Literary Figures

Cardinal Manning * Florence Nightingale * Thomas Arnold * General Gordon Lytton Strachey's biographical essays on four 'eminent Victorians' dropped a depth-charge on Victorian England when the book was published in 1918. It ushered in the modern...

Winner of the PEN/Ackerley Prize 2014The book opens and we are inside the wave: thirty feet high, moving at twenty-five mph, racing two miles inland. And from there into the depths of the author's despair: how to live now that her life has been undone?...

The seminal biography of a great poet, novelist and sacred figure in English writing, Thomas Hardy, from bestselling author Clare Tomalin. 'An extraordinary story, beautifully told. Tomalin is the most empathetic of biographers' Craig Brown, Mail on...

**Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2024**A gripping account of survival and recovery from internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize-winner Salman RushdieOn the morning of 12 August 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the...

This book is the very simple story of the love affair between Miss Helene Hanff of New York and Messrs Marks and Co, sellers of rare and secondhand books, at 84 Charing Cross Road, London'. DAILY TELEGRAPHTold in a series of letters in 84 CHARING CROSS...

Peter Godwin, an award-winning writer, is on assignment in Zululand when he is summoned by his mother to Zimbabwe, his birthplace. His father is seriously ill; she fears he is dying. Godwin finds his country, once a post-colonial success story,...

A fantastic reissue of Richard Holmes' epic biography of this most enigmatic and intriguing of the Romantic poets. This is simply one of the greatest biographical achievements of recent years. Shelley, the most neglected of all the great...

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA INTRODUCED BY ALISON LIGHT'The genuine, thoughtful voice of a woman whose works have been loved by millions' NEW YORK TIMES'Daphne du Maurier has no equal' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Du Maurier created a scale by which modern...

What is The Tiger Who Came to Tea really about? How is Meg and Mog related to Polish embroidery? And why does death in picture books involve being eaten? Fierce Bad Rabbits explores the stories behind our favourite picture books, weaving in tales of...

Homage to Catalonia remains one of the most famous accounts of the Spanish Civil War. With characteristic scrutiny, Orwell questions the actions and motives of all sides whilst retaining his firm beliefs in human courage and the need for radical social...

Over Hill and Dale is the second volume in Gervase Phinn's bestselling Dales series.'Miss, who's that funny man at the back of the classroom?So begins school-inspector Gervase Phinn's second year among the frankly spoken pupils and teachers of North...

'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 visual treat as well as a literary one...for gardeners and garden lovers, connoisseurs of botanical illustration, and those who seek a deeper understanding of the life and work of Emily Dickinson." -The Wall Street Journal Emily Dickinson was a keen...

FREDERICK FORSYTH HAS SEEN IT ALL. AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE...At eighteen, Forsyth was the youngest pilot to qualify with the RAF.At twenty-five, he was stationed in East Berlin as a journalist during the Cold War.Before he turned thirty, he was in...

FREDERICK FORSYTH HAS SEEN IT ALL. AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE...At eighteen, Forsyth was the youngest pilot to qualify with the RAF.At twenty-five, he was stationed in East Berlin as a journalist during the Cold War.Before he turned thirty, he was in...

As read on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week'Moving, intellectual and unsentimental. I think it will become a classic' Melvyn Bragg'Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, Every Third Thought is beautiful' Kate Mosse In 1995, at the age of...

A guide to writing fiction by the Booker Prize-winning author of Vernon God Little.Part biography, part reflection and part practical guide, Release the Bats explores the mysteries of why and how we tell stories, and the craft of writing fiction. DBC...

Muriel Spark in the autobiography traces how one of the great modern writers in English emerged. Beginning with luminous evocations of a 1920s childhood in Edinburgh and memories of school, taught by the original Miss Jean Brodie, Spark recalls her...

'It's very candid, and movingly so.... Not only in Blackman a grafter- even more, and in the face of more, than we already knew. She's someone with whom you do not mess. Good on her. She's earned it' The Telegraph Malorie Blackman is one of Britain's...

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:...

'Outstanding... The best short introduction I have come across' Sunday TimesWhen he died at the age of just twenty-five, few imagined John Keats would one day be considered among the greatest poets of all time.Taking nine of Keats's best-known poems,...

'Utterly fascinating' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday TimesBenjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day,...

An intimate exploration of the life, craft, and legacy of one of the most revered and influential writers, an artist who continues to inspire fans and creatives to cultivate practices of deep attention, rigourous interrogation and beautiful...

When everyday life becomes a state of emergency, how can yesterday's words suffice?'We were so happy and didn't know it...'A thirty-three-year-old writer lives in a quiet European suburb with his wife and his dog. His parents have bought an apartment...

A memoir of land, family and perseverance from one of the most influential writers in America. In this moving and surprising book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history - and America's. Where I Was From, in Didion's...

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Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was this century's first modern woman. She arrived in Paris around 1900 as the provincial child bride of a notorious rake and brilliant literary impressario, Willy, who signed her first novels, the Claudines, as his own. They...

This is the extraordinary story of Elisabeth Beresford, creator of The Wombles, the furry, fun-loving recyclers of rubbish which became a children's publishing and television sensation in the 1970s. What drove this imaginative and prolific writer of...

'No one can write a man's life except himself.' In his Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells the story of his life, from the formative experience of his humble childhood in Geneva, through the achievement of international fame as novelist and...

The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft is the acclaimed bestselling biography by Claire TomalinWinner of the Whitbread First Book PrizeWitty, courageous and unconventional, Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most controversial figures of her day. She...

Arthur Ransome was, from 1930 to the early 1960s, what J.K. Rowling is today: author of a series of children's books which shaped the imagination of a generation. Rooted in the heyday of the British Empire, Swallows and Amazons and its sequels described...

For the first time, John Drury convincingly integrates the life and poetry of George Herbert, giving us in Music at Midnight the definitive biography of the man behind some of the most famous poems in the English Language.'Love bade me welcome . . ...

Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography 2014Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best BiographyNew York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the YearPenelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was a great English writer, who would never have described herself...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.AwardsWinner of BCALA Literary Award 2021 and Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters - Nonfiction 2020 and Stowe Prize 2021. Short-listed for Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo...

This first full-length biography of Anglo- American poet and activist Denise Levertov (1923-1997) brings to life one of the major voices of the second half of the twentieth century, when American poetry was a powerful influence worldwide. Drawing on...

Colm Toibin's Lady Gregory's Toothbrush is a beautiful insight into the life of outspoken Irishwoman, Augusta Gregory.A remarkable figure in Celtic history, she was married to an MP and land-owner, yet retained an unprecedented independence of both...

Even when I was funny, I wasn't this funny'Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors Have you ever embarrassed yourself so badly you thought you'd never get over it? Have you ever wished your family could be just like everyone else's? Have you...

"I'm so glad that a new edition is coming! A wonderful, inspirational and essential book for Christie-lovers." Lucy Worsley, author of Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman (Hodder & Stoughton, 2022) 'My dear home, my nest, my house': these words from...

Life Writing: A Writers' & Artists' Companion is an essential guide to writing biography, autobiography and memoir. PART 1 explores the history and forms of life writing and the challenges and potential pitfalls of the genre. PART 2 includes tips...

'Extraordinary . . . Moss is a towering figure in the contemporary literary landscape' - The Daily Telegraph'Devastating, funny . . . a brave and important book' - Melissa Harrison'Full of daring . . . revelatory' - The Observer'An observational...