{"product_id":"john-aubrey-9780099490630","title":"John Aubrey","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A truly remarkable writer, one of the most gifted non-fiction authors alive'' Simon Schama, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis is the autobiography that John Aubrey never wrote.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou may not know his name. Aubrey was a modest man, a gentleman-scholar who cared far more for the preservation of history than for his own legacy. But he was a passionate collector, an early archaeologist and the inventor of modern biography.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith all the wit, charm and originality that characterises her subject, Ruth Scurr has seamlessly stitched together John Aubrey''s own words to tell his life story and a captivating history of seventeenth-century England unlike any other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A game-changer in the world of biography'' Mary Beard\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Ingenious'' Hilary Mantel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Irresistible'' Philip Pullman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Own Life\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003elight, ingenious, inspiring, a book to reread and cherish\u003c\/b\u003e. The vigour and spirit on every page would delight John Aubrey, that most individual of thinkers and writers, who has found a biographer of originality and wit. It is reverent, charming, poignant: it is made of the same ingredients as its subject. -- Hilary Mantel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eExtraordinary\u003c\/b\u003e -- Mary Beard * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eAn \u003cb\u003eaudacious and successful\u003c\/b\u003e attempt to write a biography in the subject’s own words. Scurr has ingeniously edited Aubrey’s swift, vivid prose into a coherent account of the life lived by one of the most interesting (and interested – in everything) writers of our most exciting century, the seventeenth. \u003cb\u003eIrresistible\u003c\/b\u003e * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eTo me this book is \u003cb\u003ea delight\u003c\/b\u003e and…it is the one that I would take with me to a desert island * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eWriting a biography of a biographer that doubles as an experimental analysis of biography itself is \u003cb\u003ea formidable and astonishing achievement\u003c\/b\u003e. That it is also profoundly affecting is what makes \u003ci\u003eJohn Aubrey: My Own Life\u003c\/i\u003e a triumph -- Stuart Kelly * The Times Literary Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eIn an act of daring ventriloquism, Scurr here tells Aubrey’s life story in his own words, stitched together from his scattered manuscripts. The result is \u003cb\u003ea triumph of historical imagination\u003c\/b\u003e, as vivid and endearing as its subject’s own -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eScurr confidently walks an imaginative life between historical fact and fiction. Her Aubrey – curious yet self-effacing- is \u003cb\u003ea very English hero\u003c\/b\u003e * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eScurr’s judgment and scholarship in constructing Aubrey’s own account of events are so \u003cb\u003eflawless\u003c\/b\u003e that she allows us almost to forget that she is there * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eAn extraordinarily original piece of biography… \u003cb\u003egripping, moving, and beautifully rendered\u003c\/b\u003e -- Neel Mukherjee * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eAnother writer of brief lives, Lytton Strachey, feared that in our modern civilization John Aubrey would 'never come into existence again'. But that is exactly what he does in Ruth Scurr's absorbing and imaginative biography. In these pages his purchase on posterity returns with all his ingenious visions and impulses. \u003cb\u003eScurr is no less a pioneer biographer than Aubrey himself\u003c\/b\u003e. -- Michael Holroyd\u003cbr\u003eIt is a \u003cb\u003ebold and brilliant\u003c\/b\u003e experiment, but it suits the fragmentary nature of Aubrey's work and life. -- Andrew Brown * Sunday Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eIn a year that has seen the publication of Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey: My Own Life, it's hard not to wonder...why everyone else bothers. Oh, you think, it's because they started writing their books when the earth was still flat... Scurr's book alters our perception of the territory. \u003cb\u003eYou would be sceptical if you weren't awestruck\u003c\/b\u003e: Aubrey's voice is exceptional, and Scurr's fragmentary form is perfectly suited to her subject's magpie preoccupations. -- Gaby Wood * Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003e[A] \u003cb\u003emoving and delicate\u003c\/b\u003e book -- Frances Wilson * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eThis year saw one of the most audacious biographies I can remember reading: Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey: My Own Life... What we are presented with is a wonderful artificial composite: a fascinating patchwork made up of extracts from Aubrey's notebooks, journals and letters, chronologically rearranged with consummate editorial and novelistic artfulness by Scurr. \u003cb\u003eThe result is haunting, memorable and, in the field of non-fiction, unprecedented\u003c\/b\u003e. * TLS, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eScurr wrote the biography Aubrey didn't write - Aubrey's own - in a biographical form that is \u003cb\u003eunique, new and gripping\u003c\/b\u003e * TLS, Books of the Year *","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732245786967,"sku":"9780099490630","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/john-aubrey-9780099490630","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}