Literary Biography

'What matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.'A hugely influential collection for writers and artists of all kinds, Rilke's profound and lyrical letters to a young friend...

THE EXTRAORDINARY #1 BESTSELLER 'Fiercely feminist, fascinating. I have recommended this to several people. And I'm doing the same here' Sunday Times 'Do not read this book in public: it...

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. Since Hemingway's personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes...

The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls trilogy begins in August 2019.I thought of life's many bounties, to have known the extremities of joy and sorrow,...

TWO LIVES tells the remarkable story of Seth's great uncle and aunt. His great uncle Shanti left India for medical school in Berlin in the 1930s and lodged with a...

Robert Lowell's poetry radically altered the American literary landscape, combining as it did family drama and an apocalyptic view of the history of our times. He won three Pulitzer Prizes...

**Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2024**From one kiss comes a chain reaction - a masterpiece of memoir from the winner of the Baillie Gifford and the Booker prize'Extraordinary' Sarah...

An admirable book' Christopher Hitchens, Sunday Times Superb' Stephen Amidon, Literary Review Hunter S. Thompson changed the way we think about journalism. His writing continues to entertain decades after it...

In five elegant autobiographical meditations Calvino delves into his past, remembering awkward childhood walks with his father, a lifelong obsession with the cinema and fighting in the Italian Resistance against...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books'I walked in a daze of illusions toward my future.'Deeply felt and told with an intrepid spirit, Tales from the Heart are...

The essay is one of the richest of all literary forms and it is used for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. Containing 140 essays by 120 British and American...

Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets: a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three'...

This remarkable double biography celebrates the interlocking lives of two of the greatest eccentrics of the 20th century: the brilliant and bizarre Quentin Crisp and the outlandish Philip O'Connor, whose...

'He will live in his "Irish Melodies", they will go down to posterity with the music; both will last as long as Ireland, or as music and poetry' - Lord...

The novelist J.G. Farrell - known to his friends as Jim - was drowned on August 11 1979 when he was swept off rocks by a sudden storm while fishing...

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'A remarkable book . . . brilliant comic writing' THE TIMES'An enthralling picture of family life . . . devotion to Gerald, the man' KIRKUS...

**A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2021**The first biography of this great and tragic poet that takes advantage of a wealth of new material, this is an unusually...

This fascinating full-colour book celebrates the 50th birthday of that best-loved story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Prizewinning journalist Lucy Mangan explores the wide-ranging influence that , Charlie Bucket, Willy...

Gertrude Stein, as a college student at Radcliffe and a medical student at Johns Hopkins Medical School, was a privileged woman, but she was surrounded by women who were trapped...

"I find myself talking to you about all the great joys, all the agonies, all my thoughts..." Letter to Eva Konikova, 1946Out of the thousands of letters Tove Jansson wrote...

'I have never before in my life kept a diary of my thoughts, and here at the start of my ninth decade, having for the moment nothing much else to...

'A revelation' KATY HESSEL'Brilliant' OBSERVEROver one night, alone in the Punta della Dogana Museum in Venice, Leila Slimani grapples with the self as it is revealed in solitude. In a...

Central concerns will be the rags to riches element of Garcia Marquez's story, the tension in his life between celebrity and literary quality, between politics and writing; and between power,...

This is the story of someone who - almost - wasn't there; who vanished into thin air. Her names, dates, family and experiences very nearly disappeared from the record for...

This is vintage Vonnegut - hilariously funny and razor-sharp as he fixes his gaze on art, politics, himself and the condition of the soul of America today. Written over the...

I took off my wedding ring - a gold band with half a line of 'Morning Song' by Sylvia Plath etched inside - and for weeks afterwards, my thumb would...

It is 1964 and Maya Angelou is on her way back home, leaving behind her beloved - and now seriously teenaged - son Guy, to finish university in Ghana. America...

Writing Fiction offers the novice writer engaging and creative activities, making use of insightful, relevant readings from well-known authors to illustrate the techniques presented. This volume makes use of new...

The outline of the story of John Keats's life is well known: the archetypal life of the Romantic genius, critically spurned and dying young. This biography aims to enrich the...

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY launched Douglas Adams to instant superstardom when it came out in 1978, becoming a huge success as a novel, radio and TV series. Like...

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible blend of literature and memoir revealing the big experiences and little moments that shaped Ann Patchett as a daughter,...

'Spike Milligan: His Part in Our Lives' is a unique insight into the late Spike Milligan, one of Britain's best-loved comedians. Containing contributions from his many friends and colleagues, it...

Bruce Chatwin is one of the most significant British novelists and travel writers of our time. His books have become modern-day classics which defy categorisation, inspired by and reflecting his...

ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016'A deeply original and illuminating account of Marx's journey through the intellectual history of the nineteenth century... a profound reappraisal and a gripping read' Christopher...