Secondhand Literary Biography Books

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Took my breath away . . . I sobbed and laughed and then sobbed again. I think it puts life into perspective but also, by being...

Mary Norris has spent more than three decades guarding The New Yorker's grand traditions of grammar and usage. Now she brings her vast experience and sharpened pencil to help the...

Entertaining, instructive, thought-provoking and hilarious, the unmistakeable voice of Deborah Devonshire rings out of this volume which combines her two collections of 'occasional' writings. The pieces are broad and eclectic...

From the moment they met at a pub in London, drink was the most conspicuous part of the lives of Caitlin and her 'genius poet', Dylan Thomas. It fuelled their...

A unique testimony to modern literature's most celebrated and enduring marriage.'I first saw Harold across a crowded room, but it was lunchtime, not some enchanted evening, and we did not...

In his first venture into non-fiction, the celebrated novelist Rupert Thomson has produced one of the most extraordinary and unforgettable memoirs of recent years. On a warm, sunny day in...

This book, to quote its author, is based on the twin premises that the 'oddballs, tinks, heidbangers, saints, keelies, nutters, philosophers, freaks and such like deserve to be drawn awhile...

The first of two volumes of the letters of Muriel Spark, one of the greatest and most fascinating writers of the twentieth century.*One of the TLS Books of the Year...

Jenny Woolf's biography of Lewis Carroll takes notice of the evidence that is now available to help us understand and appreciate this famous Victorian poet, mathematician, writer, photographer, and children's...

William Wordsworth's creative collaboration with his 'beloved Sister' spanned nearly fifty years, from their first reunion in 1787 until her premature decline in 1835. Rumours of incest have surrounded the...

For nearly 50 years, Diana Athill edited (and nursed and coerced and coaxed) some of the most celebrated writers in the English language. In a prose style of inimitable wit...

'To read her is to restore the soul.' THE TIMES'No one is more graceful and accomplished than Leon.' WASHINGTON POST'Leon writes with great literary panache and evocative power about the...

Writing with unique access to his memories and his private papers, and with great love for his formidable body of work, Patrick French brings us unique and often surprising insights...

Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge, were life-long friends. They were also the daughters of best friends: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the two poetic geniuses who shaped the Romantic...

A biography of the poet Jessica Powers.

Annie Proulx, one of America's finest writers, invites us to share her experience in the building of her new home on a rich plot of untouched, unspoilt prairie and her...

In this third Why I Write volume, Eileen Myles addresses the social, political, and aesthetic conditions that shape their work "A sharply etched, unvarnished self-portrait."-Kirkus Reviews "[Myles] has a good...

`In one of tje funniest biographies I have ever read, Lewis assembles all the excellently entertaining anecdotes about this deeply loved, much mocked, sometimes reviled figure whose departure has robbed...

From her study of the Austen family papers, Claire Tomalin paints a rich, tragi-comic picture of the Austen clan and their neighbours, reaching the conclusion that the facts of Jane...

'Her talent seemed so effervescent, so unstoppable, that there was no predicting where it might take her' Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf HallSlipstream unearths the remarkable life of Elizabeth Jane...

In this sequel to The Flame of Thika, Elspeth Huxley takes up her story after the family returns to Kenya after the First World War. Her family and friends, their...

'So here I am, two hours into my sixty-sixth year...The truth is that I'm nastier than I used to be back when - back when I was sixty four, for...

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...

This biography considers Coleridge as a man apart from his writings. Holmes' objective is to give an impression of what the poet was like in person and as a conversationalist....