Published diaries, letters and journals Books
Cambridge University Press Charles Darwin The Beagle Letters
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£24.76
Random House USA Inc Silent Cavalry
Book SynopsisA Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist reveals the little-known story of the Union soldiers from Alabama who played a decisive role in the Civil War, and how they were scrubbed from the history books.We all know how the Civil War was won: Courageous Yankees triumphed over the South. But is there more to the story?As Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Howell Raines shows, it was not only soldiers from northern states who helped General William Tecumseh Sherman burn Atlanta to the ground but also an unsung regiment of 2,066 Alabamian yeoman farmers—including at least one member of Raines’s own family.Called the First Alabama Cavalry, U.S.A., this regiment of mountain Unionists, which included sixteen formerly enslaved Black men, was the point of the spear that Sherman drove through the heart of the Confederacy. The famed general hailed their skills and courage. So why don’t we know anything about them?Silent Cavalry
£24.00
Random House USA Inc California Soul
Book SynopsisJAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • A sharply crafted and unflinchingly honest memoir about gangs, drugs, cooking, and living life on the line—both on the streets and in the kitchen—from one of the most exciting stars in the food world today“As compelling or more so than Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society . . . When Corbin writes about his life, it burns with the intensity of the best pulp fiction, but it isn’t fiction—it’s the life he lived.”—Los Angeles TimesONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: SalonChef Keith Corbin has been cooking his entire life. Born on the home turf of the notorious Grape Street Crips in 1980s Watts, Los Angeles, he got his start cooking crack at age thirteen, becoming so skilled that he was flown across the country to cook for drug operations in other cities. After his criminal enterprises caught up with him, though, Corbin spent years in Cali
£18.00
Random House Publishing Group Letters to a Young Poet Modern Library Classics
Book SynopsisRilke’s Letters to a Young Poet are arguably the most famous and beloved letters of the twentieth century. Written when the poet was himself still a young man, with most of his greatest work before him, they were addressed to a student who had sent Rilke some of his own writing, asking for advice on becoming a writer. The two never met, but over a period of several years Rilke wrote him these ten letters, which have been cherished by hundreds of thousands of readers for what Stephen Mitchell calls in his Foreword the 'vibrant and deeply felt experience of life' that informs them. Eloquent and personal, Rilke’s meditations on the creative process, the nature of love, the wisdom of children, and the importance of solitude offer a wealth of spiritual and practical guidance for anyone. At the same time, this collection, in Stephen Mitchell’s definitive translation, reveals the thoughts and feelings of one of the greatest poets and most distinctive sensibilities of
£14.24
Beacon Press Not Quite Paradise An American Sojourn in Sri
Book SynopsisA chronicle of life on the resplendent island, combining the immediacy of memoir with the vividness of travelogue and reportage Adele Barker and her son, Noah, settled into the central highlands of Sri Lanka for an eighteen-month sojourn, immersing themselves in the customs, cultures, and landscapes of the island—its elephants, birds, and monkeys; its hot curries and sweet mangoes; the cacophony of its markets; the resonant evening chants from its temples. They hear stories of the island’s colorful past and its twenty-five-year civil war between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil Tigers. When, having returned home to Tucson, Barker awakes on December 26, 2004, to see televised images of the island’s southern shore disappearing into the ocean, she decides she must go back. Traveling from the southernmost coasts to the farthest outposts of the Tamil north, she witnesses the ravages of the tsunami that killed forty-eight thousand Sri Lankan
£21.85
Ohio University Press My Dearest Angel
Book SynopsisShe was the daughter of a circuit judge and state senator. He was the youngest son of Virginia’s Civil War governor and was a state legislator himself at the age of nineteen. Their courtship and marriage stands as a portrait of a bygone way of life unique to the American South during the first half of the twentieth century.
£33.15
Fordham University Press Dante For the New Millennium
Book SynopsisThe twenty-five original essays in this remarkable book constitute both a state of the art survey of Dante scholarship and a manifesto for new understandings of one of the world's great poets.Trade Review"These scholars stand as staunch supporters of the constant need to re-evaluate Dante's medieval texts to discover what new word he has for readers that now live in a postmodern context." -- -Jessica Raymond Christianity & Literature "All in all, though, Dante for the New Millennium represents a major achievement. Thematically diverse yet tightly organized, finely edited, oriented both toward past approaches and future directions of research in the field, with-judiciously-separate bibliographies for each section, and a fine general index...the volume richly illustrates the thematic, methodological, and critical diversity of contemporary Anglo-American Dante studies." -- -Simon Gilson Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies
£59.25
Goose Lane Editions Where the Nights Are Twice as Long Love Letters
Book Synopsis
£16.19
Peanut Butter Publishing,U.S. Lovely Letter from Cecie The 19071915 Vancouver
Book Synopsis
£14.39
Massey University Press Dear Oliver
Book Synopsis
£27.89
Massey University Press Song for Rosaleen
Book Synopsis
£21.59
Cambridge University Press The Correspondence of Charles Darwin Volume 30 1882
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£90.24
Cambridge University Press The Diary of George Lloyd Volume 64 Part 1
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£42.75
Cambridge University Press The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots 14891541 Volume 70
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£35.10
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Hourglass
Book SynopsisThe New York Times bestselling author of Inheritance delivers her most intimate and powerful work: a piercing, life-affirming memoir about marriage and memory, sorrow and love. • A beautiful book by a writer of rare talent.”—Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of WILD Hourglass is an inquiry into how marriage is transformed by time—abraded, strengthened, shaped in miraculous and sometimes terrifying ways by accident and experience. With courage and relentless honesty, Dani Shapiro opens the door to her house, her marriage, and her heart, and invites us to witness her own marital reckoning—a reckoning in which she confronts both the life she dreamed of and the life she made, and struggles to reconcile the girl she was with the woman she has become. What are the forces that shape our most elemental bonds? How do we make lifelong commitments in the face of identities that are continuously shifting, and
£12.99
Cambridge University Press The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
Book SynopsisThis first modern scholarly edition of the letters of Oliver Goldsmith (17281774) sets the author of The Vicar of Wakefield, The Deserted Village, and She Stoops to Conquer in a rich context, showing how Goldsmith''s Irish identity was marked and complicated by cosmopolitan ambition. He was at the very heart of Grub Street culture and the Georgian theatre, and was a founding member of Dr Johnson''s Literary Club; his circle included Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, George Colman and Hester Piozzi. Containing a detailed introduction and extensive notes, this edition is essential to those wishing to know more about Goldsmith the man and the writer, and provides a rich and suggestive nexus for understanding the cultural cross-currents of the literary Enlightenment in eighteenth-century London.Trade Review'The editors, Michael Griffin and David O'Shaughnessy, have undertaken considerable original research in updating and adding to Katherine Balderston's 1928 Cambridge University Press collection of Goldsmith Letters. Like Balderston before them, Griffin and O'Shaughnessy confront a slender body of surviving letters but build a fascinating story from what remains.' Claire Connolly, The Irish Times'It has seldom seemed necessary to consider his Irishness, but the editors of this new edition of Goldsmith's letters, Michael Griffin and David O'Shaughnessy, urge its importance, and they are surely right.' Norma Clarke, London Review of Books'In their valuable introduction, Michael Griffin and David O'Shaughnessy discuss the unexplained threads that run through the letters, the self-confessed flaws of character, the homesickness for Ireland, the bitter tone, the obsequious requests for money … Reading the letters should send us straight back to the works to be surprised by Goldsmith's clarity, relevance and entirely individual sense of the absurd.' Kate Chisholm, The Times Literary Supplement'Indispensable … this excellent and long-overdue new edition of his letters brings Goldsmith and the people and forces shaping his work into considerably sharper focus.' Maureen Harkin, Eighteenth-Century Ireland'Superb … Griffin and O'Shaugnessy are a formidable team and their work, given the complexity of Goldmsith studies, amounts to a significant breakthrough for Goldsmith scholarship.' Fergus O'Ferrell, Dublin Review of BooksTable of ContentsList of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; A note on the edition; Chronology of Goldsmith's life and works; The letters; Bibliography; Index.
£999.99
Cambridge University Press The Letters of Ernest Hemingway Hardback Set Volumes 2 and 3 Volume 23
£59.84
Cambridge University Press The Correspondence of Charles Darwin Volume 23 1875
Book SynopsisThis volume is part of the definitive edition of letters written by and to Charles Darwin, the most celebrated naturalist of the nineteenth century. Notes and appendixes put these fascinating and wide-ranging letters in context, making the letters accessible to both scholars and general readers. Darwin depended on correspondence to collect data from all over the world, and to discuss his emerging ideas with scientific colleagues, many of whom he never met in person. The letters are published chronologically: Volume 23 includes letters from 1875, the year in which Darwin wrote and published Insectivorous plants, a botanical work that was a great success with the reading public, and started writing Cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. The volume contains an appendix on the 1875 anti-vivisection debates, with which Darwin was closely involved, giving evidence before a Royal Commission on the subject.Trade ReviewReviews of earlier volumes: 'Nothing in the recent history of science quite tops the achievement of the volumes of Darwin correspondence. It is our own Human Genome Project.' Annals of Science'… a superb series … beautifully produced, beautifully readable, efficiently indexed, supportively but not gossipily annotated.' The Times Literary Supplement'Every now and then … publishing and academe work together to produce books so splendid that it seems ungrateful not to acquire them: this promises to be another such.' The Guardian'… this authoritative work is a model of scholarship in both its comprehensiveness and supporting documentation which provides a rich source of background, biographical and bibliographical detail.' The Naturalist'These volumes are indeed treasures of high scholarship … every real science library needs this series.' Trends in Ecology and Evolution'… slowly but surely we are getting an unbelievable source of information on one of the greatest of scientists who ever lived and thought and worked. Who knows what treasures future generations will uncover? For now, as always, the edition is exemplary, with huge amounts of pertinent information in the notes and with amazingly accurate transcriptions of Darwin's appalling handwriting. A true monument of scholarship. My fervent hope is that I shall live to see the completion.' Michael Ruse, The Quarterly Review of Biology'… this latest volume of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin shares the same high production values, attention to detail and scholarly scrupulousness evident in all its predecessors. Amongst the six appendices, for example, are a list of all the periodical reviews of Insectivorous Plants and a hugely valuable account of Darwin's dealings with the question of vivisection, including the text of his testimony to the Royal Commission on the vexed issue.' Gowan Dawson, British Journal for the History of ScienceTable of ContentsList of illustrations; List of letters; Introduction; Acknowledgments; List of provenances; Note on editorial policy; Darwin/Wedgwood genealogy; Abbreviations and symbols; The correspondence; Appendix I. Translations; Appendix II. Chronology; Appendix III. Diplomas; Appendix IV. Presentation lists for Insectivorous plants and Climbing plants 2d ed.; Appendix V. Reviews of Insectivorous plants; Appendix VI. Darwin and vivisection; Manuscript alterations and comments; Biographical register and index to correspondents; Bibliography; Notes on manuscript sources; Index.
£112.10
Cambridge University Press The Letters of Ernest Hemingway Volume 2 19231925
Book SynopsisThe Letters of Ernest Hemingway documents the life and creative development of a gifted artist and outsized personality whose work would both reflect and transform his times. Volume 2 (19231925) illuminates Hemingway''s literary apprenticeship in the legendary milieu of expatriate Paris in the 1920s. We witness the development of his friendships with the likes of Sylvia Beach, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos. Striving to ''make it new'', he emerges from the tutelage of Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein to forge a new style, gaining recognition as one of the most formidable talents of his generation. In this period, Hemingway publishes his first three books, including In Our Time (1925), and discovers a lifelong passion for Spain and the bullfight, quickly transforming his experiences into fiction as The Sun Also Rises (1926). The volume features many previously unpublished letters and a humorous sketch that was rejected by Vanity Fair.Trade Review'Hemingway did not want his letters published, but this carefully researched scholarly edition does them justice … devotees will find this and future volumes indispensable.' William Gargan, Library Journal'With more than 6,000 letters accounted for so far, the project to publish Ernest Hemingway's correspondence may yet reveal the fullest picture of the twentieth-century icon that we've ever had. The second volume includes merely 242 letters, a majority published for the first time … readers can watch Hemingway invent the foundation of his legacy in bullrings, bars, and his writing solitude.' Steve Paul, Booklist'The letters to Pound - Hemingway's most important mentor in this period - are highlights of this volume. Bawdy, humorous, linguistically playful.' Literary Review'Roughly written as they are these letters show occasional flashes of true Hemingway … It is fascinating to watch the private rehearsal of what would become public performances.' The Daily Telegraph'Warmly unpretentious and frequently playful.' The Spectator'Most enjoyable …' The Tablet'This second volume of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway documents the years in which he became himself … His style is at once close to and yet unutterably distant from that of his fiction.' The New York Times'The volume's 242 letters, about two-thirds previously unpublished, provide as complete an account of Hemingway's life during the Paris years as one could ask for.' Star Tribune'For those with a passion for American literary history and an interest in the machinery of fame, these letters, ably and helpfully annotated by a team of scholars led by Sandra Spanier of Penn State University, provide an abundance of raw material and a few hours' worth of scintillating reading.' The Kansas City Star'Amusing, moving and perceptive … this essential volume, beautifully presented and annotated with tremendous care and extraordinary attention to detail, offers readers a Hemingway who is both familiar and new.' Times Literary Supplement'The volume itself is beautifully designed and skillfully edited … As a book, it is perfect.' Los Angeles Review of Books'Two thirds of these have never seen the light of day before. A great continuing literary project.' Buffalo News'The register in which Hemingway writes varies greatly, ranging from telegraphic … excited communications with intimates to formal, correct letters to those with whom he has mainly business - literary or financial - relations. All the magnificent apparatus of the first volume …Summing up: essential.' Choice'… this volume will most likely never be superseded. It is crucial contribution to literary history.' Mark Ott, American Literary HistoryTable of ContentsGeneral editor's preface Sandra Spanier; Acknowledgments; Note on the text; Abbreviations and short titles; Introduction to the volume J. Gerald Kennedy; Chronology; Maps; The letters, 1923–1925; Roster of correspondents; Calendar of letters; Index of recipients; General index.
£77.39
Cambridge University Press The Correspondence of Charles Darwin Volume 26 1878
Book SynopsisThis volume is part of the definitive edition of letters written by and to Charles Darwin, the most celebrated naturalist of the nineteenth century. Notes and appendixes put these fascinating and wide-ranging letters in context, making the letters accessible to both scholars and general readers. Darwin depended on correspondence to collect data from all over the world, and to discuss his emerging ideas with scientific colleagues, many of whom he never met in person. The letters are published chronologically: volume 26 includes letters from 1878, the year in which Darwin with his son Francis carried out experiments on plant movement and bloom on plants. Francis spent the summer at a botanical research institute in Germany; and father and son exchanged many detailed letters about his work. Meanwhile, Darwin tried to secure government support for attempts by one of his Irish correspondents to breed a blight-resistant potato.Trade Review'In the letters of a single year, both to and from Darwin, edited with consummate scholarship and a nice sense of balance in the footnotes, which illuminate without overwhelming the text, the small points build into a picture. Darwin himself appears in close-up from the intimate angles of everday life, while through the correspondence the changing temper of the times reverberates. … the large questions are never far away. Evolution itself and the working out of evolutionary theory pervade the letters as they pervaded the age.' Rosemary Hill, London Review of Books'The context of each letter is outlined with fine footnotes, there is a brief biography of all correspondents and a thorough, easily searchable index. Pleasure guaranteed for all with an interest in the history of science.' Paul Ashton, The BiologistTable of ContentsList of illustrations; List of letters; Introduction; Acknowledgments; List of provenances; Note on editorial policy; Darwin/Wedgwood genealogy; Abbreviations and symbols; The correspondence; Appendix I. Translations; Appendix II. Chronology; Appendix III. Diplomas; Appendix IV. Reviews of Forms of flowers; Manuscript alterations and comments; Biographical register and index to correspondents; Bibliography; Notes on manuscript sources; Index.
£999.99
Cambridge University Press John Cage and Peter Yates
Book SynopsisThe correspondence between composer John Cage and Peter Yates represents the third and final part of Cage''s most significant exchanges of letters, following those with Pierre Boulez and with David Tudor. Martin Iddon''s book is the first volume to collect the complete extant correspondence with his critical friend, thus completing the ''trilogy'' of Cage correspondence published by Cambridge. By bringing together more than 100 letters, beginning in 1940 and continuing until 1971, Iddon reveals the dialogue within which many of Cage''s ideas were first forged and informed, with particular focus on his developing attitudes to music criticism and aesthetics. The correspondence with Yates represents precisely, in alignment with Cage''s fastidious neatness, the part of his letter writing in which he engages most directly with the last part of his famous tricolon, ''composing''s one thing, performing''s another, listening''s a third''.Trade Review'This is the third book that Martin Iddon has contributed to Arnold Whittall's influential series at Cambridge University Press … Iddon is a footnote virtuoso where every individual mentioned is given full details - helpfully on the page - and there are many examples of ingenious investigation.' Peter Dickinson, Musical OpinionTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1940?]; 2. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1940; 3. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1941; 4. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1941; John Cage, 'Organized Sound' draft, 1941; Peter Yates, 'Organized Sound,' California Arts and Architecture (1941); 5. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1941]; 6. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1947]; 7. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1947]; 8. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. September 1948]; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948); 9. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948); Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948); 10. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948]; 11. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948]; 12. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [early 1949]; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1949); 13. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1953; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1953); 14. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1953; 15. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1953; Peter Yates, 'Pierre Boulez,' Arts and Architecture (1957); Peter Yates, 'A Collage of American Composers - Part 3,' Arts and Architecture (1959); Peter Yates, 'A Collage of American Composers - Part 4,' Arts and Architecture (1959); 16. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 17. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1959; 18. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 19. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; Peter Yates, 'Virgil Thomson and Horatio Parker,' Arts and Architecture (1959); 20. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 21. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 22. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1959; 23. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 24. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 25. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1960]; Peter Yates, 'Two Albums by John Cage - Part 1,' Arts and Architecture (1960); 26. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 27. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 28. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; Peter Yates, 'Two Albums by John Cage - Part 2,' Arts and Architecture (1960); 29. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 30. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 31. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 32. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 33. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 34. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 35. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 36. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 37. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 38. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 39. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; Peter Yates, 'Monday Mad on Tuesday,' Arts and Architecture (1960); Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1960); 40. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 41. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; Peter Yates, 'American Experimental Tradition,' unpublished manuscript [ca. 1961]; 42. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 43. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 44. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1961]; 45. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 46. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 47. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; 48. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 49. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; Peter Yates and John Whitney, 'Notes for Music,' unpublished manuscript [1961]; Peter Yates, 'Sound,' manuscript [1961]; 50. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 51. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; 52. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; Peter Yates, 'A Lost Center,' manuscript [1961]; 53. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 54. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; Peter Yates, 'A General Report,' Arts and Architecture (1962); 55. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1962; 56. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1962; Peter Yates, 'Silence by John Cage,' Arts and Architecture (1962); Peter Yates, review of John Cage, Silence, Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (1962); Peter Yates, 'More Than Time,' Arts and Architecture (1962); Peter Yates, 'John Cage's Weekend in Los Angeles,' Arts and Architecture (1962); 57. John Cage to Frances and Peter Yates, 1962; Peter Yates, 'The American Artist,' manuscript written for the
£85.50
Little, Brown Book Group Diary of an MPs Wife
Book SynopsisWhat is it like to be a wife of a politician in modern-day Britain? Sasha Swire finally lifts the lid. For more than twenty years she has kept a secret diary detailing the trials and tribulations of being a political plus-one, and gives us a ringside seat at the seismic political events of the last decade. A professional partner and loyal spouse, Swire has strong political opinions herself - sometimes more ''No, Minister'' than ''Yes''. She detonates the stereotype of the dutiful wife. From shenanigans in Budleigh Salterton to state banquets at Buckingham Palace, gun-toting terrorist busters in pizza restaurants to dinners in Downing Street sitting next to Boris Johnson, Devon hedges to partying with City hedgies, she observes the great and the not-so-great at the closest of quarters. The results are painfully revealing and often hilariously funny. Here are the friendships and the fall-outs, the general elections and the leadership contests, the scandals and the rivaTrade ReviewGloriously indiscreet * Daily Mail *A gossipy, amusing, opinionated account of what it's like to be married to an MP... Good fun and eye-opening * The Times *Riotously candid -- Decca Aitkenhead * Sunday Times *A glorious, compelling, jaw-dropping read * Evening Standard *They're the wickedest political diaries since Alan Clark's * Daily Mail *This gossipy, opinionated and frequently hilarious book could be the most entertaining political diary since Alan Clark's -- Charlotte Heathcote * Sunday Express *Ten years ago, reviewing Alastair Campbell's diaries for the Spectator, I concluded as follows: "Who will be the chroniclers of the Cameron government? Somewhere, unknown to his or her colleagues, a secret scribbler will already be at work, documenting the rise and, in due course, no doubt, the fall of this administration" Well, here it is. The diary covers not only the rise and fall of the Cameroons, but also the shenanigans surrounding Brexit and the inexorable rise of Boris, concluding at the end of last year when Sir Hugo (as he was by then) left parliament. No holds are barred. Sasha is candid, irreverent, occasionally outrageous and sometimes hilarious -- Chris Mullin * Spectator *A funny, indiscreet and dangerously honest account of the Cameron-May years * The Times *Imagine the Alan Clark diaries, but written by his wife Jane instead: all the high-octane political gossip, set against a backdrop of country house shooting weekends and boozy dinners at Chequers, but seen through the sceptical eyes of a woman one step removed from all the head-butting stags. But there's far more to this book than reheated pillow talk. There is an acute political intelligence at work, of the sort that makes one wonder what might have been had Swire not settled for experiencing politics vicariously through her husband -- Gaby Hinsliff * Guardian *Westminster diaries are judged on three levels: the details they leak, the political era they re-create and the central character of the author. Swire scores highly on all three. She is funnier and ballsier than Chris Mullin and if she falls short of Alan Clark it is only because he was so devilish -- Quentin Letts * The Times *Diary of an MP's Wife is an irresistible, informal history and a rare tell-all about what it's really like to live behind the headlines of British political life. No one sees more than an observant wife and Sasha Swire's beady eye makes her a natural reporter! Her sharp vignettes and tart sense of humor make for compulsive reading. I do hope she keeps going! -- Tina BrownShe is not a high-society bird-brain but an acute and intelligent observer - and very funny. An invaluable source for future historians of Britain -- Margaret MacMillan * New Statesman *Swire has literary ability, a quality that manifests itself in the colour with which she describes the show and the freaks within it... there have been no political diaries to match the insightfulness and style of these since Alan Clark's and, like his, they will become an essential point of reference for those who wish to understand the politics of the age they describe -- Simon Heffer * Telegraph *Swire's uncharitable musings have demonstrated that the disloyalist's diary still has the power to inflict acute embarrassment, long after the events -- Ben MacIntyre * The Times *As tell-all diaries go, they don't get more riveting than Lady Swire's juicy tales -- Alice Fuller * Sun *Diary of an MP's Wife [is] both compelling and shrewd. The pesky MP's wife may have a better sense of public taste than all the players strutting on the political stage. I can't wait for the next swathe of Swire diaries and the film rights for these ones -- Sarah Sands * Oldie *Smirking at the juiciest revelations in the publishing sensation of the year. Relish these stories for they may be the last laughs we get in a while * Scotsman *Lady Swire has a keen eye for detail and a waspish turn of phrase, which makes this a real page-turner. Lady Swire deservedly takes her place alongside Alan Clark, Chips Channon and Julian Critchley -- Lord Vaizey of DidcotRight now, I'm reading a gossipy book; it's a diary of a British MP's wife, Sasha Swire. Normally when I'm buying a book like that I buy it on Kindle because then nobody can see what I'm reading! But it wasn't available, so I actually ordered it by mail and I'm happy I did that -- Kim Campbell, Prime Minister of CanadaThe most gossipy and mischievous diarist since Alan Clark begins her account in 2010 when her husband, Hugo, is appointed minister of state in the Northern Ireland office, and is so excited that he insists on being called "minister" at home * Sunday Times *The small clique of people at the top are also exposed with waspish irreverence by Sasha Swire in Diary of an MP's Wife. Lady Swire may be a social pariah in Notting Hill and Chipping Norton right now but will, I suspect, like Alan Clark before her, be remembered for her indiscretions long after most of the current cabinet * Telegraph *The wildly indiscreet tale of life inside David Cameron's inner circle... as much fun to pick through as a box of Quality Street, and beneath the gossipy surface lies a razor-sharp analysis of the Cameroons' descent from their gilded heyday to being eaten alive by Brexit * Guardian *
£11.24
Simon & Schuster Ltd Ernest Hemingway Artifacts From a Life
Book SynopsisBeautifully designed, intimate and illuminating, the story of Ernest Hemingway’s life though the documents, photographs and miscellany that he kept.
£18.75
Orion Publishing Co General Jacks Diary 191418
Book SynopsisThe poignant, deeply moving diary of a British officer who served in the trenches right through the First World WarTrade ReviewAn excellent and provocative book -- A.J.P. TaylorBrilliant ... One of the most fascinating books yet to appear on the First World War -- Asa Briggs
£10.44
Orion Publishing Co There and Back
Book SynopsisTHE FOURTH VOLUME OF MICHAEL PALIN''S BESTSELLING DIARIESA new millennium, and a new chapter for Michael Palin unfolds. With a Hemingway travel project testing his confidence, doubts creeping in about his abilities as a writer, the death of his great friend George Harrison and the last of his children leaving home, the dawn of the twenty-first century sees Michael at his most reflective yet. ?Over the next ten years, we watch through Michael''s eyes as the world reels from?the successive shocks of September 11, the 7/7 bombings and the global financial crash. With the warmth and gentle empathy that have endeared him to millions of fans over the decades, Michael documents the day-to-day detail of living in a world buffeted by such powerful winds of change.?Amidst this turbulence, one thing remains constant: Michael''s irrepressible curiosity and thirst for adventure. These diaries follow his life as he comes and goes through the filming of four blockbus
£17.09
Hodder & Stoughton Letters From Brenda: Two suitcases. 75 lost
Book Synopsis'Beautiful . . . insightful, fascinating and moving. It's a lovely LOVELY book' Marian Keyes'This book made me cry' Sara Cox After her mother, Brenda, passed away and her father sold the family home, broadcaster and writer Emma Kennedy found herself floundering, unable to make peace with the complex, charismatic woman who had been her mum. And then they found the letters . . .This heartbreakingly funny book about the impact of discovering lost letters is a celebration of correspondence; those lost acts of penned love, the vivid snapshots in time scattered back through a life.It is also about a childhood shrouded in shame, the lies Brenda told her family, the madness that set in, and ultimately what it means to be a daughter and a mother. Finally, Emma allows herself to explore what she couldn't while she was growing up: the question of who her mother really was.'This honest, insightful book is a touching tribute to her complex, inimitable mother' Daily Express'Remarkable' Dawn French'A beautiful, hilarious and bittersweet book' Mel GiedroycTrade ReviewBeautiful . . . insightful, fascinating and moving. It's a lovely LOVELY book -- Marian KeyesRemarkable -- Dawn FrenchA very personal and poignant detective story -- Sue PerkinsA beautiful, hilarious and bittersweet book -- Mel GiedroycThis book made me cry -- Sara CoxAbsolutely stunning -- Emma FreudAbsolutely riveting -- Alice ArnoldThis honest, insightful book is a touching tribute to her complex, inimitable mother * Daily Express *A moving study in how to love an unreasonable person * Times Literary Supplement *
£14.24
Nova Science Publishers Inc Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman, Volume 2 of 2
Book SynopsisWhat is offered here is not designed as a history of the Civil War, or even as a complete account of all the incidents in which the writer bore a part, but merely his recollection of events, corrected by a reference to his own memoranda, which may assist historians when they come to describe the whole, and account for the motives and reasons which influenced some of the actors in the grand drama of war.
£255.19
Nova Science Publishers Inc Recollections and Letters of General Robert E.
Book SynopsisGeneral Robert E. Lee is best known as the commander of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Lee was also a prolific writer, seemingly writing almost every day of his life. Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee contains letters that General Lee wrote to family and friends with comments and background by his son, Robert. Through his letters and his sons commentary, the varying facets of Lees character are revealed.
£191.19
Nova Science Publishers Inc The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson: Volume I
Book SynopsisRobert Louis Stevenson is the author of many classic novels. He was also prolific letter writer. The letters in volumes I and II, cover the years 1868 through 1894. Volume I begins with his student days at Edinburgh and contains letters to all kinds of people from towns like Paris, San Francisco, Marseilles and Bournemouth. Volume II starts in Bournemouth in 1886 and ends with the four years he spent in Samoa. The letters make fascinating reading, not only for those interested in Stevenson''s life but also for anyone interested in nineteenth-century literature.
£163.19
Nova Science Publishers Inc The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson: Volume 2
Book SynopsisRobert Louis Stevenson is the author of many classic novels. He was also prolific letter writer. The letters in volumes I and II, cover the years 1868 through 1894. Volume I begins with his student days at Edinburgh and contains letters to all kinds of people from towns like Paris, San Francisco, Marseilles and Bournemouth. Volume II starts in Bournemouth in 1886 and ends with the four years he spent in Samoa. The letters make fascinating reading, not only for those interested in Stevenson's life but also for anyone interested in nineteenth-century literature.Table of ContentsFor more information, please visit our website at:https://novapublishers.com/shop/the-letters-of-robert-louis-stevenson-volume-ii/
£163.19
Nova Science Publishers Inc The Journal of Leo Tolstoi (First Volume-
Book SynopsisThe ultimate meaning of the Russian Revolution which took place on March 7, 1917, can be best understood through the pages of the Journal of Leo Tolstoi which is here printed. The spiritual qualities which make up the mind and personality of Tolstoi are the spiritual qualities which make up the new era among men which is being waged so painfully and so uncompromisingly on the soil of Russia. One holds the key to the other, for no land but Russia could have produced a Tolstoi, and in no land but Russia could Tolstoi have been so embraced and so absorbed.Table of ContentsFor more information visit: https://novapublishers.com/shop/the-journal-of-leo-tolstoi-first-volume-1895-1899/
£138.39
Heavily Medicated For Your Safety
Book Synopsis
£14.66
Sydney University Press The Letters of Charles Harpur and his Circle
Book SynopsisThis is the first collection in print of the letters of Australian colonial poet Charles Harpur (1813-68) and his circle. Supported by extensive annotation newly prepared for this edition, the 200 letters and life -- documents open up successive phases of colonial culture from the 1830s to the 1860s in a newly focused way. Harpur's two-way correspondence with poet Henry Kendall, and with poet and future premier of NSW Henry Parkes, is especially impressive.The letters selected for this edition document Harpur's life in a previously unavailable way. They reveal the intriguing struggle of a high-minded young man to pursue a serious vocation as a poet amidst the unpromising contours of colonial New South Wales society. Despite bearing the taint of a convict family background, Harpur took his vocation with utmost seriousness and had much to endure before he would find recognition as a poet, mainly in colonial newspapers where his poems made over 900 appearances.This edition captures the process in detail, as well as the production in 1883 of his Poems in book form. Even though editorially mangled, Poems confirmed his reputation and led to his presence in dozens of anthologies down to the present day.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Chronology Abbreviations Note on equivalences Introduction Editorial approach Note on the texts THE LETTERSMaps Index
£34.00
University of Alberta Press Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland, Letters
Book SynopsisMargaret Laurence and Jack McClelland—one of Canada’s most beloved writers and one of Canada’s most significant publishers—enjoyed an unusual rapport. In this collection of annotated letters, readers gain rare insight into the private side of these literary icons. Their correspondence reveals a professional relationship that evolved into deep friendship over a period of enormous cultural change. Both were committed to the idea of Canadian writing; in a very real sense, their mutual and separate work helped bring “Canadian Literature” into being. With its insider’s view of the book business from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland, Letters presents a valuable piece of Canadian literary history curated and annotated by Davis and Morra. This is essential reading for all those interested in Canada’s literary culture.Trade Review"One of the most important writers at McClelland & Stewart in the house's heyday, [Margaret] Laurence formed a bond with flamboyant publisher Jack McClelland. The 400 or so letters that passed between them show a deep mutual respect and offer up many insights into writing and publishing in Canada.... [The book] exposes a great deal about Laurence's craft, her difficulties with censorship, and McClelland's commercial ups and downs.... The letters themselves are revealing and frequently fascinating." -- George Fetherling * Quill & Quire *"[Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland, Letters] documents the era through the warm, nostalgic filter of private letters between one of the country’s most acclaimed novelists and her publisher. It is a sweet book, funny and angry by turn, and a delight to read." [Full review at https://www.blacklocks.ca/book-review-im-betting-on-you] -- Holly Doan * Blacklock's Reporter *"For scholars, this volume offers a wealth of insight into Canadian publishing history and into Laurence’s creative practice. The annotations and introduction, though of somewhat uneven quality, are nevertheless thoughtful and richly informative. These entertaining letters tell an absorbing story about the development of Canadian literary culture, as well as about the relationship of two extraordinary individuals." -- Faye Hammill, The Times Literary Supplement"Few epistolary volumes have as strong a claim to true importance as Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland.... More than that, though, the book captures several generations, offering a broad look at copyright, the changing technology of publishers, political discontent in Canada, the burgeoning national literary scene, general readers’ and reviewers’ conservatism,... and writers’ creative process.... [A] major achievement of this book is its insight into Laurence as a major cog in the wheels of Canada’s publishing and arts scenes...." -- Jeffrey Aaron Weingarten"The letters themselves are superb....What is perhaps most compelling in the Laurence-McClelland correspondence is their ability to get furiously angry at each other—and then use that anger to affirm their loyalty and appreciation of each other's passionate commitment to Canadian literature." -- Frances W. Kaye"A glimpse into a warm friendship and mutually beneficial business relationship." -- Sarah MurdochTable of ContentsI | Beginnings, 1959–1969 II | Challenges and Successes, 1970–1979 III | A Legacy, 1980–1986
£30.59
University of Alberta Press Until Further Notice: A Year in Pandemic Time
Book SynopsisIn Until Further Notice, Amy Kaler records a personal account of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in real time. She documents a series of jolts to her thoughts, perceptions, emotions, and habits—an internal seismograph of living through a global emergency. Kaler’s introspection underlines the universal experience of dissonance brought on by COVID-19 and invites readers to ponder its ambiguities. At the same time, the pandemic lets Kaler put down roots, as she rediscovers her neighbourhood and her city’s natural spaces. Reflexive and relatable, Until Further Notice captures fine-grained, everyday experiences from an extraordinary year.Trade Review“Like Thoreau in his Walden woods, Amy Kaler is studying the natural and social environment around her and observing her own responses.” Alice Major, writer and poet“Amy Kaler doesn’t pretend to provide answers or counsel the uncertain, but instead offers a record of in-betweenness–including crucial questions about work, identity, safety and health–in a time of change.” Tanis MacDonald, author of Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female"Amy Kaler puts a personal touch on her pandemic experience in Until Further Notice: A Year in Pandemic Time. Thoughts, emotions, habits: they all fall under the microscope and are fodder for observation. She also talks about how the pandemic forced her to be more engaged with her community and her city’s natural spaces, two positives in an otherwise horrendous mess." Justin Bell, Edmonton Journal, August 11, 2022“[Kaler] offers thoughtful company along the path to a post-pandemic future that none of us can yet quite fathom.” Jenna Butler, Alberta Views, January 3, 2023 [Full review at https://albertaviews.ca/until-further-notice/]Table of Contentsxi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xvii The Beginning Spring 2020 3 Before, After 4 Concentration 6 Returns 8 Breathe 9 Airport Security 10 Crossing New Thresholds 12 The Crash Summer 2020 17 On Trails 18 What Are You Looking At? 21 Twice-Blooming Lilacs 23 Curiosity Cabinet 26 All the Futures 28 The Licence Plate 29 Bewildered 31 Covid Anxiety 33 Downward 34 Crime and Punishment/Everything Is Free 37 Objects 39 Where is Here and Where is There? 41 The End of Science World 43 Why I Can’t Think Fall 2020 49 Medicine 50 Masks 52 The Places Where People Are Not 54 Emergencies and Disasters 55 In the Airport in October 56 Peak Personal Responsibility 59 Resignation and the Second Wave 61 The River is Alive 63 De-Escalation 65 Normalized/Panicked 66 It’s All Fucking Bullshit 67 Watching the Election 68 The Fresh Horrors Device 70 The Campsite 71 Pandemic Melancholy Winter 2021 77 Time of Trial 78 Vacation Scandal 82 Schadenfreude 84 Hermits 86 Buffalo Bill’s Defunct 87 Be Kind 89 Like a Drug Deal 90 Hi Mom, It’s Me 91 Subtle Loss 92 Ice is Solid and Liquid 93 Rules and Vacations 95 Ice, Again 96 Who Are You Going to Believe? 98 No Time at the North Pole 99 Getting Better or Not? 101 Hard Freeze 102 Falls the Shadow 104 Jellyfish Time 105 Walking Into The Hill 107 Moon Illusion 109 Time-Dividend 112 Adolescent Bardo 113 Proprioception 115 Lost Places and the Annual Lockdown Spring 2021 121 Two Futures 122 Brain Studies 125 Skiing 128 This is Your Brain on Covid 130 Ravine and Downtown 132 The Place Becomes Strange 135 Life on Mars 136 Leonard Cohen at the Whistle Stop Café 139 Desolation Coda 147 Vaccine Theology 153 References"
£18.89
Unbound My Mother, The Bearded Lady: The Selected Letters
Book SynopsisA journalist, columnist, humorist and musician, Miles Kington began his writing career at Punch, where he created Franglais, a hugely popular fictional language, before going on to write a daily column for The Times, followed by the Independent. He wrote over thirty thousand newspaper columns in his lifetime, as well as contributing to countless magazines and other publications. When he died in 2008, he left behind an enormous archive of correspondence. Effortlessly funny and entertaining, this collection is full of Kington's inimitable style. He had kept copies of every letter he had sent or received for the best part of fifty years, letters to and from the great and the good of the arts - Terry Jones, Melvyn Bragg, Joanna Lumley, John Cleese, Andre Previn, Philip Larkin, Alan Coren, Kenneth Williams, and many more. My Mother, The Bearded Lady is a selection of these captivating letters, chosen and edited by his wife, Caroline Kington.
£23.75
Biteback Publishing Baggage of Empire: Reporting Politics and
Book SynopsisBorn just as the British Empire was taking its last breaths, Martin Adeney was part of the 'twilight generation' caught between the imperial and postimperial ages, forced to navigate the insecurities - political, economic and cultural - faced by the British as we struggled to understand and adapt to our diminished place in the world order.A compelling blend of memoir and narrative history, Baggage of Empire leads us through the crumbling ruins of great industries and imperial trade cities; from the retreat of the northern newspaper empires to an almost exclusively southern, metropolitan viewpoint; through the tumultuous dominance and decline of the trade unions; to the rise of Thatcherism and big business.From the unique vantage point his career as a journalist has given him, particularly as industrial editor of BBC TV, Adeney notes that many of the issues that preoccupied us in the late '60s and early '70s - including immigration, housing, education, industry and communications - remain the daily currency of our political discourse. Despite all of our material prosperity and cultural self-confidence, we are all burdened, in one way or another, by the baggage of empire.Trade Review"Martin Adeney has been a fine industrial journalist more or less over my whole working life. Here he writes vividly of his contact with contemporary leaders in politics, business and trade unions who, in various ways, battled against Britain's decline as a great manufacturing nation. It is an entertaining elegy for a world that has largely disappeared along with the British Empire itself." - Lord (John) Monks, former General Secretary of the TUC and the ETUC; "Martin Adeney's memoir is a very well-observed account of the decline of three 'empires' that have defined his life. He writes with clarity and wit about the great events of the second half of the twentieth century, during which he met many notable figures, especially politicians and trade union barons, and his portraits of these people, based on his personal experience of them, are always acute and funny." - Professor Lawrence Goldman, Director of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London
£12.34
Profile Books Ltd Are We Having Fun Yet?
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 'Utterly, utterly perfect and brilliant - I think it is, simply, a new classic, and the book every woman will be able to trust to make her happy when she picks it up' - Caitlin Moran 'Utterly wonderful ... full of love. Enormously uplifting, funny and witty and wry' - Marian Keyes 'Such a perfectly precise rendering of life with small children, I felt like I was reading my own diary ... had I been cleverer, wittier and more intent on finding the joy and hope and humour amid all the mess of life' - Meg Mason 'A glorious, outrageously funny retelling of E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady. At once, a celebration of the joy of family life and a cry of anguish at the utter hell of it. Laugh out loud, compulsive reading' - Nina Stibbe Meet Liz: all she wants is some peace and quiet so she can read a book with her cat Henry, love of her life, by her side. But trampling all over this dream is a group of wild things also known as Liz's family. Namely: Richard - a man, a husband, no serious rival to Henry. Thomas - their sensitive seven year old son, for whom life is a bed of pain already. Evie - five year old acrobat, gangster, anarchist, daughter. And as if her family's demands (Where are the door keys? Are we made of plastic? Do 'ghost poos' really count?) weren't enough, Liz must also contend with the madness of parents, friends, bosses, and at least one hovering nemesis. Are We Having Fun Yet? is a year with one woman as she faces all the storms of modern life (babysitters, death, threadworms) on her epic quest for that holy grail: a moment to herself.Trade ReviewUtterly wonderful ... full of love. Enormously uplifting, funny and witty and wry -- Marian KeyesI read everything by Lucy Mangan, she is one of the funniest writers in Britain. -- Jenny ColganUtterly, utterly perfect and brilliant - I think it is, simply, a new classic, and the book every woman will be able to trust to make her happy when she picks it up. Lucy Mangan is a fucking genius. SO MUCH WISDOM IN IT. SO MUCH ANGER. SO MUCH LOVE. SO MUCH LOL. It's just exquisite -- Caitlin MoranI was crying with laughter reading so much of it ... full of pure simmering rage -- Emma Barnett * BBC Woman's Hour *Such a perfectly precise rendering of life with small children, I felt like I was reading my own diary from my first years of motherhood - had I been cleverer, wittier and more intent on finding the joy and hope and humour amid all the mess of life. So deeply relatable, every parent presently in the trenches of family life should read it, to feel less alone (and all of their child-free friends, to explain why their formerly fun and capable BF is now always exhausted, late and grubby) * Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss *Lucy Mangan nails the absurd pitfalls of modern life/marriage/small children so completely and honestly, but with a lightness of touch that means the overall effect is calming and nourishing and feels like having a really good chat with a kind and loving friend. And so funny! I was shaking the bed with my laughter. -- Cathy RentzenbrinkWarm, witty and invigorated by righteous anger -- Amber Pearson * Mail on Sunday *A comic update on EM Delafield's Diary Of A Provincial Lady that will hit home with anyone who hates the verb "to multitask" -- 'Books to make people laugh' * Stylist *Family life under the microscope - scalpel sharp and gloriously real. Pure Mangan: witty and wickedly funny -- Jenny EclairCompelling, connecting humour from start to finish ... motherhood made funny -- Helen LedererA glorious, outrageously funny retelling of E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady. At once a celebration of the joy of family life and a cry of anguish at the utter hell of it. Laugh out loud, compulsive reading. -- Nina StibbeThis romp through the chaos of family life will have you wincing and rejoicing in equal measure -- Susie Mesure * iPaper *
£16.99
Profile Books Ltd Intensive Care: A GP, a Community & a Pandemic
Book SynopsisAn Observer, New Statesman, Financial Times, Irish Times and Scotsman 2021 Non-Fiction Highlight '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 nine 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 *
£16.99
Unbound Au Revoir Now Darlint: The Letters of Edith
Book SynopsisAs seen on Woman's Hour, BBC Newsnight and in the Daily TelegraphA hundred years ago, on the night of 3 October 1922, a thirty-two-year-old clerk named Percy Thompson was stabbed to death as he walked home to his suburban villa in Ilford. With him was his wife, twenty-eight-year-old Edith. His killer was Edith’s lover: Frederick Bywaters, a merchant seaman aged twenty. Bywaters was hanged for murder on 9 January 1923. So too was Edith Thompson.Despite a lack of any tangible evidence linking her to the murder, Edith found herself condemned by a society steeped in sexism. What sealed her fate were the letters she had penned to her lover, which were interpreted by the law as incitement to murder. These letters are remarkable documents. Charged with the vitality of Edith's voice, they are moving, perplexing, maddening, banal, spectacularly sensual, infused with a stream-of-consciousness immediacy. And they have never been collected in print, until now.In Au Revoir Now Darlint Laura Thompson – author of the CWA Gold Dagger-shortlisted Rex vs Edith Thompson – gathers the letters together alongside illuminating commentary to tell the remarkable story of a woman ahead of her time and an extraordinary imagination that ultimately led to appalling tragedy.
£999.99
Canongate Books Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a
Book SynopsisVULTURE'S BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR 2023A NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023When Shane McCrae was eighteen months old, he was removed from his parents and taken to suburban Texas. His mother was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, believing they were doing what was best for him. His grandmother loved Shane but hated people who looked like him. His grandfather policed any perceived signs of Blackness his grandson showed. In their house, Blackness would always be the worst thing about him.Pulling the Chariot of the Sun is a revelatory account of what it can mean to be Black in America, written with virtuosity and heart by one of the finest poets writing today. This memoir offers acute insight into the larger story of a people stolen from their homes, dominated by white supremacy and lied to about their own history. And it illuminates how we all might be made whole again, through a tireless search for the truth and the joyful pursuit of what we love.Trade ReviewImaginative, lyrical . . . Memory itself is as much the central theme as the kidnapping and its aftermath -- DECLAN RYAN * * Daily Telegraph * *Striking . . . [Full] of many powerfully visceral ruminations on memory * * Observer * *A moving, slippery and imagistic prose memoir by one of my favourite lyric poets writing today -- RAYMOND ANTROBUSExtraordinary . . . a recreation of childhood trauma - and the trauma of never being free as a child to name it as trauma in the feverish pseudo-normality of this incredible and shocking situation. It's about race, class, imagination - and skateboarding - and is packed with passion and energy -- ROWAN WILLIAMS * * New Statesman * *Shane McCrae's powerful, indelible poet's voice has now extended to the memoir, and how fortunate are we that the very things that distinguish his verse - truth-telling, sharp observation, more than a sense of the moment, profundity worn lightly - grace his harrowing and enlightening tale about race and what makes an American family and why. An essential story for our times -- HILTON ALSPulling the Chariot of the Sun is the kind of story that pulls you right in with its voice, the kind of book that sways you with heart-wrenching honesty and beautiful music. There is something magnetic to this storytelling, which gives us an incantation of memory that is as moving as it is spellbinding. For what tears up the family in this book is what tears up this country still, prevents it from finding itself. McCrae's voice is vulnerable and direct and precise, the voice of a poet who teaches us again what musical prose can do. This is such a compelling and necessary book -- ILYA KAMINSKYShane McCrae's extraordinary memoir is a kinaesthetic feat in the art of remembering, a complex layering of, and a laying bare of, the trauma of a stolen Black identity. Each meticulous, mellifluous, sentence charts a journey with multiple detours, dead ends and unexpected destinations. It is befitting that catharsis comes through language itself, the language of poetry. Ambitious and profound, this book will leave an indelible imprint on the mind of the reader -- PATIENCE AGBABIA precise articulation of memory, its making and unmaking, McCrae's book is a vivid, churning and compulsive account of one man's personal reckoning with race, prejudice and the ideologies that haunt modern America. Written with a sharp and constantly-searching language, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun is as acute in its thinking as it is brave in its emotional charge -- SEÁN HEWITTA fantastic book, if harrowing. A story only reality could dream up -- JARRED MCGINNISA book by a man who was kidnapped as a child, and raised by his kidnappers, and no further attempt to describe what's in these pages can prepare the reader for the hardness of the story nor the dazzling light of McCrae's prose -- JOHN DARNIELLE
£16.99
Atlantic Books The Rome Plague Diaries: Lockdown Life in the
Book SynopsisOn the first morning of Rome's Covid-19 lockdown Matthew Kneale felt an urge to connect with friends and acquaintances and began writing an email, describing where he was, what was happening and what it felt like, and sent it to everyone he could think of. He was soon composing daily reports as he tried to comprehend a period of time, when everyone's lives suddenly changed and Italy struggled against an epidemic, that was so strange, so troubling and so fascinating that he found it impossible to think about anything else. Having lived in Rome for eighteen years, Matthew has grown to know the capital and its citizens well and this collection of brilliant diary pieces connects what he has learned about the city with this extraordinary, anxious moment, revealing the Romans through the intense prism of the coronavirus crisis.Trade ReviewThe novelist Matthew Kneale has lived in Rome for 18 years and his response to the news of Italy's first Covid lockdown was to unburden himself by writing a long email to family, friends and even people he'd lost touch with years ago... Collected here, his wry and questioning meanderings lace an ordeal with charm. * New Statesman *Fascinating... It's a book to delight anyone with an interest in European culture. * NB Magazine *Joie de vivre radiates from every page. * Strong Words Magazine *
£14.99
Biteback Publishing Edwina Currie Diaries: v. 2: 1992-1997
Book SynopsisLove her or hate her Edwina Currie falls comfortably into that category of celebrity you simply cannot ignore. The first edition of her diaries explosively revealed her affair with former Prime Minister John Major. This second volume, which begins in 1992 with her refusal to serve in Major's Cabinet, is no less revelatory about her colleagues, encounters with others in the public eye, and, of course, her extraordinary love life. It covers her life in Parliament up to the election of Blair's Labour government, but more importantly sees its subject's emergence as a mainstay in the public imagination, first as a bestselling author, then as a commentator, broadcaster, presenter and performer - most recently on the BBC's flagship entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing. Shot through with her trademark effervescence and sense of fun, Edwina Currie Diaries: Volume II documents one of the biggest characters in British public life at her saucy, scathing best. 'Frank and funny, you can't put her down' Time Out 'Few women can lay claim to the word "magnificent", but Currie is now surely one of them' Daily Telegraph
£18.00
Carcanet Press Ltd Letters of Introduction: An A-z of Cultural
Book SynopsisIn Letters of Introduction Kevin Jackson invents a new genre, the Alphabet Essay. Always inventive, scholarly and sometimes zany, Jackson approaches ten writers and two 'themes', building an alphabet around each: 'A is for' to 'Z is for'. The alphabet touches on his subjects' history, their culture, their private and intimate lives, their anxieties, and most importantly their achievement. The Alphabets are introductory and exploratory. Jackson picks his way through the worlds of Hildegard of Bingen, William Blake, Dante, Duke Ellington, Freud, Goethe, the Harlem Renaissance, Paul Klee, Friedrich Nietzsche, Surrealism, Andy Warhol and Marguerite Yourcenar. As he goes he finds out more and more, by association, through legend and gossip, in imagination. It is a wonderful process, an approach which imposes wonderful juxtapositions and elicits delicious ironies. The form is redolent of childhood, the content is remote from childish things.Table of ContentsA William Blake Alphabet; A Dante Alphabet; An Ellington Alphabet; A Freud Alphabet; A Goethe Alphabet; A Harlem Renaissance Alphabet; A Hildegard of Bingen Alphabet; A Paul Klee Alphabet; A Nietsche Alphabet; A Surrealist Alphabet; An Andy Warhol Alphabet; A Marguerite Yourcenar Alphabet; the end.
£12.60
Carcanet Press Ltd Over the Land and Over the Sea : Selected
Book SynopsisEdward Lear (1812-1888) is one of the best-loved of English poets. His comic invention and unconstrained sense of the absurd have been enjoyed by generations of children, and treasured by adults conscious of the subtle melancholy that underlies the fun. This collection includes all the favourite nonsense poems. Peter Swaab sets them alongside a generous selection from Lear's six travel books (including his three Journals of a Landscape Painter), first published between 1841 and 1870, and long out of print. For the first time Lear is presented as an adventurer, not only in the fabled lands of the Jumblies and the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, but also in nineteenth-century Albania, Greece, Calabria and Corsica, where his encounters with the people and customs of these sometimes equally strange and challenging cultures are recorded with the same acute and rueful comic imagination.
£18.00
Oratia Media The Last Maopo
Book SynopsisThe incredible, moving story of Wiremu Maopo, the last of his line in a large South Island family, who joined the second Maori Contingent and went off to fight in the First World War. Wiremu writes regularly to his friend Virgie, and the story of Wiremu''s life is woven around 40 letters that he penned during the War. All of Wiremu''s siblings died of illness either in childhood or later in life and when he returns from the war ironically he is the only surviving member of the once large family. Wiremu was unaware during and after the war that his girlfriend Phoebe had given birth to a daughter who would carry on his line. The Last Maopo also follows Phoebe''s story and reconnects the Maopo line with the author, Wiremu''s great-granddaughter.
£22.94
NeWest Press Pacific Rim Letters
Book SynopsisPacific Rim Letters is a never-before-seen collection of letters Roy Kiyooka wrote between 1975 and 1985. It presents a fascinating and highly valuable picture of the artistic and literary communities Kiyooka was actively involved with, as well as Kiyooka as a man with an extraordinary intellect and passion for life and the arts. Kiyooka takes the epistolary form into new and radical directions. At once tenderly estranged and confessional, attentive as much to the minutiae of daily life as to the complexities of artistic and literary creation, and embedded in the politics of culture-making and those of racialized identities, these letters are a literary achievement in their own right.
£22.94
Empire Publications Ltd Mancini: Diary of a Champion
Book Synopsis
£10.40
