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Named a BOOK OF THE YEAR by The Times and Sunday Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Prospect, and New Yorker . 'Undoubtedly Hoare's masterpiece' Olivia Laing 'Queer in all senses of...

Here are the intimate letters of Edith Wharton--the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize--detailing her work, her family, her friendship with Henry James, and her passion for the American...

'This is the biography - truthful, sympathetic and thorough - that Coward deserves' DAILY TELEGRAPH The voice, the dressing-gown, the cigarette in its holder, remain unmistakable. There is rarely a...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen never goes out of style. Jane Austen's much-loved novels vividly describe 19th-century society. But they are also timeless classics that continue...

Jane Austen traces the author's life and times, her personal relationships, the attitudes and customs of the time that shaped her and were in turn shaped by her work, and...

When we think about George Orwell, we imagine an angular, moustachioed sceptic crouched over a typewriter, who - between puffs on his cigarette - composes effortless streams of prose, unadorned...

When we think about George Orwell, we imagine an angular, moustachioed sceptic crouched over a typewriter, who - between puffs on his cigarette - composes effortless streams of prose, unadorned...

Captain Cook s Three Voyages Round The World: With A Sketch Of His Life is a historical non-fiction book written by James Cook, a renowned British explorer and navigator. The...

Part biography, part self-help, an original, funny and moving portrait of Montaigne, Renaissance nobleman and essayist. How to get on well with people, how to deal with violence, how to...

A searing indictment of racial injustice in America - inspired by the life and work of James Baldwin - to help us understand the present moment, and imagine a new...

In between the partying, the drugs, the love affairs, the 'squalid overboogie' of it all, Eve Babitz made time to chronicle the world as she saw it in works like...

The definitive Shaw, now for the general reader Holroyd has done a masterly job of cutting down his huge biography to a lively and manageable one-volume life - the definitive...

Beatrice Davis, 1909-1992, was general editor at Angus and Robertson the main Australian publishing company from 1937 to 1973. There she discovered and published such writers as Thea Astley, Miles...

For nearly sixty years Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was one of the most famous writers in the world. An enormously successful playwright and the author of over a hundred short stories...

'Fluent and witty . . . confident . . . highly readable' Kathryn Hughes, GUARDIAN 'Lively and accomplished' Sophie Duncan, LITERARY REVIEW 'E ngaging, enthusiastic and informative' Philip Hensher, SPECTATOR...

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2021** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2021** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE** **FINALIST FOR THE 2022 PLUTARCH AWARD** D....

This is a literary tour de force, an invaluable, unforgettable and original portrait of Ernest Hemingway and his beloved boat, Pilar. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'She'd been intimately his,...

George Ward Price became the leading journalist of the 1930s through a string of exclusive stories about Nazi Germany. He spent an hour alone with Hitler and Goering after the...

Books about the work of James Joyce are an academic industry. Most of them are unreadable and esoteric. Adrian Hardiman's book is both highly readable and strikingly original. He spent...

Samuel Pepys's Diary stands with Shakespeare and the King James Bible as an indisputable treasure of English literature. As a picture of England, and especially of London, in the age...

The Dam Busters, The Great Escape and Reach for the Sky were all written by Paul Brickhill, an Australian hero of WWII. 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of his birth...

James Joyce was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, but he was not immediately recognised as such; rather he lived in exile in the cosmopolitan Europe of...

THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Supremely enjoyable... Matthew Parker has created a completely new picture of Fleming, Bond and the role of Jamaica in the making of the legend'...

Over seventy years since his premature death, George Orwell (1903-50) has become one of the most significant figures in western literature. His two dystopian masterpieces, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen...

** Chosen as a New Statesman, Financial Times, Observer and Sunday Times Book of the Year ** A riveting account of the making of T. S. Eliot's celebrated poem The...

When we think about George Orwell, we imagine an angular, moustachioed sceptic crouched over a typewriter, who - between puffs on his cigarette - composes effortless streams of prose, unadorned...

A fascinating new biography of the man behind James Bond, by an award-winning biographer and novelist who has unprecedented access to the Fleming Archive. A fresh portrait of the man...

'Dickensian is a language, not an adjective. Conrad speaks it fluently.' -- Spectator World 'Marvellous... the best book on Dickens since G.K. Chesterton's. -- A. N. Wilson, The Oldie A...

A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: THE TIMES / SUNDAY TIMES , GUARDIAN , TELEGRAPH , TLS , FINANCIAL TIMES , ECONOMIST , NEW STATESMAN , LONDON STANDARD AND WASHINGTON...

** A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR ** 'W ild, brilliant and has all the intelligence to rival its subject. Five Stars. ' - Frances Wilson, The Telegraph ' Exuberant...

From Normandy to the Caribbean Islands, this innovative biographical pursuit follows Adele Hugo on her reckless journey of unrequited love - and the writer who chased after her more than...

'Dickensian is a language, not an adjective. Conrad speaks it fluently.' -- Spectator World 'Marvellous... the best book on Dickens since G.K. Chesterton's. -- A. N. Wilson, The Oldie A...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD 2025 'Strikingly accomplished . . . utterly compelling.' SUNDAY TIMES 'A masterpiece of biography.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A total joy to read.'...

***A Financial Times, TLS, Economist and New Statesman Book of the Year 2024*** Can you remember the first time you fell in love with a book? The stories we read...

A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work. As the first...

Jane Austen is one of Britain's best loved authors and this beautifully illustrated guide to her novels, released to commemorate the 200th anniversary of her death, is an essential for...

Someone once said: Many books have been written about Bobby Fischer. Maybe a voice will be heard in this day and age when only yesterday seems as distant history: Will...

'A total joy to read.' SARAH BAKEWELL 'Thrillingly intelligent and original . . . A breakthrough in biographical form.' EDMUND GORDON 'A discerning literary biography and a page-turning whodunit.' LISA...

John le Carre is one of the most significant political novelists in the English language. His early career in the secret service took him to West Germany at the height...

This work starts with an introduction by J.H. Stape, St Mary's University College, Strawberry Hill. Written in 1930, "Bernard Shaw: An Unauthorised Biography" (1930) appeared shortly after Frank Harris' death....

Bernard Shaw fashioned public images of himself that belied the nature and depth of his emotional experiences and the complexity of his intellectual outlook. In this absorbing biography, noted Shavian...

A blazing, genre-bending masterpiece from one of the most inventive writers of our time. * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2023 * * THE FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS...

In 1842, five years before they would become bestselling authors, Charlotte Bronte and her sister Emily arrived in Brussels. They were there to improve their French and German, but the...

Maurice Bowra was, according to one's point of view, either the most distinguished or the most notorious Oxford don of the early twentieth century. Classicist, poet, wit, raconteur extraordinary, and...

We all know who James Bond is, but how many of us know much about his creator, Ian Fleming, a master of espionage and thrillers? In this full-length biography, author...

This landmark biography of celebrated Romantic poet John Keats explodes entrenched conceptions of him as a delicate, overly sensitive, tragic figure. Instead, Nicholas Roe reveals the real flesh-and-blood poet: a...

A magnificent new biography of the man who gave us David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Ebenezer Scrooge This long-awaited biography, twenty years after the last major account, uncovers Dickens the...

Almost 400 years after his death, William Shakespeare is still acclaimed as the world's greatest writer, and yet the man himself remains shrouded in mystery. In this absorbing historical detective...