Literary Figures

"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams' mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY WINNER OF THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR...

Melvyn Bragg's first ever memoir - an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which vividly evokes a vanished world.'The best thing he's ever written . . . What a world he captures here. You can almost smell it' Rachel Cooke,...

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 Eighty-Four (1949) have together sold over 40...

'During certain hours, at certain years in our lives, we see ourselves as remnants from the earlier generations that were destroyed... I think all of our lives have been terribly shaped by what went on before us.'Twenty-five years after leaving his...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BENJAMIN MARKOVITSIn 1845 Thoreau, a Harvard-educated 28-year-old, went to live by himself in the woods in Massachusetts. He stayed for over two years, living self-sufficiently in a small cabin built with his own hands. Walden is...

'I wanted to climb inside this book and live there' PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE'This witty, fascinating book is a delight. Read it' MIRIAM MARGOLYES'Superb, sparky and reflective' The Spectator'Gender fluidity? Pansexuality? Throuples? Chosen families?...

The shocking, heart-breaking - and often very funny - true story behind Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette's version of the story of a terraced house in...

The American artist's much-imitated memoir, described by Paul Auster as "one of the few totally original books I have ever read." Joe Brainard's I Remember is a literary and artistic cult classic, praised and admired by writers from Paul Auster to...

In her early twenties, Esther Rutter suffered an acute mental breakdown while teaching English in Japan. Sectioned and held in a Japanese psychiatric institution until she could be flown home under escort, her recovery only began when she came to live...

The first essay collection from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time. 'This trenchant, unrepentant collection reminds you that she's a brilliant writer... Order a copy in case she's cancelled by Christmas' THE TIMES...

The Journals of Sylvia Plath offers an intimate portrait of the author of the extraordinary poems for which Plath is so widely loved, but it is also characterized by a prose of vigorous immediacy which places it alongside The Bell Jar as a work of...

Bill Bryson's biography of William Shakespeare unravels the superstitions, academic discoveries and myths surrounding the life of our greatest poet and playwright. Ever since he took the theatre of Elizabethan London...

A stunning collection of essays and memoir from twice Booker Prize winner and international bestseller Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and the Light In 1987, when Hilary Mantel was first published in the London...

The Great Thinkers is a collection of some of the most important ideas of Eastern and Western culture - drawn from the works of those philosophers, political theorists, sociologists, artists and novelists whom we believe have the most to offer to us...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780374536152Author Vivian GornickFormat PaperbackPage Count 192Imprint Farrar, Straus and GirouxPublisher Farrar, Straus and GirouxWeight(grams)...

Take an intimate tour through the life and works of Stephen King, made vivid with rare photos and ephemera from King's personal collection.Even if you are a die-hard fan, you will find something new in this beautifully packaged Stephen King reference...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE'An intense, succulent read that's intermittently dazzling' THE TIMES'Chilling, exquisitely moving' DAILY TELEGRAPH'A superb memoir - and one of the best books on addiction I have ever read' EVENING STANDARDA. A...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE'An intense, succulent read that's intermittently dazzling' THE TIMES'Chilling, exquisitely moving' DAILY TELEGRAPH'A superb memoir - and one of the best books on addiction I have ever read' EVENING STANDARDA. A...

Marking the centenary of Ireland's - and possibly the world's - most famous novel, this joyful introductory guide opens up Ulysses to a whole new readership, offering insight into the literary, historical and cultural elements at play in James Joyce's...

'Speak, memory', said Vladimir Nabokov. And immediately there came flooding back to him a host of enchanting recollections - of his comfortable childhood and adolescence, of his rich, liberal-minded father, his beautiful mother, an army of relations and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781250131607Author Lucy WorsleyFormat HardbackPage Count 400Imprint St. Martin's PressPublisher St. Martin's PressWeight(grams) 590gDimensions(mm) 241mm *...

Lord Byron was the most celebrated of all the Romantic poets. Troubled, handsome, sexually fluid, disabled, and transgressive, he wrote his way to international fame - and scandal - before finding a kind of redemption in the Greek Revolution. He also...

'Superb... Beautifully written and thoroughly researched' - Guardian A beautifully illustrated travelogue, chronicling the life and work of one of the world greatest poets. Du Fu (712-70) is one of China's greatest poets. His career coincided with...

'That word, "vacation," makes me sweat.' Coco Chanel on taking a break'You must do it irregardless, or it will eat its way out of you.' Zora Neale Hurston on writing'One has to choose between the Life and the Project.' Susan Sontag on choosing artFrom...

A thrillingly provocative investigation into the Shakespeare authorship question, exploring how doubting that William Shakespeare wrote his plays became an act of blasphemy...and who the Bard might really be. The theory that Shakespeare may not have...

A collection of insightful and uproariously funny non-fiction by the bestselling author of INFINITE JEST - one of the most acclaimed and adventurous writers of our time. A SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING... brings together Wallace's musings on a wide range of...

A Guardian and Lit Hub most anticipated book of 2024An exhilarating biography of the iconic poet, essayist and activist Audre Lorde Read these chapters like a collection of poems that speak in chorus in all directions. Understand each word as an...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781648230363Author Pat ThomasFormat HardbackPage Count 256Imprint powerHouse Books,U.S.Publisher powerHouse Books,U.S.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CRIMEFEST HRF KEATING AWARD A Times Best Literature Book of the Year 2023 A Financial Times Book of the Year 2023 A Spectator Book of the Year 2023 A Daily Express Best Book of 2023 'A fascinating, revelatory appendix .....

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780385493918Author Sylvia PlathFormat PaperbackPage Count 400Imprint Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing GroupPublisher Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group...

This is a memoir as wry, funny, moving and vivid as its inimitable subject himself. This book will be a joy for both lifelong fans and for a whole new generation.John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781250829788Author Tove DitlevsenFormat PaperbackPage Count 384Imprint Picador USAPublisher Picador USAWeight(grams) 318gDimensions(mm) 208mm * 135mm * 28mm

'A fine biography...Rogers has done a wonderful job' Daily Telegraph J. L. Carr was the most English of Englishmen: headmaster of a Northamptonshire school, cricket enthusiast and campaigner for the conservation of country churches. But he was also the...

A love letter to the joys of childhood reading from Wonderland to Narnia.When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one.She was whisked away to Narnia -...

'There is a sense throughout Athill's work that you are making a new friend as much as reading a new story... A delight to read' Observer WINNER OF THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY PRIZE, the moving and witty memoir on what it means to grow old. Written in...

WINNER OF THE 2023 LOCUS AWARD FOR NON-FICTIONWINNER OF THE BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTIONFINALIST FOR THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST RELATED WORKSHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH FANTASY AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTION'Always readable,...

What was I fighting for? Even now I'm not sure. Something so old and so deep, it has no words, no shape, no logic.Viv Albertine has always been obsessed with the truth: the truth about family, power, and her identity as a rebel and outsider. But at what...

The definitive biography of Daphne Du Maurier, one of history's greatest psychological thriller novelistsRebecca, published in 1938, brought its author instant international acclaim, capturing the popular imagination with its haunting atmosphere of...

'Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down . . . let's have a little fun . . .'In his much-anticipated memoir, Hunter S. Thompson looks back on a long and productive life. It is a story of crazed road trips fuelled by bourbon and black...