20th Century History

The enormous popular appeal of Philip Larkin's poetry has long been established; but oddly little is known to his admiring public about the personality behind the work.The Selected Letters will...

This tribute to Frank Moorhouse by the Friends of the National Library includes exerpts from his work and an oral history interview recorded some years ago. There are essays by...

A fierce and moving account of the genocide practised by the Spanish colonialists Bartolome de Las Casas was the first and fiercest critic of Spanish colonialism in the New World....

The first complete collection of A.A. Milne's short stories, including several never published before. A.A. Milne's real passion lay beyond Winnie-the-Pooh , as this new prose collection reveals. Collected in...

Since the success of "Philadelphia, Here I Come!" in 1964, Brian Friel has written over twenty plays, successively confirming his reputation as a major dramatist of the twentieth century. But...

The first to indicate that Du Maurier had bi sexual tendencies, this book depicts a woman far removed fro m the ''Queen of Romance'' described in the tabloid obituaries ....

Along with Satre, Camus and Orwell, Arthur Koestler helped to shape the ideas of today. Once a communist, he saw through Marxism and led the intellectual counter-attack that culminated in...

Following on from Osborne's first autobiographical book, "A Better Class of Person", this book looks at the period 1955 to 1966. It covers the foundation of the English Stage Company...

Four writers. Four dictators. One world, changed out of all recognition. ENGINEERS OF HUMAN SOULS is an intimate and shocking shadow history of creative vanity in a time that turned...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to...

'A smart and highly entertaining portrait of a literary powerhouse' - THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A riveting portrait' - GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR *** 'Worsley's sparkling biography...

Poets representing war's anguish, modernists transforming the novel, Beats capturing the rhythm of the times: the 20th century witnessed some of the most diverse and experimental writing since the birth...

Virtually from its first appearance in 1951, this book was considered one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to have come out of the 1930s and 40s. In writing it...

Sean O' Casey's Irish plays, among them "Juno and the Paycock", arguably place him amongst the great playwrights of the 20th century. This book explores the myth of O'Casey's slum...

Frank Hardy is perhaps Australia's most famous Communist writer. In his literary biography on Frank Hardy, author Paul Adams traces the relationship between Hardy's writings, his political activism and the...

Acting the Right Part is a cultural history of huaju (modern Chinese drama) from 1966 to 1996. Xiaomei Chen situates her study both in the context of Chinese literary and...

The essential translation of the author's complete, uncensored diaries - revealing the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers Dating from 1909 to 1923,...

A collection of Bennett's diaries and essays, covering 2005 to 2015 Alan Bennett's third collection of prose, Keeping On Keeping On , follows in the footsteps of the phenomenally successful...

Elizabeth Smart's passionate fictional account of her intense love-affair with the poet George Barker, described by Angela Carter as 'Like Madame Bovary blasted by lightening ... A masterpiece'. One day,...

An extraordinary and hugely topical story of a Jewish man's passion for the Arab world. he Orientalist is the extraordinary story of a Jewish man's passion for the Arab world...

Anyone who cares to understand the cultural ferment of America in the later twentieth century must know of the writings and lives of those scruffy bohemians known as the Beats....

The definitive portrait of one of the twentieth century's most towering figures- her writing and her radical thought, her public activism and her private face. Susan Sontag was our last...

The second volume of the autobiography of Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. 'Walking in the Shade' begins in 1949, as Doris Lessing arrives in London with...

An essential new translation of the author's complete, uncensored diaries - revealing the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers Dating from 1909 to...

An expansive collection of George Orwell's writing on the down and out The vivid, impassioned writings collected together in this powerful volume chronicle Orwell's first-hand experiences of life among the...

The 'invigorating', 'stupendous' and 'exhilarating' guide (Observer) to the beguiling form which has attracted many of our most beloved writers 'It is hard to know how it could possibly be...

The radical, relatable, and playful love story between two extraordinary twentieth-century writers, revealed in selected letters and diary entries. 'I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed...

The Sunday Times no. 1 memoir now in paperback The Pigeon Tunnel, John le Carre's memoir and his first work of non-fiction, is a thrilling journey into the worlds of...

Elizabeth Smart's passionate fictional account of her intense love-affair with the poet George Barker, described by Angela Carter as 'Like Madame Bovary blasted by lightening ... A masterpiece'. One day,...