Literary Figures

From the author of The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children comes an unflinchingly honest and fiercely funny account of a life turned upside-down. On Valentine's Day, 1989, Salman Rushdie received a telephone call from a BBC journalist that would...

'Dear Mama, I am having a lovely time here. We play football every day here. The beds have no springs . . .'So begins the first letter that a nine-year-old Roald Dahl penned to his mother, Sofie Magdalene, under the watchful eye of his boarding-school...

'Dear Mama, I am having a lovely time here. We play football every day here. The beds have no springs . . .'So begins the first letter that a nine-year-old Roald Dahl penned to his mother, Sofie Magdalene, under the watchful eye of his boarding-school...

'As the author reaches her 9th decade [this makes] for a fascinating insight into her life and world, albeit with discretion and leaving tantalising hints at what lies beyond. One for the fans (and friends).' Crime Time'Leon's elegant, witty prose . . ...

NOW AN AWARD-WINNING FILM ON NETFLIX 'One of the great autobiographies written in the twentieth century' MICHAEL HOLROYD, SUNDAY TIMES'Irresistibly readable, commendably honest' FLEUR ADCOCK, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'The Janet Frame of An Angel at My...

'The book is a gem: fresh, intelligent and assured' Sunday Times Nancy Mitford was, in the words of her sister Lady Diana Mosley, 'very, very complex'. Her biographies and novels, her journalism, and the vast body of letters to her family, friends such...

*Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize*In late eighteenth-century London, a group of extraordinary people gathered around a dining table once a week.The host was Joseph Johnson, publisher and bookseller and he was joined at dinner by a shifting...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780451531780Author Lorraine HansberryFormat PaperbackPage Count 272Imprint SignetPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 153gDimensions(mm) 170mm * 107mm...

'Fiennes has exceptional gifts, and he has written a small masterpiece, a tribute to the power of place, family and memory' Sunday Telegraph William Fiennes' childhood was one of imagination and curiosity, bounded only by the horizon he saw from the...

'Sleepless has changed how I feel about sleep . . . I was captivated' The Times, Book of the Week'This book will inspire you to get up, light a candle, and experience your own Night Self' Financial TimesTHE NIGHT SELF IS: CREATIVE. CURIOUS...

Clive James, a true polymath, became a generation-defining voice as a broadcaster, a critic, a poet and an author. Among his greatest achievements, his five hilarious, heartwarming books of autobiography are collected now in two volumes: his Complete...

He may live in Madrid but he continues to make front-page headlines. This is David Beckham's own story of his career to date, for Manchester United, Real Madrid and England, and of his childhood, family and private life. Featuring David's first full...

"Hayes leaves resonance cleaving the air." -NPRIn these works based on his Bagley Wright lectures on the poet Etheridge Knight, Terrance Hayes offers not quite a biography but a compilation "as speculative, motley, and adrift as Knight himself." Personal...

The acclaimed first English-language biography of the great European novelist and journalist, Joseph Roth, author of The Radetzky March, a writer who captured life in Europe between the wars like no other. The mercurial, self-mythologising novelist...

'Wonderfully readable... Emphasises their sheer extraordinariness and celebrates them' MAIL ON SUNDAY. The eldest was a razor-sharp novelist of upper-class manners; the second was loved by John Betjeman; the third was a fascist who married Oswald...

In 1951 the Australian writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston left grey, post-war London for Greece. Settling first on the tiny island of Kalymnos, then Hydra, their plan was to live simply and focus on their writing The result is Charmian Clift's...

With a new introduction by JESMYN WARD'Warm, witty, imaginative . . . A rich and winning book' NEW YORKER 'Devilishly funny and academically solid: delicious mixture' MAYA ANGELOU'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISONFirst published in...

She is the most prolific children's author in history, but Enid Blyton is also the most controversial. A remarkable woman who wrote hundreds of books in a career spanning forty years, even her razor sharp mind could never have predicted her enormous...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.AwardsCommended for Agatha Awards (Best Nonfiction) 2022.Book InformationISBN 9781639362523Author Lucy WorsleyFormat HardbackPage Count 432Imprint Pegasus CrimePublisher Pegasus...

Sitting down to write a book about his hero D.H. Lawrence, Geoff Dyer finds himself compelled to write about anything else. He is in fact compelled to do more or less anything else instead of write. In Sicily he is too preoccupied by his hatred of...

Robert Burns is more than Scotland's national poet. This compact little book contains an illustrated selection of Burns' most acclaimed and best loved poems and songs. The book also contains a biography, a guide to the key landmarks 'in the land of...

A revealing biography of Anne Frank, exploring both her life and the impact of her extraordinary diary In this innovative biography, Ruth Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank (1929-1945) from ordinary teenager to icon, shedding new light...

The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin is the acclaimed story of Nelly Ternan and Charles DickensWinner of the NCR Book Award, the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize'This is the story of someone who - almost - wasn't there; who...

'A biography as gripping as one of Lee Child's own bestsellers' Ian Rankin 'Very enjoyable' The Times'Vivid and entertaining' TelegraphLee Child is the enigmatic powerhouse behind the phenomenally successful Jack Reacher novels. With devoted fans...

When you combine the deepest learning and the highest readability with the most plumptious story-telling, the result is A. N. Wilson ... Stephen Fry Known for his journalism, biographies and novels, A. N. Wilson turns a merciless searchlight on his...

Fiona MacCarthy makes a breakthrough in interpreting Byron's life and poetry drawing on John Murray's world-famous archive.She brings a fresh eye to his early years: his childhood in Scotland, embattled relations with his mother, the effect of his...

Novelist Celia Brayfield had never lived more than a taxi ride from Soho, until one day she decided to take a year off. With the computer and the cats in the back of the car, and the blessing of her student daughter, she drove South until the dawn came...

'These hours of solitude and meditation are the only time of the day when I am completely myself' Reveries of the Solitary Walker is Rousseau's last great work, the product of his final years of exile from the society that condemned his political and...

'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...

The long-awaited biography of one of the great writers of the twentieth century - 'a wonderful blend of scholarly fact and juicy storytelling' (Mail on Sunday).Muriel Spark ended was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Hers is a Cinderella...

Agatha Christie's personal memoirs about her travels to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan, where she worked on the digs and wrote some of her most evocative novels. Think you know Agatha Christie? Think...

From the very first book publication in 1920 to the upcoming film release of Death on the Nile, this investigation into Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot celebrates a century of probably the world's favourite fictional detective. ...

Toddler in tow, Bee Rowlatt embarks on an extraordinary journey in search of the life and legacy of the first celebrity feminist: Mary Wollstonecraft. From the wild coasts of Norway to a naked re-birthing in California, via the blood-soaked streets of...

A House Unlocked is Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively's classic memoir.The only child of divorced parents, Penelope Lively was often sent to stay at her grandparents' country house Golsoncott. Years later, as the house was sold out of the...

BEST BOOK OF 2023 ACCORDING TO THE NEWSTATESMAN AND OBSERVER'The Swimmer is a wonderful, original achievement; teeming with stories, glittering with images, and experimental in form and tone' Robert MacfarlaneRoger Deakin, author of the immortal...

Rooms of Their Own travels around the world examining the unique spaces, habits and rituals in which famous writers created their most notable works. The perennial question asked of all authors is, 'How do you write?'. What do they require of their room...

'So compellingly personal you feel you're looking over her shoulder as she sits down to write' New York Times 'Electrically entertaining ... Funny, generous, spirited and kind' The Times This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible...

One of the New York Times' 20 Books to Read in 2020 "A tonic . . . Splendid . . . A respite . . . A summer cocktail of a book."-Washington Post"Unforgettable . . . Behind her brilliantly witty and uplifting message is a remarkable vulnerability and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781590173657Author Gillian RoseFormat PaperbackPage Count 176Imprint NYRB ClassicsPublisher The New York Review of Books, IncWeight(grams)...

Annie Dillard has spent a lifetime examining the world around her with eyes wide open, drinking in all things intensely and relentlessly. Whether observing a sublime lunar eclipse or a moth consumed in a candle flame, the trembling of lily pads on a pond...