Literary Figures

Rooms of Their Own travels around the world examining the unique spaces, habits and rituals in which famous writers created their most notable works. The perennial question asked of all authors is, 'How do you write?'. What do they require of their room...

'Puts Cavendish back into the literary history books where she belongs' Kate Mosse 'Scholarly, articulate, and never less than fascinating' Alice Loxton A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous, seventeenth-century writer Margaret...

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray I can still see Simenon coming into my office the next day, pleased with himself, displaying even more self-confidence, if possible, than before, but nevertheless with a touch of anxiety in his eyes.'...

**Featured on BBC Radio 4's A Good Read** 'A profound meditation on language and loss and time, and on how we construct ourselves through stories. And it's painful. And it's beautiful. And I love it.' NATHAN FLIER Samantha Harvey's insomnia arrived,...

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

A TRUE STORY THAT HAS TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF THOUSANDS'Unmitigated delight from cover to cover' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A real-life love story . . . A timeless period piece. Do read it' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'Beguile an hour of your time and put you in tune with...

An arresting memoir of the final years and tragic suicide of one of twentieth-century Europe's greatest poets, published on the centenary of his birth."Daive's memoir sensitively conjures a portrait of a man tormented by both his mind and his medical...

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 . . ...

Philip Larkin met Monica Jones at University College Leicester in autumn 1946, when they were both twenty-four; he was the newly-appointed assistant librarian and she was an English lecturer. In 1950 Larkin moved to Belfast, and thence to Hull, while...

'Making Darkness Light is an illumination' Adam Phillips'His sympathetic yet challenging account will undoubtedly win Milton new readers - and for that a chorus of Hallelujahs' SpectatorFor most of us John Milton has been consigned to the dusty pantheon...

A powerful, personal agenda-changing exploration of poverty in today's Britain.'Totally engrossing and deliciously feisty' Bernardine Evaristo'Staggering... An absolute inspiration' Douglas Stewart, Herald'When every day of your life you have been told...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781912430031Author Virginia WoolfFormat HardbackPage Count 224Imprint Aurora Metro BooksPublisher Aurora Metro Publications

The first art book to explore Rossetti's art and poetry together, including her own artworks, illustrations to her writing, and art inspired by her Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) is among the greatest of English Victorian poets. The intensity of her...

In November 1910, Count Lev Tolstoy died at a remote Russian railway station attended by the world's media. He was eighty-two years old and had lived a remarkable and long life during one of the most turbulent periods of Russian history. Born into a...

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...

A Daily Telegraph, Times, Evening Standard, TLS and Spectator Book of the Year.Winner of the Hawthornden Prize.Edward Lear is well-loved for his 'nonsenses', from joyous limericks to great love songs, and for his wonderful natural history paintings,...

This richly illustrated book explores the huge creative endeavour behind Tolkien's enduring popularity. Lavishly illustrated with over 300 images of his manuscripts, drawings, maps and letters, the book traces the creative process behind his most famous...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780940322127Author J.R. AckerleyFormat PaperbackPage Count 280Imprint NYRB ClassicsPublisher The New York Review of Books, IncWeight(grams)...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018 LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018 SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2018 A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE...

Hunter Davies is one of the most respected writers in the country. THE GLORY GAME is a footballing classic still in print some 30 years since its original publication but Hunter is also a successful novelist and distinguished biographer, whose subjects...

'I have put this book together, not as a prose narrative is usually constructed, but as a poem might be. In turnings and returnings. In parts which find and repeat themselves and re-state the argument until it loses its reasonable edge and hopefully...

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...

Loved Goodbye Christopher Robin? Learn more about the real place that inspired the beloved stories. Delve into the home of the world's most beloved bear! The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh explores the magical landscapes where Pooh, Christopher Robin,...

'The water slips over me like cool silk. The intimacy of touch uninhibited, rising around my legs, over my waist, up to my collarbone. When I throw back my head and relax, the lake runs into my ears. The sound of it is a muffled roar, the vibration of...

With an introduction by Virginia Nicholson Saturday 2 February 1918. The first walk we've had for ever so long. Damp, mild vaporous day. Funeral bells tolling as we went out, & marriage as we came in. The streets lined with people waiting their meat...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781948226608Author Natalie Eve GarrettFormat PaperbackPage Count 272Imprint CatapultPublisher Catapult

'In the journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could do to any person; I create myself.'Intimate, vulnerable and unsparing, Reborn bears witness to the evolution of Susan Sontag.With entries dating from 1947-1963, the first instalment...

In 1995, Adam Gopnik, his wife, and their infant son left the familiar comforts and hassles of New York for the urbane glamour of Paris. Charmed by the beauties of the city, Gopnik set out to experience for himself the spirit and romance that has so...

'The relationship between my grandmother and her mother was very important and indeed crucial to her childhood and the very early days of her writing ... So, to have more insight into this particular aspect of my grandmother's early life is very valuable...

A Book of the Year in The Times & Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Spectator, Irish Times and TLS. 'Superb' Daily Mail, 'Book of the Week''Brilliant' The Times, 'Book of the Week''[A] vivid, detailed account' Guardian, 'Book of the Week''Hugely enjoyable' Daily...

'One of Britain's most celebrated contemporary novelists' Sunday TimesIn this probing series of exclusive interviews, Alistair Owen talks to William Boyd about his works and the life which has inspired them. The conversations which emerge are a deep-dive...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781892145321Author Katharine ReeveFormat PaperbackPage Count 144Imprint Little Bookroom,U.S.Publisher Little Bookroom,U.S.Weight(grams) 325gDimensions(mm)...

A fascinating insight into the vibrant culture of Modernism, and the rich artistic world of Paris's Left Bank, Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas includes an introduction by Thomas Fensch in Penguin Modern Classics.For Gertrude Stein...

'A delightful insight into an eclectic life'The Daily Telegraph'Very funny and astute . . . a loathly feast for royal-watchers' Hilary Mantel, New Statesman Books of the Year 2018'A complete delight, conjuring up, with a few sharp strokes of the pen, a...

'I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories' One morning in February 1952, a journalist called Ian Fleming sat down at his desk and set about creating a fictional secret agent. James Bond was born and would go on to become one of the most...

Alan Bennett's A Life Like Other People's is a poignant family memoir offering a portrait of his parents' marriage and recalling his Leeds childhood, Christmases with Grandma Peel, and the lives, loves and deaths of his unforgettable aunties Kathleen and...

'She was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal in leading the way' Sandi Toksvig'Some people thought her merely bohemian, but others were grateful to have so engaging a role-model' INDEPENDENTThe superb classic...

In the summer of 1941, as the Germans invade Russia, newspaper reporter Vasily Grossman is swept to the frontlines, witnessing some of the most savage atrocities in Russian history. As Grossman follows the Red Army from the defence of Moscow, to the...

Sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf have long been celebrated for their central roles in the development of modernism in art and literature. Vanessa's experimental work places her at the vanguard of early twentieth-century art, as does her role in...

'A rollercoaster of glorious, criminal wordplay' - Ian Martin, writer of VEEP, THE DEATH OF STALIN'Shit Literary Siblings celebrates the mundane figures, and the characters that, until now, were destined to lurk in the wings - Donna Quixote, Todd Gatsby,...