ReviewAs trans and non-binary folks, we are often discouraged from advocating for our own bodies, as if we do not know what is best for ourselves. This anthology is filled with such tenderness, resilience and vulnerability; a beautiful love letter to queerness, to otherness, to the power of reclaiming our bodies as our own. -- Emmett J. Lundberg, Writer & Filmmaker, Creator of Brothers the seriesIt's rare that something can both break your heart and renew your spirit. My heart empathetically broke from the rawness and intimacy these pages hold. As I finished I was left feeling inspired and awestruck at the power of queer people - not just to endure but to use our experiences as a tool to empower others, like these words certainly will. -- Karmilla Pillay-Siokos, Director of Slutwalk JohannesburgThis work is prayer. It is finding family, clarity and yourself in every page. It is a deep breath. Each story takes you closer to understanding what self-love is and how long the paths to ourselves can be. I am so grateful for this book and to each author that blessed its pages. -- Be Steadwell, Queer Pop Musician and FilmmakerWe are living in a pivotal moment of courage for survivors of sexual abuse to speak out. We see a massive ground swelling of survivors, unified by their stories, speaking up and saying #metoo. This timely collection is no different; it amplifies the voices of those trans and gender non-conforming people forced into silence because of identity shaming. The courage and bravery shared by these silence breakers becomes an invitation for us to become an ally in the work, to untie our bound hands, to lift our fists in unison, to tear the tape off our mouths, to reclaim our lives, and say in unison, #neveragain. -- sj Miller, author of Teaching, Affirming, and Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth, series co-editor, Social Justice Across Contexts in Education, series co-editor, Queering Teacher Education Across ContextsBecoming your self is the most daring act you will undertake in your lifetime. In some ways it's a bigger deal than being born, because it requires courage, determination, vision and a body that is your own. Written on the Body shows us how beautifully it's being done in the 21st Century and reminds us that the business of becoming your authentic self is never finished -- James Lecesne, co-founder of The Trevor ProjectAs a storytelling organization we are encouraged by projects like Written on the Body. This anthology is in the vanguard of a growing body of storytelling rooted in transgender and non-binary experiences. The acts of writing, reading and sharing these stories has the capacity to build empathy, to heal and to empower more individuals to share their stories as well. -- Nathan Manske, Founder of I'm From DriftwoodWritten on the Body speaks to me as I'm sure it will other readers. It is gives voice and sheds light on a very important subject. One that isn't spoken about very much. Trans and Gender Non-Conforming bodies. People just want us to hide our bodies and not address them. We get this message from the time that we're children and it stays with us. For some of us, it never goes away. These wonderful stories share real life experiences. Experiences that people like me never thought we would be able to share. The shame and humiliation around our own bodies. Hiding and pretending. The assaults, rape and abuse we suffer at the hands of others. Sometimes thinking we deserve this treatment because we don't fit in. Feeling voiceless and powerless. Living our lives for everyone else except ourselves, until we cannot take it anymore. Written on the Body helps break this silence around trans and gender non-conforming people. It helps to empower us and educate others. It's an excellent read and resource, and just good for the soul! -- Kylar Broadus, Founder of Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC), Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF)I am humbled by this collection of letters. The authors of this collection are at times unflinching, proud, triumphant, and brutally honest in their truths. Each letter is utterly personal, engaging with the text in this format draws the reader close inside quickly and I enjoyed this process immensely. Reading these letters, and the depths of what is shared within this book, I was struck with the same ideas, truths, and lived experiences that trans people have shared with me after watching FREE CeCe! Everywhere we went with the film. I am glad to see these voices lifted in such an indelible way here. -- Jac Gares, Filmmaker, Producer of FREE CeCeWritten on the Body beautifully paints the picture of what happens to people of trans experience when it comes to sexual assault and violence. This book provides the opportunity to tell our stories on a way that is our own, because these are our experiences. It is a way for us to find some type of healing, to find comfort and to provide some type of hope to many of us who are still dealing with these difficult issues. -- Bamby Salcedo, President & CEO of The TransLatin@ CoalitionWritten on the Body is a much needed story of violence against transgender and gender nonconforming people that is deeply needed. Not just for the community, but for everyone who wishes to understand the violence that trans people are facing. It's a story for us, by us and this is the space where voices are needed most. Thank you for bring together so many narratives and creating a space for voices to be heard in a world that does not validate the experiences of trans folk. -- KT Richardson, Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention WorkerWritten on the Body is a bold exploration of pain--and of discovery. These letters are courageous and illuminating, directly facing the nuanced hurt of violence and of loss. A powerful and touching chorus of honest voices! -- Aspen Matis, Co-Founder of The Human Network and author of Girl in the WoodsWritten on the Body is one of the most honest and intimate portrayals of the emotional landscapes of survivors of sexual violence. This collection of writing is truths building history, a witness to pain, a friend to let you know that you are not alone. The harmony of these trans and non-binary voices that have been silenced for so long invite you to listen. Cathartic Honest Intimate Free Histories Surender Defense Wisdom Pain Gentle -- Mitra Kaboli Senior Producer of The HeartTable of ContentsDear You. We Are In This Together by Dean Spade. Forward by Nyala Moon. Dear You by Alex Valdes and Lexie Bean. The Body. The Letters. Note To Self. Sincerely by Sawyer DeVuyst. PS. PPS, An Afterward by Lexie Bean. Guide for Professionals and Mentors by Ieshai Bailey. Letter Writers on their Letter Writing Experience. Mailbox: Contributors. Acknowledgements. Resource List. Further Reading

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Book SynopsisIn Letters of Note: Grief, Shaun Usher gathers together some of the most powerful messages about grief, from the heart-wrenching pain of losing a loved one to reliving fond memories of those who have passed on.Includes letters by:Audre Lorde, Robert Frost,Nick Cave, Rainer Maria Rilke,Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette,Kahlil Gibran, Edith Wharton,Mary Wortley Montagu, Seungsahn Haengwon& many moreTrade ReviewPraise for Letters of Note: Quite literally the most enjoyable volume it is possible to imagine. Every page is a marvel * * Spectator * *The literary equivalent of a box of chocolates - bite-sized and pure addictive pleasure . . . The result is beautifully produced, with photographs and colour facsimiles of much of the correspondence. A gorgeous Christmas present * * Sunday Times * *It is hard to see how Letters Of Note could ever be surpassed * * Mail on Sunday * *A gloriously presented compilation * * Financial Times * *

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Book SynopsisIn Letters of Note: Music, Shaun Usher brings together a riveting collection of letters by and about some of the musicians and music that enrich our lives. It is a wonderfully wide-ranging and illuminating book that will delight music lovers of all stripes.Includes letters by:Ludgwig van Beethoven, Nick Cave, Helen Keller, Keith Richards,Yo-Yo Ma, Tom Waits, Erik Satie, Angélique Kidjo, Leonard CohenJohn Coltrane, Kim Gordon & many moreTrade ReviewPraise for Shaun Usher: Another mailbag stuffed with funny, heartbreaking and passionate letters . . . engaging, eclectic, geekily and gleefully enthusiastic and laugh-out-loud funny * * The Times * *Shaun Usher's More Letters of Note mines the archives for more gems of the epistolary arts * * Guardian * *Funny, tragic, brilliantly incisive, historic, lyrical, romantic and studiedly offensive, this stupendous compendium of letters ancient and modern is my book of the year. You will never tire of it -- STEPHEN FRYFrom the genuinely funny: Marge Simpson duelling with First Lady Barbara Bush to the truly heart-breaking: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's last goodbye to their children before execution. Usher's book is unlike anything else you have read. After all, where else can you find out why Norman Mailer refused money to his father, or how Janis Joplin felt before breaking America? Exactly * * GQ * *Funny, shocking and poignant, More Letters of Note must be one of the most entertaining books of the year * * Financial Times * *Some of the letters will make you laugh, other heartbreaking examples will make you cry * * Independent * *Reading through them is addictive, like dipping into a bag of variously tempting assorted candies, knowing that the next one will always bring surprise and pleasure. Usher has an evident knack for selecting letters that land with the force of a good short story, with personalities and dramatic arcs emerging swiftly, from just a page or two. Many of the writers are famous people, caught in a moment of accessibility and rawness or off-the-cuff virtuosity * * New Yorker * *A gloriously presented compilation * * Financial Times * *The literary equivalent of a box of chocolates - bite-sized and pure addictive pleasure . . . The result is beautifully produced, with photographs and colour facsimiles of much of the correspondence. A gorgeous Christmas present * * Sunday Times * *Open the pages of the anthology and the appeal is immediately obvious * * Observer * *

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Book SynopsisA Spectator Book of the Year An Observer, New Statesman, Financial Times, Irish Times and Scotsman 2021 Non-Fiction Highlight 'Compassionate, beautifully written .. will only grow in importance and interest as the years go by' Jenny Colgan, Spectator 'Searing yet beautiful ... less a hot take that an astute manifesto for what matters most in life, as well as in medicine.' Rachel Clarke, author of Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic and Your Life in My Hands 'Well written, often entertaining and occasionally deeply moving; an unmissable account of a year we will all try too hard to forget.' The Times 'Inspiring. I can't recommend it too strongly. You will learn a lot from it, and you will find much more that is encouraging.' Allan Massie, Scotsman Intensive Care is about how coronavirus emerged, spread across the world and changed all of our lives forever. But it's not, perhaps, the story you expect. Gavin Francis is a GP who works in both urban and rural communities, splitting his time between Edinburgh and the islands of Orkney. When the pandemic arrived in our society he saw how it affected every walk of life: the anxious teenager, the isolated care home resident, the struggling furloughed worker and homeless ex-prisoner, all united by their vulnerability in the face of a global disaster. And he saw how the true cost of the virus was measured not just in infections, or deaths, or ITU beds, but in the consequences of the measures taken against it. In this deeply personal account of eighteen months spent caring for a society in crisis, Francis will take you from rural village streets to local clinics and communal city stairways. And in telling this story, he reveals others: of loneliness and hope, illness and recovery, and of what we can achieve when we care for each other.Trade ReviewSuperb ... makes clear that the revelation of this plague has been twofold: our hubris has been shattered, yet there remains a staggering human capacity for bravery, courage and endurance. Francis witnesses it daily in the kingdom of the sick. From it, he takes heart, and urges us to do the same. -- Madeleine Bunting * Guardian *Inspiring. I can't recommend it too strongly. You will learn a lot from it, and you will find much more that is encouraging. -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *One of the most absorbing books - of any type - that I've had the pleasure to read ... Although this is the story of a very dark time, it is full of warmth and decency. It is a book to be savoured. Beautiful things can emerge from desperate times; this book is one of those things. * Irish Times *An unmissable account of a year we will try too hard to forget -- Kate Saunders * The Times *A public service ... compelling * New Statesman *I admire Intensive Care very much - the way it rises to the challenge of writing-to-the-moment, the way it manages compassion without sentimentality, & shows a constant commitment to social justice without piety. Its message is oddly reassuring too - as if we will eventually make sense of this pandemic. -- Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall and SummerwaterA rich seam of insights and empathy runs through [all his books]: Francis' interest in and affection for his fellow human beings seem inexhaustible. Now comes Francis' new book, Intensive Care: A GP, a Community & COVID-19, a searing yet beautiful "eyewitness account of the most intense months I have known in my twenty-year career". ... It is now that Francis' writing comes into its own. With understated eloquence, he depicts the ravages of lockdown for the community he serves. ... Francis deals words with devastating potency. Swiftly, calmly he diagnoses a central cruelty of this pandemic: "That the virus spreads through speech and touch was one of its harshest twists, attacking the most basic elements of our humanity-how we connect, empathise and show love". Ultimately, Intensive Care is less a hot take than an astute manifesto for what matters most in life, as well as in medicine. Reciprocity, selflessness, compassion, and tenderness are what motivate Francis. He ends with the heartfelt hope that, despite everything the pandemic has and will continue to cost us: "the core of medicine-the clinical encounter with its alliance of science, kindness and intensive care-[will] endure. -- Rachel Clarke, author of Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic and Your Life in My Hands * Lancet *Rich in compassion, patience and humanity. Early in the pandemic Francis read two books with plague themes, Boccaccio's Decameron and Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year. His own effort matches them...This is a short book, written in terse sentences with strong and immediate impact. It is intended to raise the human spirit as well as our understanding of health workers, shelf-stackers and the rest of us. * Oldie *Intensive Care is one doctor's beautifully written, easily read account of 2020, the year of Covid-19. It reveals the sheer intensity of what the pandemic has been like for workers in the health and care sectors. The stories it contains constantly remind the reader of the easily-forgotten fact that this whole extraordinary experience has been about people, both as individuals and as members of families, communities and workplaces, and how they survive or are enabled to survive - or not. Rich in detail, conscious of the long historical context of pandemics, Gavin Francis's book does not shy away from pain and despair but it is, ultimately, both humane and hopeful. The passages about the issue of homelessness, in particular, tell how apparently intractable issues can be solved when the will is there and the right people are involved. We may well need to be reminded of this, too, in the coming months and years. A great read and an important record of our times. -- James Robertson, author of the Booker-Longlisted The Testament of Gideon MackIntensive Care is a marvellous book, superb... absolutely the best account I've seen of the realities of living through last year. I loved it. -- Iona Heath, writer and former President of the Royal College of GPsA wise, literate man whose compassion is grounded in realism * Tablet *Insightful ... compelling -- Charlotte Heathcote * Daily Mirror *Compassionate, beautifully written ... will only grow in importance and interest as the years go by -- Jenny Colgan * Spectator Books of the Year *

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Book SynopsisContinuing where Reimann's earlier book of diaries, I Have No Regrets, left off, in 1964, this volume is a compelling and frank account of one woman’s life and loves in 1960s East Germany.It All Tastes of Farewell is a frank account of one woman’s life and loves in 1960s East Germany. As a writer, Brigitte Reimann could not help but tell a compelling story, and that is born out here in her diaries, which are gripping as any novel. She recorded only what mattered: telling details, emotional truths, and political realities. Never written for publication and first published in full in German only after the fall of the Berlin Wall, these diaries offer a unique record of what it felt like to live in a country that no longer exists, was represented for years largely through Cold War propaganda, and is still portrayed in fairy-tale Stasi dramas. Here we get a sense of lived experience as if Doris Lessing or Edna O’Brien had been allowed in with their notebooks. This volume continues where her earlier book of diaries, I Have No Regrets, left off, in 1964. It sees Reimann grow wistful and at times bitter, as her love life, her professional life, and her health all suffer. Yet throughout she retains a lively appetite for new experiences and a dedication to writing. Finally, she finds security in a surprising new love, and although she died soon after this volume ends, the novel she was writing was to become a much-read cult hit after her death. A remarkable document from a time and place that we still struggle to see clearly, It All Tastes of Farewell is unforgettable, a last gift from an essential writer. Trade Review"Following last year’s I Have No Regrets (translated by Berlin’s Lucy Jones), these books bring to life a highly talented and unconventional author, a woman determined to live life to its fullest despite the constrictions of her time. Now is a fine moment to (re)discover Brigitte Reimann. . . . [She] is a brilliant observer of social milieus, a ruthless self-analyst and often strikingly humorous." * Exberliner *Table of ContentsN

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Book SynopsisPARADISE ERASED: Chronicle of an Exile Before the arrival of the notorious drug cartels, the Colombian coastal town of Santa Marta was an idyllic place blessed with natural wonders, a choice destination for cruise ships and steam boats loaded with visitors and adventurers from all over the Caribbean. This was the environment in which Miguel angel had aspired to grow up until a case of police brutality and the murder of a young British backpacker he had befriended causes the fabric of his world to unravel. In the midst of violent persecution enabled by rogue mechanisms of state, a single mother moves heaven and earth in a constant attempt to shield her son from the horrors of being on the run, her search for truth and justice leading to a perilous confrontation with the Establishment – with disastrous repercussions for the future of a nation. PARADISE ERASED is their story.

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Book SynopsisSheila Mills’s story is a unique perspective of the Second World War. She is a clever, middle-class Norfolk girl with a yen for adventure and joins the WRNS in 1940 to escape the shackles of secretarial work in London, her unhappy childhood and her social-climbing mother. From a first posting in Scotland in 1940, she progresses through the ranks, first to Egypt and later to a vanquished Germany.Extraordinary and fascinating encounters and personalities are seen through the eyes of a young Wren officer: Admiral Ramsay, the Invasion of Sicily and Operation Mincemeat that triggered it, The Flap, the sinking of the Medway, the surrender of the Italian fleet and the Belsen Trials. These observations are peppered with humorous insights into the humdrum preoccupations of a typical Wren – boys, appearance and having fun, while worrying about home and family.This treasure trove of hundreds of letters, along with scrapbooks and memorabilia, some of which are reproduced here, was discovered in bin liners shortly after Sheila died. Her daughter, Vicky, has pieced together a fascinating and unusual record of the Second World War from a woman’s perspective.

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Book SynopsisThe devastating tale of a young Jewish boy, coping alone on the streets of Nazi-occupied Amsterdam

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Book Synopsis Following the Axis invasion of Greece, the Nazis began persecuting the country’s Jews much as they had across the rest of occupied Europe, beginning with small indignities and culminating in mass imprisonment and deportations. Among the many Jews confined to the Thessaloniki ghetto during this period were Sarina Saltiel, Mathilde Barouh, and Neama Cazes—three women bound for Auschwitz who spent the weeks before their deportation writing to their sons. Do Not Forget Me brings together these remarkable pieces of correspondence, shocking accounts of life in the ghetto with an emotional intensity rare even by the standards of Holocaust testimony.Trade Review Praise for the Greek edition: “Letters of this kind are uniquely valuable testimonies, for the simple reason that they were not intended as testimonies; they were not written with posterity in mind.” • Kathimerini “The testimonies of the extermination of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki are not mere evidence or potential historical sources. They are in a way a means of communication, phantasmagoric, whose function is based on the recognition of distance—physical or metaphysical.” • Ta NeaTable of Contents List of Illustrations Foreword to the English Edition Serge Klarsfeld Foreword to the Greek Edition Yannis Boutaris Introduction Note from the Jewish Museum of Greece Zanet Battinou Acknowledgements Chronology Maps Introduction Leon Saltiel Translation Note Leon Saltiel and Jenny Demetriou Prologue: Instructions to Jews Migrating from Thessaloniki List of Letters Letters of Sarina (Sara) Saltiel Introduction Eleni Saltiel Short biography of Maurice Saltiel Eleni Saltiel Exercpts from the Autobiography of Maurice Saltiel Letters of Sarina (Sara) Saltiel Letters of Mathilde Barouh Introduction Leon Saltiel Letters of Mathilde Barouh Letters of Neama Cazes Introduction Leon Saltiel Letters of Neama Cazes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIn 1805, naval officer Captain Philip Beaver (1766–1813) published his African Memoranda: Relative to an Attempt to Establish a British Settlement on the Island of Bulama, on the Western Coast of Africa, in the Year 1792. Beaver’s text in this modern scholarly edition provides an absorbing testimony of his efforts to assist British colonisers in establishing their African settlement. Despite the colonial ambitions of this project, the ‘Bulama Committee’ members were reformists at heart. Their high-minded intentions in purchasing the island and settling it were to demonstrate the anti-slavery principle that propagation by ‘free natives’ would bring ‘cultivation and commerce’ to the region and ultimately introduce ‘civilization’ among them. Beaver’s journal tells the extraordinary account of how the colonists’ ambitions to benefit the African economy and set a precedent of humanitarian labour for the slave-owning lobby in Britain led to the extraordinary emigration of 275 men, women and children in order to put their humanitarian ideals into practice.Trade Review‘Captain Philip Beaver’s utopian ambition was to end Britain’s slave trade by growing tropical pro-duce on a West African island. This excellent edition of his journal, a key document for understand-ing abolitionism, describes the outcasts who signed up for his radical republic, as well as the tragic idealism of this Romantic-era colonising enterprise.’ — Deirdre Coleman, author of Romantic Colo-nization and British Anti-Slavery‘A fascinating account of a disastrous attempt to establish a colony of freed former slaves and poor white folk on an island off the African coast, superbly annotated and introduced by Carol Bolton. A must for anyone studying or teaching the anti-slavery movement and the history of African colonisation.’ — Tim Fulford, Professor of Eng-lish, De Montfort UniversityTable of ContentsList of figures; Acknowledgements; Notes on the Text; Table of Weights and Measures; Introduction; Preface; Author’s Introduction; Part I; Part II; Part III; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography; Index

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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 SynopsisThese are the Journals of Francis Davies Leading Shipwright RN when on board Captain Scott's "Terra Nova" British Antarctic Expedition 1910 - 1913, Never seen before photos and historical artefacts, kept safe by his decadences, for over 100 years. Unique below decks prospective on Captains Scotts last Antarctic Expedition, Unabridged and never before Published. The geographic and scientific accomplishments of Captain Scott's two Antarctic expeditions changed the face of the Twentieth Century in ways that are still not widely appreciated over a hundred years later. The fact of accomplishment has tended to be lost in speculative argument as to how Scott should have done this instead of that, supposedly to achieve the extra few yards per day to save the lives of the South Pole Party in 1912. Also lost to a generation overwhelmed with information, however, is the sublime sense of adventure into the unknown, which Scott's expeditions represented to his generation. We have forgotten what it is to take the awesome life-gambling risk of sailing beyond the edge of the map into nothingness and rendering it known. We send robot explorers instead. As a result, after two millennia of maritime and exploration history, we have become detached from the sea which surrounds our island and the tradition of exploration which it represents. With Scott: Before the Mast is a unique account that serves as an antidote to this disconectedness. It is no fictional 'Hornblower', although it may seem so at times. This is a true story. It presents one man's account of his part in a great act of derring-do, the assault on the South Pole in 1912. Most records of Captain Scott's British Antarctic Expedition aboard Terra Nova (1910-1913) are the accounts of officers. With Scott: Before the Mast is the story of Francis Davies, Shipwright, R.N., and Carpenter. The title says it all but may be lost on landlubbers. Before the mast means 'to serve as an ordinary seaman in a sailing ship'. This makes it a rare and hugely important account, presenting a viewpoint from the lower ranks. Such insight is rarely available and the long overdue publication of this account is greatly to be welcomed.Trade ReviewAs a former Royal Navy Officer, who came from the ranks, I was hugely interested in this book and potential insights that it offered from a very different perspective than other books I have read about Scott. I am delighted to say that I was not disappointed and actually, the writings of Francis Davies offered not only an insight into Scott and the Terra Nova Expedition, but also the norms and the way that both the navy and society operated. In itself, this combination allows for a detailed consideration of the basis by which the expedition was undertaken and Scott’s leadership was executed. As a fellow naval Officer, who has led mixed groups of military and civilians in highly challenging environments and with a background of 30 years of expedition across the globe, I understand the complexities of managing mixed groups where the leadership of the military might necessarily be different to that needed to motivate and manage the civilians. I also understand how the reverse perspective of those being led, can lead to issues when the military contingent expect the civilian contingent to be led according to the same rules of military discipline as they are subject to. In my experience, when these forces combine, discontent and unruliness can commonly be the case unless the leader is able to establish a very high level of trust and respect. In doing so, the leader must walk the narrow margin between enforcing group compliance and being able to engage with every person at an individual level. There are many instances in the book where this is presented as a reality of Scott’s leadership, but the book is also very honest about some of his traits that were less desirable and this is essential to understand the man, as well as the expedition itself. The book is well written, with some quite comical observations on the operation of the Royal Navy and on Societal values at the time. It is also littered with a range of interesting photographs that enhance and support visual understanding of the writer’s words. As an avid reader of all things Antarctic and a practicing Historian who speaks regularly on Scott and Shackleton, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in such matters. Review by; Lieutenant Commander Paul Hart FRGS MPhil (Cantab) Royal Navy. Leader of the first party to make a man-haul crossing of the Antarctic Peninsula to conduct science and exploration, to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaching the South Pole.

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Book SynopsisIn 2002 Lucy Newlyn found herself incarcerated in a mental hospital in Leeds. She had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act as a danger to herself and others during a psychotic episode after several nights without sleep. The psychosis was triggered by nearly three years of grieving for a dead sister, followed by a vigil at her father's deathbed during which she hallucinated that his hospital ward was a trench in the First World War. The episode uncovered psychiatric problems, which led in due course to a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder (manic depression). This condition, which involves extreme mood swings, is classified as a disability and requires medication; but it is also a source of creativity, giving access to some unusual dimensions of human experience. In her fifteen-year diary, Lucy Newlyn discloses recurring episodes of mania, depression, hallucination and paranoid delusion. Describing her struggles with family life and the workplace, she de-mystifies bipolarity and critiques an environment which still, even in the twenty-first century, is suspicious of mental illness. Above all, she celebrates the discovery that writing poetry enables a cathartic engagement with her own condition. Diary of a Bipolar Explorer is not a self-help manual but a candid confessional memoir which offers no easy solutions. It involves a mixture of observation and reflection, interspersing poetry with prose. Written accessibly, it will appeal to anyone interested in mental illness, creative process and the life of the mind.Trade Review'To a fellow bipolar explorer, much of -Newlyn's book rings both uncomfortably and comfortingly true. Rather than make any extravagant claim for the inherently artistic or creative constitution of sufferers, she meticulously lays out her methods of managing her disorder with the tools she has to hand, both [as] a poet and an academic': the gift of studious analysis, and the vocabulary of an inveterate reader, who finds apt parallels for the tricks of the mind in a well-thumbed mental library. She records 'bipolarity's role in stimulating creativity' without ever romanticizing it, or suggesting that it confers some form of doomed and glamorous genius, like a draught of Odin's mead.'--Times Literary Supplement; 'Diary of a Bipolar Explorer is a quirky, original and beautifully-written book that deserves a wide readership. Its account of day-to-day life with bipolar disorder will resonate with many sufferers and their friends. And its detailed and highly realistic account of an attempt to use poetry to manage a major mental health condition should be required reading for anyone working in the arts and mental health.' --Medical Humanities; 'Conveys the many varied shades of mental illness, and how walking, diary writing and particularly the intense effort of composing poetry often proved therapeutic.'--Times Higher Education Supplement; 'The abiding impressions here are the courage with which major -- even devastating --issues are faced, and the realisation that the feelings and sensations described are familiar as part of the pain of being human, if in an extreme form.. . . Lucy Newlyn has made an important contribution to the poetry of mental illness in English by her unflinching description of her experience.'--Bernard O'Donoghue, Oxford Magazine; 'This book is both useful and beautiful. . . . It's a direct, accessible, personal work for a wide audience concerned by mental illness, and in many cases with our own experiences, or those of loved ones, to bring to our reading. It's also unlike anything else I've read on this subject, full of a scholar's lucidity and acuity, a poet's lyricism and capacity to surprise and move.'--Shiny New Books; 'Lucy Newlyn's account of her bipolar disorder isn't a 'misery memoir', ready to clog railway station bookshop shelves with easy answers and monetisably manipulative content. Instead, her narrative hard-cuts reliable reportage into hallucinatory sections of paranoid delusion, pin sharp diary entries, hard won poetry, and sober reflective analysis. Newlyn doesn't flinch as she explores the relationship between bipolar disorder and exactly the kind of mindset that has made her a poet and a writer.'-Stewart Lee

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Book SynopsisIn this haunting memoir, Alison Gold gives a luminous account of key moments in her life that brought her to be the writer she is. They tell of her early activism; they tell of her descent into alcoholism; they tell of her recovery; they tell of her discovery of the power of writing to give a shape and meaning to a life. Found and Lost is both a tender memorial to the extraordinary people in her life, and a compelling tale of redemption. Starting with her childhood experience of running her primary school 'Lost and Found' depot, Gold develops, though a series of letters, a meditation on ageing, friendship, loss and the forces that link us to the dead. In the very act of writing, she begins to find a route out of depression and grief. Alison Leslie Gold is best known for her works that have kept alive stories from the time of the Holocaust, stories of courage and survival - most famously her Anne Frank Remembered, co-authored with Miep Gies (who risked her life to protect the Frank family). She has never chosen to write about her own life or what made her into a gatherer of other people's stories, until now, in Found and Lost. For she has chosen to go back to her childhood in order to chart the origin of her need to save objects, stories, people - including herself - who she has sensed to be on a road to perdition.Trade Review'Let us give recognition to Alison Gold. Without her and her talent, too, this poignant account, vibrating with humanity, would not have been written.' Ellie Wiesel on Anne Frank Remembered

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Book SynopsisBased on a lifetime living in and reporting on Germany and Central Europe, award-winning journalist and author Peter Millar tackles the fascinating and complex story of the people at the heart of our continent. Focussing on nine cities (only six of which are in the Germany of today) he takes us on a zigzag ride back through time via the fall of the Berlin Wall through the horrors of two world wars, the patchwork states of the Middle Ages, to the splendour of Charlemagne and the fall of Rome, with side swipes at everything on the way, from Henry VIII to the Spanish Empire. Included are mini portraits of aspects of German culture from sex and money to food and drink. Not just a book about Germany but about Europe as a whole and how we got where we are today, and where we might be tomorrow.

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Book SynopsisA time-travelling, genealogical adventure, bringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life on the page. One day Ian Marchant, acclaimed author of books on music, railways and pubs, decided, as all men of a certain age must, to have a dig around his family history. Surprisingly quickly, a web search informed him that his seven-times-great great-grandfather, Thomas Marchant had left a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728. So far, so jolly ... Life-loving diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating, immersive detail we learn about Thom's family farm and fishponds; about dung, horses and mud; about beer, the wife's nights out, his own job troubles and their shared worries for their children. But as Ian digs deeper beyond the Sussex diary's bucolic portrait he discovers a subtext - a family descended from immigrants, with anti-establishment politics, who are struggling with illness, political instability and cash crises - just as their country does three centuries on. 'When I was reflecting late one January evening on the differences between Thom and me, I realised the unbridgeable thing that comes between us is industrialisation. He lived right at its beginning, while I am living somewhere towards its end. Old Thom Marchant was one of the last people before industrialisation to understand how his world worked - and how to be largely self-sufficient in it. He knew where his food came from, his fuel, his water, his clothes. He knew how the welfare system worked, and was part of its administration; he knew who looked after the roads, too. He collected taxes. He was not separate from the system, but part of it.' Rich with immersive detail, One Fine Day draws a living portrait of Marchant family life in the 1720s and how their England (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent, illness-ridden) became the England of the 2020s.Trade Review'Elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving.' - Richard Beard; 'Ian Marchant is one of England's most original writers. One Fine Day is a masterwork.' - Monique Roffey; ‘I enjoyed it hugely, and was strangely moved.' - Deborah Moggach; ‘Bloody marvellous.’ - New Statesman

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Book Synopsis"Dear neighbour, What a good idea. People don't talk any more ... From your neighbour a long distance away" A connection is forged between people a world apart. Insightful and full of humour, this is a beautiful portrait of a community built by letters.Trade ReviewPraise for Beverley Gordon: "I wanted to saviour every word and pace my way through, but I couldn’t put it down ... this collection is relevant and thought provoking, I laughed I smiled and I thought it was deep ... what a great little read" ~ 5 stars

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Book SynopsisIn 1981 ten prisoners died on hunger strike in a jail, ten miles west of Belfast. First called Long Kesh during internment (1971-1971), then the Maze Prison, then the H-Blocks, it was rarely out of the national and international news forty years ago, especially when one of the prisoners, Bobby Sands, was elected as an MP before he died after sixty-six days without food.Jim (Jaz) McCann was an eyewitness to these events. Arrested at twenty after attempting to kill a police officer, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He and hundreds of others refused to wear a prison uniform, protested that they were political prisoners, and were locked in their cells, where they wore only a blanket, for over four years in grim conditions.Jaz McCann knew several of the hunger strikers and in this remarkable testimony he recalls his life in the IRA, the deprivation of seventeen years behind bars, his friends and comrades, including several of the hunger strikers, his participation in the mass prison breakout in 1983, and the electoral rise of Sinn Féin following these events which had a profound effect on the subsequent political complexion of Ireland.It is an immensely honest and raw account, full of pathos and dark humour, from a former combatant and is an important contribution to Troubles' literature.

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Book SynopsisThis fourth volume of J P E Hartmann og hans kreds. En komponistfamilies breve 1780-1900 (J.P.E. Hartmann and his Circle. The Correspondence of a Composer Family 1780-1900) contains hitherto unknown letters which have been privately owned until now. The particular focus is on J P E Hartmann's son Emil Hartmann and his struggle for recognition as a composer and not because of his relatives. The letters elucidate this struggle and provide a wealth of information on both the everyday life and the musical scene in the second half of the 19th century in which Emil Hartmann travelled a great deal in Germany where he was a well-known figure. Thus, letters from German celebrities, such as Richard Strauss and Max Bruch are included.

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Book SynopsisLetters of a Javanese Princess' is a poignant and inspiring collection of correspondences written by Raden Adjeng Kartini, an Indonesian noblewoman, and feminist icon. Composed in the early 20th century, the book provides a unique glimpse into the life and aspirations of Kartini, who fought against the prevailing norms and restrictions imposed on women in Java during the colonial era. Through her heartfelt letters, Kartini articulates her struggles, dreams, and desires for women's emancipation and education. She challenges traditional customs and expresses her yearning for freedom and equality. Her words resonate with readers, inspiring generations to come, and her ideas continue to influence the fight for gender equality in Indonesia and beyond. This timeless collection serves as a testament to Kartini's courage, intellect, and unwavering commitment to women's rights, making it an essential read for anyone interested in feminism, cultural history, and the struggle for social justice.

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Book SynopsisAlbert Camus's lively journals from his eventful visits to the United States and South America in the 1940s, available again in a new translation. In March 1946, the young Albert Camus crossed from Le Havre to New York. Though he was virtually unknown to American audiences at the time, all that was about to changeThe Stranger, his first book translated into English, would soon make him a literary star. By 1949, when he set out on a tour of South America, Camus was an international celebrity. Camus's journals offer an intimate glimpse into his daily life during these eventful years and showcase his thinking at its most personala form of observational writing that the French call choses vues (things seen). Camus's journals from these travels record his impressions, frustrations, joys, and longings. Here are his unguarded first impressions of his surroundings and his encounters with publishers, critics, and members of the New York intelligentsia. Long unavailable in English, the journals have now been expertly retranslated by Ryan Bloom, with a new introduction by Alice Kaplan. Bloom's translation captures the informal, sketch-like quality of Camus's observationsby turns ironic, bitter, cutting, and melancholyand the quick notes he must have taken after exhausting days of travel and lecturing. Bloom and Kaplan's notes and annotations allow readers to walk beside the existentialist thinker as he experiences changes in his own life and the world around him, all in his inimitable style.Trade Review"An intimate glimpse into the psyche of a widely admired writer." * Wall Street Journal *"With its ample photographs, rich introduction, and smooth-flowing, conversational translation, Travels in the Americas is an engaging travel account that reintroduces Albert Camus as both a man and an existentialist icon moving through North and South America in the postwar years." * Foreword Reviews *“Nine months after the end of the Second World War, Camus crossed the Atlantic on the SS Oregon to New York, traveling between ‘continents gone mad,’ as he put it. Three years later, he journeyed via Dakar to South America. This attractively illustrated new translation of the journals from those trips shows us an intensely curious, often solemn, and sometimes witty Camus as he attempts to understand the cultures he was encountering. As Alice Kaplan explains in her Introduction, the travel logs are an invitation to ‘see the Americas, as if for the first time, through his eyes,’ They also chart the writer’s transition towards literary celebrity and reveal the private doubts and needs that troubled him.” * Edward J. Hughes, author of 'Albert Camus' *"Bloom’s translation is a model of tight writing... it reads briskly, as we would expect journal entries to read, and precisely, as we would expect of anything penned by Camus... Travels in the Americas is a small, beautiful gem, worthy of a large readership." * Great Lakes Review *“An elegant new translation.” * London Review of Books *

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Book Synopsis'I'm sorry I can't say this to your face, but words fail me every time I try, even though I know you would be fine (and knowing you, you might have already guessed).' A moving, inspiring and thought-provoking collection of coming-out stories from around the world. From the good, the sad, the surprising and the funny, no two stories are the same, yet all are written by people who share the courage to be vulnerable, take huge risks to find love and acceptance and are brave enough to be their authentic selves. Whether you have any experience of coming out or not, these stories are incredibly powerful and moving.

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