Literary Figures

Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542) was the first modern voice in English poetry. His poetry holds a mirror to the secret, capricious world of Henry VIII's court, and alludes darkly to events which it might be death to describe. In the Tower, twice, Wyatt was...

It was truly the most breathless and in a way the most exhilarating time I have ever had in my life.This beautiful edition of Going Solo, part of The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, features official archive material from the Roald Dahl Museum and is...

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...

Jeoffry was a real cat who lived 250 years ago, confined to an asylum with Christopher Smart, one of the most visionary poets of the age. In exchange for love and companionship, Smart rewarded Jeoffry with the greatest tribute to a feline ever written...

The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde is the only truly complete and authoritative single-volume edition of Oscar Wilde's works, and is available in both hardback and this paperback edition. Continuously in print since 1948, the Collins...

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...

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...

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...

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...

'Fascinating' The Times'Blakeian in its singularity' New Statesman'A wonderful adventure' Irish Times'Rich, complex and original' Tom Holland'A crisp, ambitious and thoroughly contemporary introduction' Times Literary SupplementPoet, artist, visionary...

A look at 100 inspiring novels that have left a significant mark on the world of literature and popular culture. Before the novel, the world of books was dominated by scientific tomes, religious tracts and histories...

The story both of the real world of the Brontes at Haworth Parsonage, their home on the edge of the lonely Yorkshire moors, and of the imaginary worlds they spun for themselves in their novels and poetry. Wherever possible, their story is told using...

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Act of Love, Cathy Rentzenbrink's Dear Reader is the ultimate love letter to reading and to finding the comfort and joy in stories.'Exquisite' - Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups'A warm, unpretentious...

The legendary Austro-Hungarian novelist and essayist, Joseph Roth, was born in Ukraine in 1894 and died tragically in Paris in 1939. These letters span the breadth of Roth's life, from the schoolboy to the veteran of 44, marked by war, poverty,...

Winner of the Crime Fest HRF Keating Award 'Not merely the conclusive homage to a compulsively fascinating character, but an insightful study into the biographical process itself' Nicholas Shakespeare 'Now that he is dead, we can know him better.' ...

'Hilarious, subversive, sharp without being lethal, and loving without an ounce of sentiment, Shirley Jackson's more-or-less autobiographical account of life as a mother of four and faculty wife (and brilliant writer) is an eternal, comic joy' Amy...

Agatha Christie's Complete Secret Notebooks brings together for the first time Secret Notebooks and Murder in the Making, two volumes that explore the fascinating contents of her 73 notebooks. This includes illustrations, deleted extracts, unused ideas,...

A fascinating journey into the life of H.G. Wells, from one of Britain's best biographersHow did the first forty years of H. G. Wells' life shape the father of science fiction?From his impoverished childhood in a working-class English family, to his...

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,...

The definitive biography of Soviet Jewish dissident writer Vasily Grossman, called "gripping" and "fascinating" by William Taubman in the New York Times "[Popoff] tells Grossman's story with sensitivity and a keen understanding of his world, drawing on...

In 2008, J.K. Rowling delivered a deeply affecting commencement speech at Harvard University. Now published for the first time in book form, Very Good Lives offers J.K. Rowling's words of wisdom for anyone at a turning point in life, asking the profound...

'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...

Sorry no description is available for this book at this time.

A compelling portrait of one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, by one of the bestselling writers of the twentieth. In this vivid biographical study, Zweig eschews traditional academic discussion and focuses on Nietzsche's habits,...

From an impoverished childhood in the Scottish highlands to Victorian London, this is the inspiring story of two brothers - Daniel and Alexander Macmillan - who built a publishing empire - and brought Alice in Wonderland to the world. Their remarkable...

Robert A. Caro is one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, whose landmark biographies are widely hailed as masterpieces.This is the captivating account of his life as a writer, describing the sometimes staggering lengths to which he has gone...

Celebrating Fifty Years of Picador BooksYou think adoption is a story which has an end. But the point about it is that it has no end. It keeps changing its ending.From the moment when, as a little girl, she realizes that her skin is a different colour...

Volumes have been written by and about Patrick Leigh Fermor, but his wife Joan is almost entirely absent from their pages. Now Simon Fenwick, the first archivist to see the Leigh Fermor papers, reveals a woman hitherto only fleetingly glimpsed. A...

A FASCINATING TRUE STORY OF FRIENDSHIP, INTRIGUE AND UNFORGIVABLE BETRAYAL, NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES Readers LOVE Capote's Women: 'A genuinely fascinating account of a great writer and his muses.' 'Loved it! Fabulous book about a extremely...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE 2020 'A uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature' Philip Hoare 'An exciting new voice' Mark Cocker, author of Crow...

In Paris in 1902, Auguste Rodin had just completed The Thinker; visiting from Prague was Rainer Maria Rilke, broke and with writer's block. When Rilke was commissioned to write a book about Rodin, everything changed. You Must Change Your Life tells one...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781590170014Author Henri MichauxFormat PaperbackPage Count 200Imprint NYRB ClassicsPublisher The New York Review of Books, IncWeight(grams)...

Jonathan Bate's Soul of the Age brings us closer than ever to understanding what being Shakespeare was actually like.How did plague turn Shakespeare from a jobbing hack into a courtly poet? How did Bottom's dream rewrite the Bible? How did Shakespeare's...

Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never stand apart from those principles.'You end this collection...vowing to never let life, or writing, get so complicated again' GuardianReaders who have long wondered...

Selected as a Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement'This lucid and riveting new biography at once rescuses Kierkegaard from the scholars and shows why he is such an intriguing and useful figure' ObserverSoren Kierkegaard, one of the most...

The #1 New York Times BestsellerAn Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Book of the YearNow a Major Motion PictureThis is the true story of a boy who wanted to grow up with the Brady Bunch, but ended up living with the Addams Family. Augusten Burroughs's mother...

The #1 New York Times BestsellerAn Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Book of the YearNow a Major Motion PictureThis is the true story of a boy who wanted to grow up with the Brady Bunch, but ended up living with the Addams Family. Augusten Burroughs's mother...

The autobiography of Cass Pennant is packed with amazing stories of a life lived on the edge of the law. In this thrilling book, he tells of how he saved World Boxing Champion Frank Bruno from a potentially vicious attack; how he was shot three times in...