Literary Figures

Richard Holmes's great work of biographical exploration, published alongside its sister volume 'Sidetracks'. In 1985, Richard Holmes published a small book of essays called Footsteps and the writing of biography was changed forever. A daring...

Over the past few decades, the bestselling author of Hitch-22 has crisscrossed the globe debating religious scholars, Catholic clergy, rabbis, and devout Christians on the existence of God- appearances that have attracted thousands of people on both...

The first biography of David Garnett goes beyond stereotype and myth and presents a clear sighted account of this often contradictory figure at the centre of literary London in the era of the Bloomsbury Group. Shortlisted for the James Tait Black...

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...

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...

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...

**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024****SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS' PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024**'A wonderful read (or a great present) for anyone who loves stories and art' Nina Stibbe, author of Love, NinaA beautifully illustrated...

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...

Born in England in 1857, Agnes Mary Frances Robinson contributed to cultural and literary currents from nineteenth-century Victorianism to twentieth-century modernism; she was equally at home in London and Paris and prolific in both English and French...

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...

ANNE LISTER IS THE INSPIRATION FOR GENTLEMAN JACK, THE ACCLAIMED BBC/HBO SERIES BY SALLY WAINWRIGHT, STARRING SURANNE JONES. 'The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything. By resurrecting them and editing them...

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...

Rebellion, revolution, experimental living, feminist communes, street theatre, radical magazines, love affairs - gay and straight - sex, drugs and rock and roll.Michele Roberts, one of Britain's most talented and highly acclaimed novelists, now considers...

Winner of the H.R.F. Keating Award for best biographical/critical book related to crime fiction, and nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe and Macavity Awards for Best Critical/Biographical book. Ninety crime writers from the world's...

Noel Riley Fitch has written a perfect book, full to the brim with literary history, correct and whole-hearted both in statement and in implication. She makes me feel and remember a good many things that happened before and after my time. I'm glad to...

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...

THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE'A marvellous book . . . I just loved it all, and have a permanently marked-up, dog-eared copy on my shelf for the next generation'...

First published in July 1850, shortly after Wordsworth's death, The Prelude was the culmination of over fifty years of creative work. The great Romantic poem of human consciousness, it takes as its theme 'the growth of a poet's mind': leading the reader...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780307592439Author David LipskyFormat PaperbackPage Count 320Imprint Three Rivers PressPublisher Three Rivers PressWeight(grams) 504g

'In the first decade of the twentieth century, it was not a good time to be born black, or woman, in America.' So begins this stunning portrait of Vivian Baxter Johnson: the first black woman officer in the Merchant Marines, purveyor of a gambling...

A moving portrait of the landscape that shaped the life of Laurie Lee, the beloved author of Cider With Rosie 'Before I left the valley I thought everywhere was like this. Then I went away for 40 years and when I came back I realized that nowhere was...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781787373877Author W H DaviesFormat PaperbackPage Count 120Imprint Word to the WisePublisher Word to the WiseWeight(grams) 172gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm...

Born in 1931, the illegitimate child of an abandoned mother, Thomas Bernhard was brought up by an eccentric grandmother and adored grandfather. Tormented as a young student in a right-wing, catholic Austria, Bernhard ran away from home aged fifteen. At...

W. B. Yeats believed that a poet's life should be an experiment in living. His poems fashion into memorable words the sometimes puzzling emotions that hover over important life events. Yeats's remarkable work can clarify our own thinking about similar...

A TOP BOOK FOR 2024 IN: THE OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT, SUNDAY TIMES AND BOOKSELLER 'He understands only the women he invents - the others not at all' Thomas Hardy is one of the most...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION The definitive biography of America's most impassioned and lyrical twentieth-century playwright from acclaimed theatre critic John Lahr 'A masterpiece about a genius' Helen Mirren ...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781785374357Author Colin BatemanFormat PaperbackPage Count 272Imprint Merrion PressPublisher Merrion Press

Shortlised for the Saltire Society Non Fiction Book of the Year Award Almost every adult and child is familiar with his Treasure Island, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on an equally remote island, which was squabbled...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781608681891Author Joseph CampbellFormat PaperbackPage Count 352Imprint New World LibraryPublisher New World Library

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...

For decades, Janet Malcolm's books and dispatches for the New Yorker have poked and prodded at biographical convention, gesturing towards the artifice that underpins both public and private selves. Here, Malcolm turns her gimlet eye on her own life,...

A James Beard Award-winning journalist presents a combination memoir and cookbook in which she describes growing up in French colonial Egypt and presents a richly exotic collection of recipes that blend a variety of cultural influences. Originally...

The Magic Of Terry Pratchett is the first full biography of Sir Terry Pratchett ever written. Sir Terry was Britain's best-selling living author, and before his death in 2015 had sold more than 85 million copies of his books worldwide. Best known for the...

'These journals are a revelation, a road map and a gift to us all' TAYARI JONES, author of An American MarriageFrom the acclaimed author Alice Walker - winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize - comes an unprecedented compilation of four...

John McGahern's astounding memoir of his childhood:'A glowing masterpiece.' Hilary Mantel'The one Irish writer everyone should read.' Colm ToibinAs wise and compelling a book as any of his elegiac and graceful novels.' David Mitchell'I have admired, even...

Fascinating - PrimaEngaging and informative - GuardianAgatha Christie is one of our most beloved authors - a storyteller unparalleled in her clever plots and twisting tales. But Agatha was also a forensic expert; in each of her books she employs an...

Maryse Conde is one of the best-known and most beloved French Caribbean literary voices. The author of more than twenty novels, she was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015 and has long been recognized as a giant of black feminist...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780805071818Author Daniel Mark EpsteinFormat PaperbackPage Count 328Imprint Holt PaperbacksPublisher Holt PaperbacksWeight(grams) 485gDimensions(mm) 231mm *...

A beautiful new edition of Laurie Lee's celebrated autobiographical trilogy: Cider with Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War'I was set down from the carrier's cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment...