Published diaries, letters and journals Books

Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, kept a diary all her life. To War with Whitaker is an account of the most adventurous, most defiant and most valiant of those years. Hermione and Dan Ranfurly married only months before the Second World War erupted. So when Dan was posted to the Middle East, taking their faithful butler Whitaker with him, Hermione resolved to join them there. This memoir offers astounding displays of commitment and independence. After vowing not to go home without her husband, Hermione travelled alone from Cape Town to Cairo, and remained in the Middle East and North Africa for the two and a half years he was imprisoned by the Germans – meeting many notable characters along the way.With wit and exuberance, Hermione’s diary entries take us To War with Whitaker and back again, providing sharp insight into the strong and outspoken woman she was. This Pan Heritage Classics edition features the original black and white plate sections.

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Book SynopsisBuild your self-esteem, grow your confidence and rediscover your sense of self with this empowering and practical 30-step journal for women"Who am I?"The more confidently you are able to answer this question, the higher your levels of happiness, self-esteem and personal growth tend to be. However, in a world that still socializes women to build their lives around other people, many of us don't have an answer.This 30-step journal will take you on a unique and personal journey to discover who you are and who you want to be. Within these pages you'll find:· A structured approach to self-discovery that builds from step 1 to step 30· Interactive and creative CBT-based activities to nurture your relationship with yourself· Thought-provoking journalling prompts to deepen your self-awareness and allow for reflection· Guidance on how to let go of worries, doubts and other self-limiting beliefs· Actionable advice to help you consciously shape yourself into the person you choose to beThis journal will be your guide to understanding and empowering the most important person in your life: you.

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Book Synopsis''I''ve never met Danny Finkelstein but I think I''m in love with him. His book is such good company sane, intelligent and witty. He deals with serious subjects in an immensely readable way If I''m asked to nominate my book of the year, this will be it'' Wendy CopeWriting on everything from a defence of suburban life and moderate politics to big ideas and pop culture, Daniel Finkelstein is one of the UK's most entertaining and widely read columnists.This collection brings together Finkelstein's greatest writings from The Times, ranging from the personal with his articles on growing up Jewish in Hendon Central and on the deaths of both of his parents to the political, with columns on how to predict elections, the way political science showed us Ed Miliband was on his way to defeat, and why the base rate of coups meant Jeremy Corbyn wouldn't be ousted before an election.Wry, informed and often brilliantly funny, these pieces zip between Walt Disney, Hilary Clinton, David Bowie, MargaTrade Review‘This is Danny Fink at his very Danny Fink finest: elucidating, wise and intensely curious – always searching to explain the political from the places few other writers dare to go – be it a Finnish ringroad or a Coca-Cola focus group … In this collection of columns, Danny reminds us of a singularly profound truth – that all politics comes back to the messy rub of humanity – the small personal triumphs and the unforgotten indignities. It is his deep understanding of human nature that makes this book funny, warm and percipient. A joy.’Emily Maitlis ‘Finkelstein has the ability to make you smile and think at the same time – a rare voice of calmness and reason in a world increasingly devoid of both’Robert Harris ‘Through the clarity of his words and the depth of his insight, Daniel Finkelstein has been a voice of moderation and reason amidst the anger and uncertainty in British public life. His wisdom has now been captured in this collection which should be required reading for all who seek a better and more hopeful future’Jonathan Sacks ‘Danny's columns are a must read for anyone wanting to understand what's really happening in British politics’Rishi Sunak 'I've never met Danny Finkelstein but I think I'm in love with him. His book is such good company – sane, intelligent and witty. He deals with serious subjects in an immensely readable way. Many of the pieces confirm opinions I already held – such as admiration for Sir John Major – but he has persuaded me to change my mind over a few things. His defence of humdrum everyday life reminds me how lucky we are to live in peaceful times … If I'm asked to nominate my book of the year, this will be it'Wendy Cope

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Book SynopsisThe finest book ever written about England and the English' Stuart MaconieJ. B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century and it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius.' Dame Judi DenchThree years before George Orwell made his expedition to the far and frozen North in The Road to Wigan Pier, celebrated writer and broadcaster JB Priestley cast his net wider, in a book subtitled a Rambling but Truthful Account of What One Man Saw and Heard and Felt and Thought During a Journey Through England During the Autumn of the Year 1933.' Appearing first in 1934, it was a huge and immediate success. Today, it still stands as a timeless classic: warm-hearted, intensely patriotic and profound.An account of his journey through England from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and home English Journey is funny and tender. But it is also a forensic reading of a changing England and a call to arms as passionate as anything in Trade Review'A vastly talented and exceptionally versatile and wise writer.' Iris Murdoch 'Priestley was volcanic, fertile … and never dull.' Anthony Burgess ‘Priestley never wrote better than in these pages. They remain required reading for all of us.’ Dame Margaret Drabble ‘A marvellous writer.’ David Hockney ‘English Journey is one of the great travelogues of English literature. A work of bracing televisual intensity.’ Graham Robb, author of The Debatable Land ‘We all know his plays, now is the time to be re-introduced to his novels.’ Timothy West ‘He belongs in a great English realist tradition that includes Bennett and Galsworthy.’ Michael Billington ‘An important book that has a literary importance and social value that far exceeds the time it was written.’ Dame Beryl Bainbridge ‘Written in the elegant, simple language which was an essential part of Priestley’s brilliance. It is, in consequence, a masterpiece.’ Roy Hattersley

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Book SynopsisEDITED BY JOANNE TRAUTMANN BANKS, WITH A PREFACE BY HERMIONE LEEThe finest and most enjoyable of Virginia Woolf's letters are brought together in a single volume.Trade ReviewAbout her letters there can be no division: they are among the best ever written in the English language * Sunday Telegraph *Letters as well selected as these, and as brilliant, close the gap between the author and the private person * The Times *

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Book SynopsisAlan Rusbridger is Editor in Chief of the Guardian and a keen amateur musician. After reading English at Cambridge he started on a local newspaper and tried his hand at a range of journalistic jobs including reporter, columnist, critic, foreign correspondent, magazine editor, features editor and, from 1995, editor. During his time editing the Guardian the paper has won numerous awards and has grown to be one of the three largest online newspapers in the world. He led the paper's coverage of the secret WikiLeaks cables and the Guardian's campaign to get at the truth about phone hacking, which led to numerous resignations, the closure of the News of the World and the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the British press. As a boy, he was a cathedral chorister, a reasonable orchestral clarinetist and a very mediocre pianist. He failed to be a world-class conductor, abandoned the organ and put his clarinets in the attic. In hisTrade ReviewExtraordinary... Prepare to be inspired * Sunday Telegraph *Bernard Levin once told me that journalism was "half gossip, half obsession, half slog and half madness". If that's true Play it Again is a minor classic from a major hack...it's about a stressed, insanely busy middle-aged person finding time to cultivate a hobby and discovering that his inner fire has been rekindled. That's a lesson we all need. -- Richard Morrison * The Times *As soon as you enter the pages you are hooked, not just by the efforts to overcome this elusive piece through curiousity and courage, but by the clear way in which the diary takes the reader into the murky world of WikiLeaks and the still more polluted waters of phone hacking by News International... Riveting stuff... Play It Again is a hugely enjoyable, touching and informative volume * Literary Review *An absorbing and technically detailed book… Rusbridger is a vivid writer who is able to make the physical experience of playing the piano…very gripping. -- Nicholas Kenyon * Times Literary Supplement *In his page-turning diary, Chopin has to make room for Julian Assange, Leveson and the hacking scandal… This charming, nimble, book argues that a life cannot be too rounded nor a day too full. * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisAlice could be anyone - she could be someone you know, or someone you love - and Alice is in trouble ...Being fifteen is hard, but Alice seems fine. But the big difference between Alice and a lot of other kids on drugs is that Alice kept a diary .Trade ReviewA book that all teenagers and parents of teenagers should really read * Boston Globe *An extraordinary work- a document of horrifying reality * The New York Times Book Review *It shows the awful pressures which plague even the 15-year-old who needs all her energies to cope with growing; the isolation of one who wanders off the track and, alone, finds it impossible to fight her way back * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisOne of Germany''s greatest poets, Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) was also a prose writer of intense feeling, intelligence and perception. This new translation of selected letters and essays traces the life and thoughts of this extraordinary writer. Hölderlin''s letters to friends and fellow writers such as Hegel, Schiller and Goethe describe his development as a poet, while those written to his family speak with great passion of his beliefs and aspirations, as well as revealing money worries and, finally, the tragic unravelling of his sanity. These works examine Hölderlin''s great preoccupations - the unity of existence, the relationship between art and nature and, above all, the spirit of the writer.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Orwell was an inveterate keeper of diaries. The Orwell Diaries presents eleven of them, covering the period 1931-1949, and follows Orwell from his early years as a writer to his last literary notebook. An entry from 1931 tells of a communal shave in the Trafalgar Square fountains, while notes from his travels through industrial England show the development of the impassioned social commentator. This same acute power of observation is evident in his diaries from Morocco, as well as at home, where his domestic diaries chart the progress of his garden and animals with a keen eye; the wartime diaries, from descriptions of events overseas to the daily violence closer to home, describe astutely his perspective on the politics of both, and provide a new and entirely refreshing insight into Orwell''s character and his great works.

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Book SynopsisKeith Haring is synonymous with the downtown New York art scene of the 1980''s. His artwork-with its simple, bold lines and dynamic figures in motion-filtered in to the world''s consciousness and is still instantly recognizable, twenty years after his death. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition features ninety black-and-white images of classic artwork and never-before-published Polaroid images, and is a remarkable glimpse of a man who, in his quest to become an artist, instead became an icon.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewArrogant, affectionate, and dogmatic, Guevara is intimately revealed in this compilation of personal letters sent over the latter half of his extraordinary life... a thrilling, eyewitness account of battles whose repercussions still reverberate today * Publisher's Weekly *

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Book Synopsis'Agnes Humbert bears devastating witness to her time An insider's account of the germination of the French Resistance' William BoydTrade Review'Sober and testifying, sardonic and humorous A beautiful and powerful work of literature' Michele Roberts, The Times 'Humbert's memoir bears witness to innumerable horrors, presented here with a pugnacious courage What makes this horrific account so affecting is Humbert's sense of humour, her indomitable refusal to submit' Carmen Callil, Guardian 'An astonishing work, almost unbearable to read in places, yet ultimately inspiring A remarkable book by a remarkable and brave woman' Allan Massie, Literary Review 'Her book adds to the small record of how the human mind can preserve the heart and soul intact against all attempts to annihilate it' Linda Grant, Observer

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Book SynopsisNostalgic, witty and filled with characters and situations that people of all ages will recognise, Dear Lupin is the entire correspondence of a Father to his only son, spanning nearly 25 years. Roger Mortimer's sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, always generous letters to his son are packed with anecdotes and sharp observations, with a unique analogy for each and every scrape Charlie Mortimer got himself into. The trials and tribulations of his youth and early adulthood are received by his father with humour, understanding and a touch of resignation, making them the perfect reminder of when letters were common, but always special.A racing journalist himself, Roger Mortimer wrote for a living, yet still wrote more than 150 letters to his son as he left school, and lived in places such as South America, Africa, Weston-super-Mare and eventually London. These letters form a memoir of their relationship, and an affectionate portrait of a time gone by.Trade ReviewAs well as being the funniest book I've read in ages, it's also extremely touching. A delight then, on every front. * The Spectator *By turns exasperated, affectionate, touching and wry, the letters brim with a father's love for his son. An absolute delight. * Daily Mail *...this book makes you cry as well as laugh. -- Charles Moore * Daily Telegraph *These hilarious missives from an eccentric father to an errant son have all the playful oddity of the Dear Bill letters. * Sunday Times *Very, very funny. * Sunday Times *A collection of brilliantly written letters from a world-weary father to his feckless son. They could offer a money back guarantee if you don't laugh - the publishers' money would be safe. -- Jeremy Paxman * Guardian Books of the Year *In an era when letter writing is a vanishing art form, this idiosyncratic collection from a father to his errant son is a delight. * Telegraph *Herein is comedy gold... a delight, a labour of fatherly love in which a deep if slightly exasperated affection is always legible between the lines. * Racing Post *Affectionate... a poignant biography. * Oldie *Entirely delightful: funny, wise and full of insights into the relationship between fathers and sons. * The Lady *Witty and affectionate. Letter writing might be a dying art, but this book proves what a glorious art it is. * Tatler *Wry trenchant, often extremely funny, but also charmingly forbearing and forgiving. * Country Life *An examination of the father/son relationship and a snapshot of 1960s and 1970s society in all its contemporaneous freshness... never loses its ability to make the reader laugh. * Country Life *'these often exasperated but hilarious letters should be required reading by all young things who think they know better. Charlie says this book is a tribute to his father and what a fine tribute it is. Roger's optimism in the most unpromising of circumstances will stay with you long after his last delightful letter is read.' * Sunday Express *Poignant, waspish and gossipy, it is also very, very funny. * Mail Online *

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Book SynopsisWith an introduction by Olivia Laing Monday 20 April 1925. One thing in considering my state of mind now, seems to me beyond dispute, that I have at last, bored down into my oil well, & can't scribble fast enough to bring it all to the surface... I have never felt this rush & urgency before. Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), A Room of One's Own (1929) - the years covered by this volume of Virginia Woolf's diary saw the publication of four of her most celebrated works, and the writing of The Waves. Her diary captures the accelerating pace of her life, and the creative friendships with other well-known writers and artists. At times exhilarated, at others fearful or depressed, the entries of these years are animated by Woolf's sheer vitality as a writer.

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Book SynopsisOver 15 years ago, The Big Issue began to ask well-known figures from the worlds of entertainment, politics, literature, business and more, one simple question:If you could write a letter to your younger self, what would it say?This collection of 70 inspiring, moving and honest interviews includes Billie Piper on feeling burnt out, Monica Ali on self-belief, Mica Paris on sudden loss, Nancy Sinatra on marrying young, Fearne Cotton on battling imposter syndrome, Alesha Dixon on risk-taking and so much more.ALL ROYALTIES FROM SALES OF THIS BOOK GO TO THE BIG ISSUE.Table of ContentsAbi Morgan,Alesha Dixon,Alison Steadman,Andi Osho,Anna Chancellor,Arabella Weir,Baroness Warsi,Billie Piper,Caitlin Moran,Caroline Lucas,Charlotte Rampling ,Cherie Booth,Clare Balding,Coleen Nolan,Cornelia Parker,Cressida Cowell,Cyndi Lauper,Dame Steve Shirley,Dawn French,Debbie Harry,Dolly Parton,Eileen Atkins,Emily Maitlis,Emmylou Harris,Fearne Cotton,Gabby Logan,Gail Porter,Gurinder Chadha,Honor Blackman,Jackie Kay,Jacqueline Gold,Jacqueline Wilson,Jane Goodall,Jennifer Saunders,Jenny Agutter,Jenny clair,Jess Phillips,Jo Whiley,Joan Baez,Joan Bakewell,Judith Kerr,Judy Collins,Judy Murray,Julia Donaldson,Juliet Stevenson,Kay MellorKarren Brady,Kathy Burke,Keeley Hawes,KT Tunstall,Lorraine Kelly,Mariella Frostrup,Mary Portas,Mel Giedroyc,Mica Paris,Monica Ali,Nancy Sinatra,Peggy Seeger,Rosamund Pike,Rose McGowan,Ruth Jones,Sabrina Cohen-Hatton,Samantha Morton,Sara Cox,Sara Pascoe,Shappi Khorsandi,Shirley Williams,Susie Dent,Vicky Pryce,Viv Albertine

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Book Synopsis‘We must reveal the truth – it’s our duty. The world must know what is going on here … We have to carry on reporting. This is what keeps me going: reporting so that the world will never forget.’ – Asami Terajima, reporter for The Kyiv IndependentHow does a newsroom, made up of young journalists, find itself in a war zone overnight? How do you do your job as a correspondent when the conflict is literally on your doorstep?One member of The Kyiv Independent’s young editorial staff was covering the business world in Ukraine, another was reporting on entertainment, while a third was dealing with geopolitics, when the Russian army crossed the border. They made the choice to stay: to face head-on the uncertainty of living and working in an active war zone. The power cuts, threat to life, trips to shelters, lethal attacks – despite it all, they keep informing.In War Diary of the Ukrainian Resistance, they share their work on the war that is ravaging their country. Combining articles published during the conflict with personal accounts, they give us an unprecedented inside look at the reality of the Russian invasion and its consequences.Everyone has a part to play in the resistance; reporting the truth is theirs. Their names are Alexander, Anastasiia, Anna, Artur, Asami, Daria, Daryna, Dinara, Francis, Igor, Illia, Iryna, Kostyantyn, Liza, Natalia, Oleg, Oleksiy, Olena, Olga, Thaisa, Toma, Veronika and Zakhar. Their lives will never be the same again. Nor will ours.

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Book SynopsisAn astounding illustrated biography of American rock 'n' roll legend Eddie Cochran, made possible through unique access to Cochran's possessions in his room at the time of his untimely death. In the golden era of rock'n'roll, there was one name who rivalled Elvis, both in style and talent, and that was Eddie Cochran. It might have been a life tragically cut short when he died in a car crash on his 1960 tour of England, but in just 21 years, Eddie Cochran had changed the face of music forever. Born in a small town to humble beginnings, Eddie unleashed a wave of raw talent and energy that defied the norms of the era as he became a trailblazer of rockabilly. His smash-hits ‘Summertime Blues’, C’mon Everybody’ and ’Three Steps to Heaven’ are still entertaining audiences and influencing musicians today, some sixty years after they were first recorded. Eddie Cochran: In Person not only details the life and career of a rock'n'roll icon, but it also tells the extraordinary story of how a collector came into possession of the contents of Eddie’s childhood bedroom, which had remained undisturbed and unseen by anyone outside of the Cochran family since his death.

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Book SynopsisA Shadow Work Journal of Prompts, Exercises & Meditations Embark on a transformative inner-work journey into the unexplored depths of your psyche with this shadow work journal. Writing prompts, exercises, and QR-linked meditations illuminate the disowned and repressed parts of yourself, inviting you to embrace all of who you are from the darkest shadows to the brightest light. Whether you are facing life's challenges or seeking self-healing, this journal is a compass to navigate through shadow. Each entry will propel you toward heightened self-awareness as you integrate your shadow and unlock a profound sense of wholeness. This journal is rooted in the wisdom of psychoanalyst Carl Jung and modern shadow work teacher Debbie Ford. Master coach and trainer, Nancy Levin, alchemizes their principles to guide you to cast light on your own hidden aspects, revealing the reservoirs of your purpose and brilliance, so you can claim every part of yourself with lov

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Book SynopsisThe New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—“a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fascinating life of one of our generation''s most influential voices in both law and public opinion” (Harper’s Bazaar).My Own Words “showcases Ruth Ginsburg’s astonishing intellectual range” (The New Republic). In this collection Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This book’s sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who introduce each chapter and provide biographical context and quotes gl

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Book Synopsis''A terrifying and unhappy book...'' The GuardianThis astounding self-portrait covering the whole of Shostakovich''s life (1906-1975) was prepared in collaboration with the distinguished Soviet musicologist Solomon Volkov. With the composer''s consent, the manuscript was smuggled out of Soviet Russia - but Shostakovich, fearing reprisals, stipulated that the book should not appear until after his death. Ever since its publication in 1979 it has been the subject of controversy, some suggesting that Volkov invented parts of it, but most affirming that it revealed a profoundly ambivalent Shostakovich which the world had never seen before - his life at once triumphant and tragic.Either way, it remains indispensible to an understanding of Shostakovich''s life and work. Testimony is intense and fiercely ironic, both plain-spoken and outspoken.Trade Review"'I do not know of a musician who will not read it with compassion and admiration' Andre Previn"

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Book SynopsisBased on select writings from an exceptional Amsterdam archive containing more than two thousand Dutch diaries from World War II, The Diary Keepers illuminates a part of history we haven't seen in quite this way before. Nina Siegal, an accomplished journalist and novelist, weaves together excerpts from the daily journals of collaborators, resistors, and the persecuteda Dutch Nazi police detective, a Jewish journalist imprisoned at Westerbork transit camp, a grocery store owner who saved dozens of livesinto a braided nonfictional narrative of the Nazi occupation and the Dutch Holocaust, as individuals experienced it day by day.Siegal provides the context, both historical and personal, while she tries to make sense of her own relationship to this past. As a second-generation survivor born and raised in New York, she attempts to understand what it meant for her mother and maternal grandparents to live through the war in Europe in those times. When Siegal moved to Amsterdam, those questionTrade Review Praise for The Diary Keepers ‘A beautiful, poignant book about the darkest period in modern Dutch history…This book gives a powerful voice to forgotten witnesses’ David de Jong, author of Nazi Billionaires ‘Nina Siegal has accomplished a remarkable feat. She has given us a day-by-day narrative of the Holocaust in the Netherlands by splicing together excerpts from a few of the hundreds of diaries stored in an Amsterdam archive…With thoughtful and insightful observations of her own, Siegal helps us understand how 75 percent of the 140,000 Jews of Holland, a prosperous and cultivated Western European country, could have been murdered, posing a warning for our own deeply fractured country’ Joseph Berger, author of Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence ‘The Diary Keepers is an astonishing, essential book that asks us to bear witness to an unbearable history, even as it invites us to think hard about what history is—how it gets written, and what stories it tells. This book is powerfully moving and necessarily terrifying. By way of rigorous research and intimate storytelling, Nina Siegal brings us close to her diary keepers—making it impossible to turn away from the difficult, necessary questions their lives raise about survival, suffering, complicity, and memory’ Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams ‘Like an archaeologist excavating an ancient temple, Nina Siegal has dug up hundreds of stories of life under the unprecedented horror of Nazism, revealing the changing thoughts and shifting moods of heroes, villains, and victims. Until now, we only had a black-and-white image of these lives. Now, thanks to Siegal, we see them in living color’ Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Sontag ‘This moving and masterful book tells the history of those fateful war years, and their aftermath, in a wonderfully intimate way’ Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field

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Book SynopsisOn 9th August 2001, twenty-two days after Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury, he was transferred from HMP Belmarsh, a double-A Category high-security prison in south London, to HMP Wayland, a Category C establishment in Norfolk.He served sixty-seven days in Wayland and during that time, as this account testifies, encountered not only the daily degradations of a dangerously over-stretched prison service, but the spirit and courage of his fellow inmates . . .Prison Diary Volume II: Purgatory is an extraordinary work of non-fiction, where Archer reveals what life is like inside the walls of Britain's prisons.Trade ReviewThe finest thing that Jeffrey Archer has ever written * Independent on Sunday *Compelling reportage . . . Jeffrey Archer raises these diaries to the standards of a prison Pepys by being such an assiduous recorder of fellow inmates’ secrets -- Jonathan Aitken * Mail on Sunday *Archer paints a bleak but true picture of life in prison . . . It is vivid and disturbing, and will reach a vastly wider audience than any academic treatise or political pamphlet on the subject -- Ann Widdecombe * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisRecord your own magical adventures with this Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Ruled Notebook.This finely crafted notebook—one of six Harry Potter notebooks—is designed to display the gorgeous concept art created for the Harry Potter films, featuring fan-favorite locations such as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Fans can choose among the six notebooks—Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Hogwarts, and Deathly Hallows—or collect them all. This new addition to Insight Editions’ best-selling Harry Potter stationery line adapts the design of our deluxe hardcover ruled journal in a new softcover format. Featuring a flexible leatherette cover and 128 lined, acid-free pages of high-quality, heavy stock paper, the Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Ruled Notebook takes both pen and pencil nicely to encourage inspiration, inviting fans to record their thoughts and chronicle their adventures. 

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Book Synopsis'A delightful evocation of Irishness and of the author's deep-rooted love of the very fields of home' Publishers Weekly Alice Taylor’s classic account of growing up in the Irish countryside, the biggest selling book ever published in Ireland. If ever a voice has captured the colors, the rhythms, the rich, bittersweet emotions of a time gone by, it is Alice Taylor's. Her tales of childhood in rural Ireland hark back to a timeless past, to a world now lost, but ever and fondly remembered. The colorful characters and joyous moments she offers have made To School Through the Fields an Irish phenomenon, and have made Alice herself the most beloved author in all of the Emerald Isle. A must-have for fans of Alice Taylor. Illustrated throughout with evocative photographs, with a new introduction by the author, looking back at her breakthrough book twenty five years later.Trade ReviewA delightful evocation of Irishness and of the author’s deep-rooted love of “the very fields of home” … with its rituals and local characters * Publishers Weekly *One of the most richly evocative and moving portraits of childhood ever written. * Boston Globe *Ireland’s Laurie Lee … a chronicler of fading village life and rural rituals * The Observer *

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Book SynopsisTaking the form of random journal entries over the course of seven years, Exteriors concentrates on the ephemeral encounters that take place just on the periphery of a person’s lived environment. Ernaux captures the feeling of contemporary living on the outskirts of Paris: poignantly lyrical, chaotic, and strangely alive. Exteriors is in many ways the most ecstatic of Ernaux’s books – the first in which she appears largely free of the haunting personal relationships she has written about so powerfully elsewhere, and the first in which she is able to leave the past behind her.Trade Review‘I find her work extraordinary.’ — Eimear McBride, author of Strange Hotel‘Admirable for its quiet grace as well as its audacity in a willingness to note (and thus make noteworthy) the smallest parts of life. It’s a masterclass in understatement, a quality difficult to find nowadays, in literature or life.’ — Lucy Sweeney-Byrne, Irish Times‘Reading her is like getting to know a friend, the way they tell you about themselves over long conversations that sometimes take years, revealing things slowly, looping back to some parts of their life over and over’ — Joanna Biggs, London Review of Books‘The book is at once lyrical and unruly. It’s a story of fleeting encounters, overheard conversations and clear-sighted observations that will make you pay attention to the seemingly ephemeral details of ordinary life.’ — Monocle‘Annie Ernaux is one of my favourite contemporary writers, original and true. Always after reading one of her books, I walk around in her world for months.’ — Sheila Heti, author of Pure Colour

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Book SynopsisMorris's intimate journals, written for a friend, unconsciously explore questions of travel, noting his reaction to the idea of leaving or arriving, to hurry and delay, what it means to dread a place you've never been to or to encounter the actuality of a long-held vision. Poet Lavinia Greenlaw draws out these questions as she follows in the footprints of Morris's prose, responding to its surfaces and undercurrents, extending its horizons. The result is a new and composite work, which brilliantly explores our conflicted reasons for not staying at home.Trade ReviewMorris's journals... are precious and unique because they are so simply and beautifully written with the informed sense of wonder of a deeply learned and sophisticated man. No one except Ruskin has ever put the case for beauty with such vehemence and clarity. Ian McQueen, The Guardian; At a time of endless half-truths and moral shilly-shallying, Morris's eccentric integrity shines out. Fiona MacCarthy; Greenlaw has brilliantly found a new form for writing about Morris, and for this we can only be grateful. Tony Pinkney in William Morris Unbound; The best book of travel written by an English poet is William Morris's Icelandic Journal. Geoffrey Grigson

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Book SynopsisInspired by the spells of the Wizarding World, this pocket notebook collection invites fans to celebrate the magic of the beloved Harry Potter™ films!Show your love for the magical world of the Harry Potter films with this collectible set of three unique pocket notebooks, inspired by some of the Wizarding World’s most memorable spells. Each notebook features a flexible cover and sixty-four lined, acid-free pages of high-quality, heavy stock paper, perfect for jotting down notes, making lists, or simply recording your thoughts! The Harry Potter: Spells Pocket Notebook Collection is one of a new line of mini notebook collections inspired by the cinematic Wizarding World. Fans can choose their favorite designs or collect them all!

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Book SynopsisHenry David Thoreau’s Journal was his life’s work: the daily practice of writing that accompanied his daily walks, the workshop where he developed his books and essays, and a project in its own right—one of the most intensive explorations ever made of the everyday environment, the revolving seasons, and the changing self. It is a treasure trove of some of the finest prose in English and, for those acquainted with it, its prismatic pages exercise a hypnotic fascination. Yet at roughly seven thousand pages, or two million words, it remains Thoreau’s least-known work. This reader’s edition, the largest one-volume edition of Thoreau’s Journal ever published, is the first to capture the scope, rhythms, and variety of the work as a whole. Ranging freely over the world at large, the Journal is no less devoted to the life within. As Thoreau says, “It is in vain to write on the seasons unless you have the seasons in you.”

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Book Synopsis'Evocative . . . poignant . . . acute and funny' Observer'The Revival of the Great Lucia Berlin Continues Apace' New York TimesBest known for her short fiction, it was upon publication of A Manual for Cleaning Women in 2015 that Lucia Berlin’s status as a great American writer was widely celebrated. To populate her stories – the places, relationships, the sentiments – Berlin often drew on her own rich, itinerant life. Before Berlin died, she was working on a book of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches called Welcome Home. The work consisted of more than twenty chapters that started in 1936 in Alaska and ended (prematurely) in 1966 in southern Mexico. In our publication of Welcome Home, her son Jeff Berlin is filling in the gaps with photos and letters from her eventful, romantic, and tragic life.From Alaska to Argentina, Kentucky to Mexico, New York City to Chile, Berlin’s world was wide. And the writing here is, as we’ve come to expect, dazzling. She describes the places she lived and the people she knew with all the style and wit and heart and humour that readers fell in love with in her stories.Trade ReviewA beauty inside and out. -- Chris Power, author of MothersA jigsaw-puzzle portrait of a long-neglected literary legend, baring the autobiographical material that filtered so forcefully into her fiction. The mystery of her fiction is not, it turns out, in the source of its inspiration. It is in how Berlin transformed her life into art that is as vital as the thing itself. * Vogue *Welcome Home comes sadly in fragments only . . . But everything that elevates her short fiction to the peaks of greatness is evident too in the pages documenting her peripatetic early life and her many trials. Her sentences have a smokiness and sad glamour to them; she evokes the many places of her life so memorably, so bluesily. -- Kevin Barry * Irish Times *Welcome Home gives a sense of the joyousness of [Berlin’s] personality, which is as urgently expressed in all her writing as loneliness and desperation are. Her writing loves the world, lingers over details of touch and smell. * Atlantic *An essential companion to her fiction . . . for all the upheaval they depict, the vignettes in Welcome Home are never depressing. They have too many of the appealing and funny qualities of her stories for that, from eye-catching description . . . to a knack for the absurd. -- John Self * Irish Times *Tantalizing glimpses into the life of a recently-discovered writer . . . Berlin describes each home [where she lived] in exquisite, imagistic language . . . [Welcome Home is] an excellent start to understanding a writer and her work. * Kirkus reviews *[In Welcome Home,] Berlin’s self-reflective and candid voice comes roaring through. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *[Berlin] writes candidly about what she enjoyed and endured; when her narrative peters out in mid-sentence, she leaves her reader wanting more . . . When the words flowed, Berlin managed to perform small miracles with them. Whether describing lucky breaks or hard knocks, her prose is intense and intimate, at once disconcerting and entrancing. * Economist *The more extended memories offered in Welcome Home delight and illuminate . . . Her impressions of her childhood in particular have the vividness of cherished old magazines . . . Lifting the language throughout is an elegant shrug of fatalism, a conviction that we are born exactly what we are, and what we are going to be. -- Patricia Lockwood * London Review of Books *This never-before-published memoir and new collection are cause for jubilation. In part because they make it clear Berlin's gifts were vast, complex, and full of tonal warmths . . . Like Chekhov, Berlin was a beautiful framer of stories. * Boston Globe *Berlin’s nonfiction makes apparent her genius for taking personal, idiosyncratic scenes from her memory and crafting them into fiction that speaks to us all. We come to understand through Welcome Home that Berlin’s fiction has catalyzed her memories into pointed, surprising short stories. Berlin converts memory into fiction, using fiction to revisit and revise memory. * The Washington Post *A collection of autobiographical pieces that reflect Berlin's singularly peripatetic life . . . As is the case with her fiction, Berlin's pieces here are as faceted as the brightest diamond, but rather than blind you, they just encourage you to examine them even more closely, so you get lost in their depths. * NYLON *There’s a delicious pleasure in tracing the nonfictional origins of Berlin’s fictions. * Los Angeles Times *Finding all the connections to the stories in the memoir is fun. The letters, the earliest written at age 11 and most in the author's mid-to-late 20s, offer some of that same pleasure but more powerfully underline the fact that the voice that seems so off-the-cuff and natural in the stories is something she consciously created; the version of her persona and her life that got into the stories is clarified and curated. * Newsday *Berlin is also known as a visionary who anticipated the merging of autobiography and fiction that’s so common right now. You can see just how much she merged her life and her fiction in the unfinished memoir Welcome Home . . . She’s so mordant here, and so observational, and there are so many gorgeous details that must have been painstakingly sifted out of a lifetime of experiences. * Lit Hub *

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Book SynopsisA timeless selection of some of Charles Bukowski’s best unpublished and uncollected poems Charles Bukowski was a prolific writer who produced countless short stories, novels, and poems that have reached beyond their time and place to speak to generations of readers all over the world. Many of his poems remain little known since they appeared in small magazines but were never collected, and a large number of them have yet to be published. In Storm for the Living and the Dead, Abel Debritto has curated a collection of rare and never- before-seen material—poems from obscure, hard-to-find magazines, as well as from libraries and private collections all over the country. In doing so, Debritto has captured the essence of Bukowski’s inimitable poetic style—tough and hilarious but ringing with humanity. Storm for the Living and the Dead is a gift for any devotee of the Dirty Old Man of American letters.

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Book SynopsisAs Alastair Campbell said in the introduction to The Blair Years, it was always his intention to publish the full version, covering his time as spokesman and chief strategist to Tony Blair. Prelude to Power is the first of four volumes, and covers the early days of New Labour, culminating in their victory at the polls in 1997.Volume 1 details the extraordinary tensions between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as they resolved the question as to which one should stand to become Labour leader. It shows that right from the start, relations at the top were prone to enormous strain, suspicions and accusations of betrayal. Yet it also shows the political and personal bonds that tied them together, and which made them one of the most feared and respected electoral machines anywhere in the world. A story of politics in the raw, Prelude to Power is above all an intimate, detailed portrait of the people who have done so much to shape modern history.Trade ReviewCampbell is a compelling diarist ... The Campbell Diaries provide the fullest insider account so far of new Labour's ascent to power * The Times *Hugely gripping . . . all of human life is here. It makes The Thick of It look tame. And sane * Sunday Times *Campbell's world is the brutal, angry, hard-driven, jokey, football-crazed and intensely male world of tabloid journalism. He is a fluent and industrious reporter, with amazing stamina * The Telegraph *There are plenty of nuggets here that are fascinating, some passages that make you wince and others that are gripping. It has historical value * Observer *Campbell is a fluent and industrious reporter, with amazing stamina * Daily Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis''The most moving Holocaust diary published since Anne Frank'' Daily TelegraphFirst they led us to the baths, where they took from us everything we still had. Quite literally there wasn''t even a hair left. I didn''t even recognize my own mother till I heard her voice . . .In 1941, aged 12, Helga Weiss, her mother and father were forced to say goodbye to their home, their relatives and all that they knew, and were interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Terezín. For the next three years, Helga documented her experiences there, and those of her friends and family, in a diary. Then they were sent to Auschwitz, and the diary was left behind, hidden in a wall.Helga was one of a tiny number of Jewish children from Prague to survive the holocaust. After she returned home, she eventually managed to retrieve her diary and completed the journal of her experiences. The result is one of the most vivid first-hand accounts of the Holocaust ever toTrade ReviewThe most moving Holocaust diary published since Anne Frank * Telegraph *A moving testimony to the courage, endurance and painfully premature maturity of the young victims of the Holocaust * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisWhat was Mozart really like? Wild? Sublime? Responsible? Fun-loving? Bright? Foul-mouthed? Reading these sparkling new translations of Mozart''s letters, we learn in his own words that he was all of these and much more. Here is the composer at his most intimate and unguarded, expressing his feelings about life, love, music and the world around him.

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Book SynopsisVirginia Woolf was born in London in 1882, the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, first editor of The Dictionary of National Biography. After his death in 1904 Virginia and her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell, moved to Bloomsbury and became the centre of 'The Bloomsbury Group'. This informal collective of artists and writers which included Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry, exerted a powerful influence over early twentieth-century British culture. In 1912 Virginia married Leonard Woolf, a writer and social reformer. Three years later, her first novel The Voyage Out was published, followed by Night and Day (1919) and Jacob's Room (1922). These first novels show the development of Virginia Woolf's distinctive and innovative narrative style. It was during this time that she and Leonard Woolf founded The Hogarth Press with the publication of the co-authored Two Stories in 1917, hand-printed in the dining room of their house in Surrey. BetweenTrade ReviewOne might think, from the heaps of books, that the bones of Bloomsbury had been by now well and truly disinterred...But one would be wrong, for Moments of Being is a real delight -- Jan Marsh * Daily Telegraph *Of fascinating importance, because they are Virginia's only known autobiographical writings -- John Lehmann * Sunday Telegraph *The book must appeal to anyone interested in Virginia Woolf and her circle -- Derek Parker * The Times *Her manner of recall contains all those surprises and felicities of language we have come to expect when she writes, as it were, with her elbows on the table -- Richard Shone * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisWhen Britain stood alone in the early years of the Second World War, a British woman began a letter-writing campaign to prove her nation remained strong in the face of adversity

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Book SynopsisFrom the authors of Beautifully Said, Grit & Grace, and Bravely, comes Signed & Sealed, a charming gift book that captures the wit, heart, whimsy, drama, and brilliance of correspondence between iconic and little-known pairs both past and present. Inside, readers will find quotations from these exchanges-highlighting the openings and closings penned by their authors-alongside intriguing stories that reveal the who, what, when, and where behind each carefully selected passage.With chapter themes like with a wink, with a swoon, and with an agenda, this clever, rigorously researched collection delivers wisdom and inspiration drawn from the private words of public pairs. Quoted segments of these correspondences are drawn from letters of all sorts-from fan mail and love letters to sage advice and fond farewells. The featured quotations-and the back stories that accompany them-are perfectly suited for bibliophiles, history buffs, pen pals, stationery fa

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Book SynopsisLetters of the Dragon: Correspondence, 1958-1973 is a fascinating glimpse of the private Bruce Lee behind the public image.Trade Review"Letters of the Dragon: Correspondence, 1958-1973 collects hundreds of letters from the movie star, mostly to his family. His fond and matter-of-fact missives about shooting schedules and his pets make it easy to forget what a huge star he was." -- Publishers Weekly"…Bruce Lee books are now also available in ebook format…That's great; it's nice if you're traveling to take everything with you in one little small container so-to-speak." --Martial Thoughts Podcast"Most important is how private and human this collection of letters will make you feel about Bruce. Here are not only his teachings and expertise, but his weaknesses, doubts, and his burning desire to grow as a person." --Fight Nerd blog

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Book SynopsisBased on the journals of a New Yorker who would become one of Wellingtonâs senior generals, the story of a remarkable military career from The American War of Independence to the Peninsula, Tobago and Canada.

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Book Synopsis''Dearest Lumpy, I hope you are plump and well. Your mother bashed her car yesterday and chooses to believe it was not her fault...''Roger Mortimer''s witty dressing-downs and affectionate advice were not only directed at his wayward son, Lupin. Though better behaved than her mischievous older brother, Louise (aka ''Lumpy'') still caused her father to reach for his typewriter.The trials and tribulations of Louise''s days at boarding school, her eventful wedding to HotHand-Henry and the birth of his grandchildren are all accompanied by a sometimes chiding, but always loving letter.Between these milestones, Roger gives updates on the family, pets and the local gossip, holds forth on the weather, road safety, and even suggests the best way to make a gravy soup, all in his own inimitable style.With the same unique charm and often snort-inducing humour that made Dear Lupin a bestseller, Roger Mortimer guides and supports his daughter through every scrape she found her

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Book Synopsis'Timeless, funny and utterly absorbing' HILARY MANTELIn April 1925 at the age of fifteen, Jean Lucey Pratt started a journal that she kept until just a few days before her death in 1986, producing over a million words in 45 exercise books. What emerges is a portrait of a truly unique, spirited woman and writer. Never before has an account so fully, so honestly and so vividly captured a single woman's journey through the twentieth century.Trade ReviewDelightful . . . an extraordinary woman with a dry, wicked sense of humour and such a longing for love and recognition. I inhaled the 700 pages and still wanted more * * Red * *The most moving and important book I read this year by a mile: funny, tender and gripping -- RACHEL COOKE * * New Statesman * *It's not only that Jean is a good writer: observant, funny and rather lyrical. Nor is it that she is so honest . . . Rather, it's that her journals, unfettered and intimate, offer up a whole life * * Observer * *The sort of reading that will have you grip the arm of your chair in joy -- ALEXANDRA HEMINSLEY * * The Debrief * *Spend Christmas with Jean Lucey Pratt, the siren of Slough: you will not regret or forget it . . . wholly absorbing and deeply entertaining -- HILARY MANTEL * * New Statesman * *One of my favourite books of the year . . . the little details are fascinating and the overall portrait of one woman's life in the twentieth century is a must read. I can't recommend this highly enough -- CATHY RENTZENBRINK * * Stylist * *What a find! Jean's voice sings across the decades, fresh, vivid and desperate for love - a woman with so much to offer, who kicks against the stuffy society in which she finds herself. I grew to love her sharp observation, her vulnerability and her passion -- DEBORAH MOGGACHA Notable Woman shows us, in close up, how extraordinary the business of an 'ordinary' life can be - how much complexity and feeling and humour it can contain * * Guardian * *Miss Pratt hoped for an audience, which she will now find, even in the most intimate act of documenting her private life. Her entries read novelistically at times. There is beauty and humour and a fantastic, page-turning narrative, even as a teenager, when, Adrian Mole-like, she writes about her girl-crushes and first kiss. Too often we dismiss the value of ordinary life. Miss Pratt reminds us that it makes for its own kind of literature * * Independent * *Immensely poignant . . . On the face of it, Pratt's life appears unexceptional. Yet her diaries are utterly enthralling: intimate, occasionally barbed, frequently funny and filled with her hopes and dreams, friendships and love affairs, as well as her observations on Britain's rapidly changing society in the 20th century. It is a life laid bare in all its passion and anger, love and longing, sadness and acceptance. Pratt herself wrote: "Ordinary living isn't humdrum...there is so much pleasure to be had from apparently trivial things." It's a sentiment that could encapsulate this entire extraordinary project * * The Sunday Times * *Engrossing, spiked with wit and charm, keenly observant and consistently humane . . . Shows us, in closeup, how extraordinary the business of an "ordinary" life can be - how much complexity and feeling and humour it can contain -- ANTHONY QUINN * * Guardian * *Deliciously frank and funny * * Daily Mail * *What makes these diaries such pleasurable reading is one's sense of the diarist herself: her vibrancy and humour, her idea of life as a battle to overcome and, most of all, her endless supply of hope and her refusal to be beaten * * Literary Review * *You root for Jean, so wanting her to find love, and you feel her heartbreaks and embarrassments acutely. Her diaries are a record of the quiet stoicism and loneliness of the women who were left behind by the war. She may never have met her man, her overpowering, tall, divine dancer, but what a victory to see her diaries in print * * Mail on Sunday * *There is no doubting the cumulative interest of this troubled record of a lonely life . . . In her private diary, Pratt swung between regret and resolution in her search for poise * * Daily Telegraph * *Her longings to be elsewhere or to be someone else are utterly recognisable; her frustrations and disappointments poignant . . . These journals are a priceless find -- ALISON LIGHT * * London Review of Books * *Jean's honesty and unpretentiousness is very striking, and at times very moving too. I'm so pleased to see that an edition of her diaries, in which her full story can emerge, is at last seeing the light of day. She is unquestionably worthy of this, and A Notable Woman will find a valued place on my bookshelf -- VIRGINIA NICHOLSONWhat makes Jean's journals special is the intimacy and frankness of her account of a life seen from the inside, and the way she draws the reader into a relationship with her. As a record of the individual's dreams set against the cramped reality, Jean's journals are timeless. She leaps out of her own pages, free as she never was in life: you want to protect her, and simultaneously to slap her and cheer her on. It's very funny, occasionally sobering, and shot through with acute insights. Who would have imagined that the life of a Buckinghamshire bookseller would make you want to turn the pages so fast? I wanted to know how she got through the war, but I was even more interested in when she would lose her virginity -- HILARY MANTELGossipy, funny and spirited, Jean's diaries are fresh and wonderfully frank * * Psychologies * *A glorious gut-wrenching read . . . A Notable Woman makes my heart sing. Jean's diaries are a life in its entirety, in all its glorious mess * * The Pool * *[Jean's] writing is so vivid, her confessions so frank and her character so attractive. You root for her again and again, then you shake a fist at the world for letting her down . . . unbearably moving * * Big Issue * *A Bridget Jones of the 1920s . . . What Garfield is really good at is distilling meaning from a time that we don't really know about . . . extraordinary * * Monocle Arts Review * *Throughout this wonderful book, Pratt demonstrates acute descriptive powers and a piercing intelligence * * Observer * *What makes Pratt a great diarist is her honesty. The true diarist must never avoid looking bad * * Spectator * *

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Book SynopsisThe first English translation of Hartlaub's diaries, which have attained classic status in Germany, perfect for fans of Primo Levi and readers of Irne Nmirovsky's Suite Franaise.

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Book SynopsisWith an introduction by Adam Phillips Monday 17 July 1922. Back from Garsington, & too unsettled to write - I meant to say read; but then this does not count as writing. It is to me like scratching; or, if it goes well, like having a bath - which of course, I did not get at Garsington. 1920. The war is over, and Virginia Woolf is meeting friends old and new, from Maynard Keynes to Vita Sackville-West. She is reading and reviewing voraciously, and the Hogarth Press is thriving. Jacob's Room was published in 1922, and Woolf began work on what was to become Mrs Dalloway. This was a time of creative highs and lows, as well as a growing confidence as Woolf developed her distinctive literary voice.

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Book SynopsisThe year is 1987. Having made history by becoming the UK's first female Prime Minister and then driving out the most left-wing manifesto the country has ever seen, Margaret Thatcher faces a climactic third election campaign. Her eight years in power have been pivotal in guiding the UK back onto the path towards prosperity, and as he surveys the scene, David Young, Secretary of State for Employment, can see the fragile seeds of Thatcher's government beginning to grow. But this third election threatens to destroy it all, plunging the nation back into the chaos of union militancy, the three-day week and the Winter of Discontent, when Britain ground to a halt and even the bodies lay unburied. Drafted in to run the campaign, Young knows one thing for certain: the country cannot afford to go back. Written in lucid, powerful prose, Young's remarkable diary of the election that set the UK on course for the next thirty years invites readers into the room with the key players, including the Prime Minister herself. Full of gut-wrenching claustrophobia, tension and paranoia, Inside Thatcher's Last Election reveals the personality clashes that threatened to derail the campaign from the beginning and presents a very different woman from the Thatcher we think we know. For those in the eye of the storm, there was little doubt about what was at stake: the future of Britain's enterprise.Trade Review'The exciting tale told in this book takes the reader into the eye of the storm.' - Charles Moore "I greatly enjoyed these diaries. It's not just a depiction of an important moment in political history; it's a brilliant description of what it is like working at the centre of a national election campaign. It brought it all back for me. If you haven't been there, this is the next best thing." - Daniel Finkelstein "A gripping fly-on-the-wall account of the Downing Street characters who drove enterprise to the centre of political thinking in Britain." - Sara Murray, founder of confused.com "Never before will you have read such an extraordinary, in-depth, unique insight into the intricate workings of Margaret Thatcher and her government. This day-by-day, moment-to-moment account of her third election victory comes not from a politician but from a leading entrepreneur and businessman who was instrumental in enabling Thatcher to transform Britain, the sick man of Europe, into one of the most pre-eminent enterprise nations in the world. British business owes a huge amount to David Young, and this book clearly demonstrates why. This is not a ringside view; this is being in the ring experiencing it blow by blow!" - Karan Bilimoria, president of the CBI

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Book SynopsisThe career of Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of Master and Margarita – now regarded as one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century literature – was characterized by a constant and largely unsuccessful struggle against state censorship. This suppression did not only apply to his art: in 1926 his personal diary was seized by the authorities. From then on he confined his thoughts to letters to his friends and family, as well as to public figures such as Stalin and his fellow Soviet writer Gorky, while also encouraging his wife Yelena to keep a diary, with many entries influenced or even dictated by him. This ample selection from the diaries and letters of the Bulgakovs, mostly translated for the first time into English, provides an insightful glimpse into a fascinating period of Russian history and literature, telling the tragic tale of the fate of an artist under a totalitarian regime.Trade ReviewSuperbly well translated in this collection by Roger Cockrell, they give a revealing insight into the writer’s thoughts and feelings as he struggled to survive in the unforgiving proletarian culture of the Soviet Union.' * The Irish Times *Cockerell has overall done Bulgakov excellent service as his translator. His text reads extremely well... this is a fascinating insight into the many moods, many voices, the resilience and faint-heartedness, bravado and calculation, light and dark, great and small, that made up this marvellous writer. * TLS *This volume, covering 1921 to his death in 1940, illuminates not only the writer's Moscow years, but also the historical era. The weather, politics and even the inflation are all detailed here along with Bulgakov's own difficult literary progress. His letters to officials make particularly fascinating reading. * The Washington Post *A fine biographical addition to the new translations of Bulgakov's fiction that Alma Classics have published in recent years. * Prospect Magazine *Resolving Bulgakov's contradictions is somewhat easier when we read the letters and diaries... Cockrell's book has been beautifully produced and designed by Alma Books. * The Literary Review *Bulgakov's letters tell the story... of the young writers journey to Moscow to the publication of The Master and Margarita. -- Gabriel Josipovici * The New Statesman *The diaries and selected letters are an important insight into this funny, accomplished, always humane writer -- Philip Hensher * The Telegraph *Intriguing letters and diary entries that fill out our picture of the man… He remains one of the most original and witty writers in a great age of literature. Roger Cockrell's book helps us to know him better -- Elaine Feinstein * The Times *Bulgakov was not merely a brilliant observer of what was going on around him, but had an uncanny ability to pick out the particular manifestations of folly and discord which would set the tone of the era to follow. * The Guardian *

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