Literary Figures

'Peculiarly hilarious!' - William Gibson'Every page is a pleasure' - Lindsey FItzharris'Utterly charming' - Tom Holland'Laugh-out-loud' - Garth Nix'A must read' - Fergus Butler-Gallie'Brims with self-effacing charm' - Caitlin Doughty'Unfortunately I have...

Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio This is the biography of a book: the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays printed in 1623 and known as the First Folio. It begins with the story of its first...

My part of Ireland had a poet at one time, a poor ragged fellow whom no respectable person whom no respectable person would be seen talking to, but he left doors open as he passed. A delightful autobiographical novel from one of Ireland's best-loved...

'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...

From Fleet Street to the television, North Face of Soho is the fascinating and hilarious fourth volume of memoir from much-loved author, poet and broadcaster Clive James.'[James] delivers his gags with honed elegance' - Sunday TimesIt is 1968. Newly...

Andrew Motion has been close to the centres of British poetry for over fifty years.Sleeping on Islands is his clear-sighted and open-hearted account of this remarkable career. It takes us from scenes of a teenage home-life coloured by tragedy and silence...

'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 . . ...

The Essential Tagore showcases the genius of India's Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate and possibly the most prolific and diverse serious writer the world has ever known.Marking the 150th anniversary of Tagore's birth, this ambitious...

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING MEMOIR OF SPY-WRITING LEGEND JOHN LE CARRE*NOW A MAJOR APPLE TV MOTION PICTURE*'As recognizable a writer as Dickens or Austen' Financial TimesFrom his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War to a...

Twelve early pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of Joan Didion. Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her astonishing five-decade career, the wide-ranging...

'No one else can make me laugh and cry quite like Jilly Cooper.' Gill Sims'Jilly Cooper's non-fiction is just as entertaining as her novels.' Pandora Sykes____________________'One truth I have learnt, as middle age enmeshes me like Virginia creeper, is...

Discover Amos Oz's most iconic work in this extraordinary memoir that is at once a great family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation*OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE*'A hero of mine, a moral as well as...

***AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4***NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER'A gripping account of the heartbreaks and triumphs of two of history's most formidable female intellectuals, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Gordon has reunited mother and...

A superbly crafted study of Hunter S. Thompson's literary formation, achievement, and continuing relevance. Savage Journey is a "supremely crafted" study of Hunter S. Thompson's literary formation and achievement. Focusing on Thompson's...

'I seem to have banged on this year rather more than usual. I make no apology for that, nor am I nervous that it will it make a jot of difference. I shall still be thought to be kindly, cosy and essentially harmless. I am in the pigeon-hole marked 'no...

D. H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider is an illuminating and clear-sighted portrait of one of the twentieth century's most brilliant, radical and misunderstood writers.John Worthen follows Lawrence's from his awkward and intense youth in...

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 Works contains 120 of Pam Ayres' best-known poems, including 'The Battery Hen', 'Please Will You Take Your Children Home Before I Do Them In?', 'Sling Another Chair Leg on the Fire, Mother' and, of course, 'Oh, I Wish I'd Looked After Me Teeth'.This...

'A joyful examination of two artists from different centuries and the unlikely parallels in their life and work' Guardian'An ardent fan letter from Hornby that makes you want to reread Great Expectations whilst listening to Sign o'the Times'...

One of Time Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 and an FT Best Book of the YearThought-provoking and deeply consoling, a perfectly distilled set of essays on the strangest year many of us have experienced, from one of our wisest and most humane...

A memoir about home and belonging, from the author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMAMaya Angelou's five volumes of autobiography, beginning with I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD...

'Extremely funny' Sunday Telegraph _____________________________A poet is a rock star without the sex'n'drugs, or the rock'n'roll. But that never stopped Simon Armitage dreaming, and in Gig, he explores how music and the muse intertwine in work and in...

WINNER OF THE 2023 LOCUS AWARD FOR NON-FICTIONWINNER OF THE BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTION'Always readable, illuminating and honest. It made me miss the real Terry.' - Neil Gaiman'Sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully,...

Discover one of Twentieth-Century Russia's most lauded lost classics, now in a remarkable new translation.'Outstanding... A sparkling, supremely precious literary achievement' Telegraph'One of the great Russian autobiographies, as fresh now as the day it...

Jane Austen is the definitive biography of one of Britain's best-loved novelists, from the acclaimed author of Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, Charles Dickens: A Life and The Invisible Woman'As near perfect a life of Austen as we are likely to get:...

Tangled Paths tells the life story of Aby Warburg, one of the most influential historians of art and culture of the twentieth century. It also tells the story of a man who, throughout his life, struggled to assert his place in the world. Charting...

A landmark new collection of poems from the author of Cider with RosieLaurie Lee is beloved for his writing on a lost rural world. His evocative poetry springs from his deep connection with nature, as he tracks the seasons changing and the years turning...

Over sixty years after Virginia Woolf drowned in the River Ouse, Olivia Laing set out one midsummer morning to walk its banks, from source to sea. Along the way, she explores the roles that rivers play in human lives, tracing their intricate flow through...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man. Born into slavery during the early nineteenth century,...

Amanda Prowse has built a bestselling career on the lives of fictional women. Now she turns the pen on her own life. I guess the first question to ask is, what kind of woman am I? Well, you know those women who saunter into a room, immaculately...

We all have our moments of brilliance and glory, and this was mine.This beautiful edition of Boy, part of The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, features official archive material from the Roald Dahl Museum and is perfect for Dahl fans old and new.So, enter...

*THE NO.1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*For the first time in seven years, Allie Brosh, the creator of the immensely popular blog 'Hyperbole and a Half' and #1 New York Times bestselling author, returns with her new collection. Solutions and Other Problems...

In the long run, we're all dead. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure. The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated and even filed away in a...

A terrifically engaging and original biography about one of England's greatest novelists, and the glamorous, eccentric, debauched and ultimately tragic family that provided him with the most significant friendships of his life and inspired his...

'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...

Mireille Gansel grew up in the traumatic aftermath of her family losing everything-including their native languages-to Nazi Germany. In the 1960s and 70s, she translated poets from East Berlin and Vietnam to help broadcast their defiance to the rest of...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780553286526Author Louis L'AmourFormat PaperbackPage Count 272Imprint Bantam Books IncPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 164gDimensions(mm) 174mm *...

'An absolute belter of a biography' MARINA HYDE A Times Literary Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022 An LA Times Best Book of the Year 2022 An...

'Dangerous as lucifer matches.' That was how Arthur Nicholls, Charlotte Bronte's husband for the last nine months of her life, described her letters. Full of acute observations, pithy character sketches, and passionate convictions, the letters are our...

INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS'I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She's beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny' NINA STIBBE ' Humorous, moving and fascinating' CLARE MACKINTOSH Considering herself unsuitable for any other...