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Books > Biography > Literary
Follow in the footsteps of some of the world's most famous authors
on the journeys which inspired their greatest works in this
beautiful illustrated atlas. Some truly remarkable works of
literature have been inspired by writers spending time away from
their typical surroundings. From epic road trips and arduous treks
into remote territories to cultural tours and sojourns in the
finest hotels, this book explores 35 influential journeys taken by
literary greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on
the authors' personal lives and the broader literary landscape.
Award-winning author Travis Elborough brings each of these trips to
life with fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation
of some of the world's most famous literary creations, including
Dracula, Moby Dick, Murder on the Orient Express, Madame Bovary,
The Talented Mr Ripley and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone. From Herman Melville's first whaling voyage in 1841, from
New York to Liverpool, to Jack Kerouac's on-the-road Odyssey, which
is now an iconic drive, discover how these journeys imprinted
themselves on some of the greatest literary minds of all time.
Complete with navigational notes, colour photographs and
commissioned maps, the fresh insights within tell readers something
new about the places, work and personalities of some of the world's
greatest minds.
The first major biography of Oscar Wilde in thirty years, and the
most complete telling of his life and times to date. NOMINATED FOR
THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2019 'The Book of the Year, perhaps of
the decade' TLS 'Simply the best modern biography of Wilde... A
terrific achievement' Evening Standard 'Page-turning... Vivid and
desperately moving. However much you think you know Wilde, this
book will absorb and entertain you' The Sunday TimesBooks of the
Year Oscar Wilde's life - like his wit - was alive with paradox. He
was both an early exponent and a victim of 'celebrity culture':
famous for being famous, he was lauded and ridiculed in equal
measure. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes
resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies.
He was an unabashed snob who nevertheless delighted in exposing the
faults of society. He affected a dandified disdain but was prone to
great acts of kindness. Although happily married, he became a
passionate lover of men and - at the very peak of his success -
brought disaster upon himself. He disparaged authority, yet went to
the law to defend his love for Lord Alfred Douglas. Having
delighted in fashionable throngs, Wilde died almost alone. Above
all, his flamboyant refusal to conform to the social and sexual
orthodoxies of his day make him a hero and an inspiration to all
who seek to challenge convention. Matthew Sturgis draws on a wealth
of new material and fresh research, bringing alive the distinctive
mood and characters of the fin de siecle in the richest and most
compelling portrait of Wilde to date.
'A memoir which is also a work of art' - Allan Massie, The Scotsman
The story begins with Campbell, aged 14, in a police cell in
Glasgow. He's been charged with stealing books - five Mickey
Spillane novels and a copy of Peyton Place. At 15, he became an
apprentice printer, but gave that up in order to 'go on the road',
fulfilling the only ambition he ever had while a pupil at King's
Park Secondary School in Glasgow - to be what RLS called 'a bit of
a vagabond'. On his hitchhiking journeys through Asia and North
Africa, an interest in music, reading and writing grew. Campbell
also took a keen interest in learning from interesting people. In
1972 he worked on a kibbutz, living in the neighbouring cabin to
Peter Green, the founder and lead guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, with
whom he formed a two-man musical combo. At the same time, he was
part of a group of aspiring writers in Glasgow, including Tom
Leonard. His literary heroes of the time were Alexander Trocchi and
John Fowles: Campbell tracked them down to their homes and wrote
extensively about both. The stories Campbell are recounted in this
book. A crowning moment of his life was forming a friendship with
the American writer James Baldwin. Campbell visited him more than
once at his home in the South of France, and persuaded him to come
to Edinburgh for the Book Festival in 1985. Campbell later wrote
the acclaimed biography of Baldwin, Talking at the Gates.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE ONDAATJE PRIZE 'The best
book I read last year by a mile. . . so beautifully written that
anyone would be hooked' Laura Hackett, Sunday Times, Best Summer
Books 'Wonderfully funny and poignant. . . a tale of family secrets
and political awakening amid a crumbling regime' Luke Harding,
Observer 'We never lose our inner freedom; the freedom to do what
is right' Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on
earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced
religion. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost
impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of
queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. To
Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other,
and children were expected to build a better world. There was
community and hope. Then, in December 1990, everything changed. The
statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people
could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished.
There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But
factories shut, jobs disappeared and thousands fled to Italy on
crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes
eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict. As
one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and
as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself
questioning what freedom really meant. Free is an engrossing memoir
of coming of age amid political upheaval. With acute insight and
wit, Lea Ypi traces the limits of progress and the burden of the
past, illuminating the spaces between ideals and reality, and the
hopes and fears of people pulled up by the sweep of history. THE
SUNDAY TIMES MEMOIR OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST
FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR
BY THE GUARDIAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, TLS, DAILY MAIL,
NEW STATESMAN AND SPECTATOR
Throughout his life, James Boswell struggled to fashion a clear
account of himself, but try as he might, he could not reconcile the
truths of his era with those of his religious upbringing. Boswell's
Enlightenment examines the conflicting credos of reason and faith,
progress and tradition that pulled Boswell, like so many
eighteenth-century Europeans, in opposing directions. In the end,
the life of the man best known for writing Samuel Johnson's
biography was something of a patchwork affair. As Johnson himself
understood: "That creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its
name was BOSWELL." Few periods in Boswell's life better crystallize
this internal turmoil than 1763-1765, the years of his Grand Tour
and the focus of Robert Zaretsky's thrilling intellectual
adventure. From the moment Boswell sailed for Holland from the port
of Harwich, leaving behind on the beach his newly made friend Dr.
Johnson, to his return to Dover from Calais a year and a half
later, the young Scot was intent on not just touring historic and
religious sites but also canvassing the views of the greatest
thinkers of the age. In his relentless quizzing of Voltaire and
Rousseau, Hume and Johnson, Paoli and Wilkes on topics concerning
faith, the soul, and death, he was not merely a celebrity-seeker
but-for want of a better term-a truth-seeker. Zaretsky reveals a
life more complex and compelling than suggested by the label
"Johnson's biographer," and one that 250 years later registers our
own variations of mind.
'Utterly fascinating' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Benjamin Franklin
took daily naked air baths and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in
brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed
at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but
Gertrude Stein could never write for more than thirty minutes, and
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in gin-fuelled bursts - he believed
alcohol was essential to his creative process. From Marx to
Murakami and Beethoven to Bacon, Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
presents the working routines of more than a hundred and sixty of
the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to
have lived. Whether by amphetamines or alcohol, headstand or
boxing, these people made time and got to work. Featuring
photographs of writers and artists at work, and filled with
fascinating insights on the mechanics of genius and entertaining
stories of the personalities behind it, Daily Rituals is
irresistibly addictive, and utterly inspiring.
Through the novels of England's foremost woman writer, we explore
the Regency world at the time of the Napoleonic wars, its manners,
fashion and style, pastimes and entertainments. Jane Austen - loved
now by a huge audience, thanks partly to modern-day TV and film -
led a quiet, uneventful life - yet lived amid great events, in a
society viewed with remarkable wit and perception. Here are the
places Austen knew, visited and featured in her books: the settings
for balls, country strolls, holiday tours, carriage drives, walks,
picnics, rendezvous and revelations. The guide includes evocative
quotations, surprising facts and places to visit.
John le Carre was a defining writer of his time. This enthralling
collection letters - written to readers, publishers, film-makers
and actors, politicians and public figures - reveals the playfully
intelligent and unfailingly eloquent man behind the penname. _____
'The symbiosis of author and editor, father and son, has resulted
in a brilliant book, le Carre's final masterpiece' 5*, Jake
Kerridge, Sunday Telegraph _____ A Private Spy spans seven decades
and chronicles not only le Carre's own life but the turbulent times
to which he was witness. Beginning with his 1940s childhood, it
includes accounts of his National Service and his time at Oxford,
and his days teaching the 'chinless, pointy-nosed gooseberry-eyed
British lords' at Eton. It describes his entry into MI5 and the
rise of the Iron Curtain, and the flowering of his career as a
novelist in reaction to the building of the Berlin Wall. Through
his letters we travel with him from the Second World War period to
the immediate moment in which we live. We find le Carre writing to
Sir Alec Guinness to persuade him to take on the role of George
Smiley, and later arguing the immorality of the War on Terror with
the chief of the German internal security service. What emerges is
a portrait not only of the writer, or of the global intellectual,
but, in his own words, of the very private, very passionate and
very real man behind the name. _____ Includes letters to: John
Banville William Burroughs John Cheever Stephen Fry Graham Greene
Sir Alec Guinness Hugh Laurie Ben Macintyre Ian McEwan Gary Oldman
Philip Roth Philippe Sands Sir Tom Stoppard Margaret Thatcher And
more...
MAKING HISTORY is an epic exploration of who writes about the past
and how the biases of certain storytellers - whether Julius Caesar,
William Shakespeare or Simon Schama - continue to influence our
ideas about history (and about who we are) today. In this
authoritative and entertaining book, Richard Cohen reveals how
professional historians and other equally significant witnesses
(such as the writers of the Bible, major novelists, dramatists,
journalists and political propagandists) influence what become the
accepted records of human experience. Is there, he asks, even such
a thing as 'objective' history? The depth of Cohen's inquiry and
the delight he takes in his subjects includes the practitioners of
what he calls 'Bad History,' those thieves of history who twist
reality to glorify themselves and conceal their or their country's
behaviour. Cohen investigates the published works and private
utterances of our greatest historical thinkers to discover the
agendas that informed their views of the world, and which in so
many ways have informed ours. From the origins of history-writing,
when such an idea seemed itself revolutionary, through to
television and the digital age, MAKING HISTORY abounds in
captivating figures brought to vivid life, from Thucydides and
Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, from Winston Churchill to Mary
Beard. Rich in character, complex truths and surprising anecdotes,
the result is a unique exploration of both the aims and craft of
history-making. It will lead us to think anew about our past and
ourselves.
An Irish Times and The i Book of 2022 'Tense and intimate . . . an
education' - Geoff Dyer 'Enriching, sobering and at times
heartrending. A wonder' - Sir Lenny Henry 'Authentic, fascinating
and deeply moving' - Terry Waite __________ Can someone in prison
be more free than someone outside? Would we ever be good if we
never felt shame? What makes a person worthy of forgiveness? Andy
West teaches philosophy in prisons. Every day he has conversations
with people inside about their lives, discusses their ideas and
feelings, and listens as they explore new ways to think about their
situation. When Andy steps into a prison, he also confronts his
inherited shame: his father, uncle and brother all spent time
behind bars. While Andy has built a different life for himself, he
still fears that their fate will also be his. As he discusses
pressing questions of truth, identity and hope with his students,
he searches for his own form of freedom too. Moving, sympathetic,
wise and frequently funny, The Life Inside is an elegantly written
and unforgettable memoir. Through a blend of storytelling and
gentle philosophical questioning, it offers a new insight into our
stretched justice system, our failing prisons and the complex lives
being lived inside. __________ 'Inspiring' - The Observer 'Strives
with humour and compassion to understand the phenomenon of prison'
- Sydney Review of Books 'Expands both heart and mind' - Ciaran
Thapar 'A fascinating and enlightening journey . . . A legitimate
page-turner' - 3AM
Revelatory talks about art and life with internationally acclaimed
Israeli novelist Amos Oz In the last years of his life, the writer
Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with
him as the editor of his final novel, Judas. These candid,
uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw. What
Makes an Apple? presents the most revealing of these conversations
in English for the first time, painting an illuminating and
disarmingly intimate portrait of a towering literary figure. In
frank and open exchanges that are by turns buoyant, introspective,
and argumentative, Oz explains what impels him to begin a story and
shares his routines, habits, and challenges as a writer. He
discusses the tectonic changes he experienced in his lifetime in
relationships between women and men, and describes how his erotic
coming of age shaped him not only as a man but also as an author.
Oz reflects on his parents, his formative years on a kibbutz, and
how he dealt with and learned from his critics, his students, and
his fame. He talks about why there is more humor in his later books
and gives his exceptional take on fear of death. Resonating with
Oz's clear, honest, and humorous voice, What Makes an Apple? offers
unique insights about Oz's artistic and personal evolution, and
enables readers to explore his work in new ways.
'Sympathetic and wonderfully perceptive . . . a heartbreaking read'
NICK COHEN, Critic 'Wise, witty and empathetic . . . outstanding'
JIM CRACE 'A fascinating treatment of the age-old problem of
writers and drink which displays the same subtle qualities as
William Palmer's own undervalued novels' D. J. TAYLOR An 'enjoyable
exploration of an enduringly fascinating subject . . . [Palmer] is
above all a dispassionate critic, and is always attentive to, and
unwaveringly perceptive about the art of his subjects as well as
their relationship with alcohol . . . [his] treatment is
even-handed and largely without judgement. He tries to understand,
without either condoning or censuring, the impulses behind often
reprehensible behaviour' SOUMYA BHATTACHARYA, New Statesman 'A
vastly absorbing and entertaining study of this ever-interesting
subject' ANDREW DAVIES, screenwriter and novelist 'In Love with
Hell is a fascinating and beautifully written account of the lives
of eleven British and American authors whose addiction to alcohol
may have been a necessary adjunct to their writing but ruined their
lives. Palmer's succinct biographies contain fine descriptions of
the writers, their work and the times they lived in; and there are
convincing insights into what led so many authors to take to
drink.' PIERS PAUL READ Why do some writers destroy themselves by
drinking alcohol? Before our health-conscious age it would be true
to say that many writers drank what we now regard as excessive
amounts. Graham Greene, for instance, drank on a daily basis
quantities of spirits and wine and beer most doctors would consider
as being dangerous to his health. But he was rarely out of control
and lived with his considerable wits intact to the age of
eighty-six. W. H. Auden drank the most of a bottle of spirits a
day, but also worked hard and steadily every day until his death.
Even T. S. Eliot, for all his pontifical demeanour, was extremely
fond of gin and was once observed completely drunk on a London Tube
station by a startled friend. These were not writers who are
generally regarded as alcoholics. 'Alcoholic' is, in any case, a
slippery word, as exemplified by Dylan Thomas's definition of an
alcoholic as 'someone you dislike who drinks as much as you.' The
word is still controversial and often misunderstood and misapplied.
What acclaimed novelist and poet William Palmer's book is
interested in is the effect that heavy drinking had on writers, how
they lived with it and were sometimes destroyed by it, and how they
described the whole private and social world of the drinker in
their work. He looks at Patrick Hamilton ('the feverish magic that
alcohol can work'); Jean Rhys ('As soon as I sober up I start
again'); Charles Jackson ('Delirium is a disease of the night');
Malcolm Lowry ('I love hell. I can't wait to go back there'); Dylan
Thomas ('A womb with a view'); John Cheever ('The singing of the
bottles in the pantry'); Flann O'Brien ('A pint of plain is your
only man'); Anthony Burgess ('Writing is an agony mitigated by
drink'); Kingsley Amis ('Beer makes you drunk'); Richard Yates
('The road to Revolutionary Road'); and Elizabeth Bishop ('The
writer's writer's writer').
A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR From one of our greatest living
writers, comes a remarkable memoir of a forgotten England. 'The war
went. We sang in the playground, "Bikini lagoon, an atom bomb's
boom, and two big explosions." David's father came back from Burma
and didn't eat rice. Twiggy taught by reciting "The Pied Piper of
Hamelin", "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and the thirteen times
table. Twiggy was fat and short and he shouted, and his neck was as
wide as his head. He was a bully, though he didn't take any notice
of me.' In Where Shall We Run To?, Alan Garner remembers his early
childhood in the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge: life at the
village school as 'a sissy and a mardy-arse'; pushing his friend
Harold into a clump of nettles to test the truth of dock leaves;
his father joining the army to guard the family against Hitler; the
coming of the Yanks, with their comics and sweets and chewing gum.
From one of our greatest living writers, it is a remarkable and
evocative memoir of a vanished England.
George Orwell is a difficult author to summarize. He was a would-be
revolutionary who went to Eton, a political writer who abhorred
dogma, a socialist who thrived on his image as a loner, and a
member of the Imperial Indian Police who chronicled the iniquities
of imperialism. Both the books in this volume were published in the
1930s, a "a low, dishonest decade," as his coeval W.H. Auden
described it. Orwell's subjects in Down and Out in Paris and London
and The Road to Wigan Pier are the political and social upheavals
of his time. He focusses on the sense of profound injustice,
incipient violence, and malign betrayal that were ubiquitous in
Europe in the 1930s. Orwell's honesty, courage, and sense of
decency are inextricably bound up with the quasi-colloquial style
that imbues his work with its extraordinary power. His descriptions
of working in the slums of Paris, living the life of a tramp in
England, and digging for coal with miners in the North make for a
thoughtful, riveting account of the lives of the working poor and
of one man's search for the truth. Our edition includes the
following essays: Marrakech; How the Poor Die; Antisemitism in
Britain; Notes on Nationalism
This is a biography of the influential poet and illustrator, Ralph
Hodgson. Profusely illustrated with many of Hodgson's original
cartoons and line-drawings, the book is sure to capture yet another
generation of readers for Hodgson's timeless verse.
A self-portrait of a great writer. "A Short Autobiography" charts
Fitzgerald's progression from exuberant and cocky with "What I
think and Feel at 25," to mature and reflective with "One Hundred
False Starts" and "The Death of My Father." Compiled and edited by
Professor James West, this revealing collection of personal essays
and articles reveals the beloved author in his own words.
"Something will happen to me on Desolation Peak...I can feel it."
In the summer of 1956, Jack Kerouac hitchhiked from Mill Valley,
CA, to the North Cascades to spend two months serving as a fire
lookout for the US Forest Service. Taking only the Diamond Sutra
for reading material, he intended to spend his time in deep
contemplation and to achieve enlightenment. He wrote in his journal
that he planned "to concentrate on emptiness of self, other selves,
living beings, and universal self." In letters to friends he
proclaimed, "Something will happen to me on Desolation Peak...I can
feel it." Kerouac's experience on Desolation Peak forms the climax
of his novel The Dharma Bums and has also been depicted in part 1
of Desolation Angels and a chapter in his nonfiction book Lonesome
Traveler. None of these versions offers a full, true picture,
however; and for that reason, Desolation Peak is essential reading.
What separates Kerouac from all other writers is the depth that he
went in exploring his own consciousness, and what will prove his
most enduring legacy is the record he left of that exploration,
revealing the psyche of a sensitive, tortured artist grappling with
himself in the mid-20th Century. The highlight of Desolation Peak
is the journal he kept, starkly revealing the depth of his poverty,
the extremity of his mood swings, and the ongoing arguments with
himself over the future direction of his life, his writing, and
faith. Along with the journal, he worked on a series of projects,
including "Ozone Park," another installment of the Duluoz Legend
beginning in 1943, after his discharge from the Navy; "The Martin
Family," an intended sequel to The Town and the City, and
"Desolation Adventure," a series of sketches that became part 1 of
Desolation Angels,. In writing it, Kerouac was re-committing
himself to his more experimental, then-unpublishable style,
declaring in the journal that "the form of the future is no-form."
Also included in Collected Writings is "The Diamondcutter of
Perfect Knowing," Kerouac's "transliteration" of the Diamond Sutra,
his "Desolation Blues" and "Desolation Pops" poems, and assorted
prose sketches and dreams.
First published in 1957, this book explores what remained of
Joyce's background, not only in Ireland but in those cities abroad
where his books were written. With the co-operation of those who
knew the author, including his brother, much new material was
brought together to shed new light on Joyce's life, character and
methods of writing. The author traces Joyce, and his writings, from
his beginnings in Ireland, through Zurich, London and Paris, to his
difficult final year at Vichy in 1940. Previously unpublished
letters illustrate his relationships with important figures of the
period like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and H.G. Wells. This title will
be of interest to student of literature.
The essential gift for lovers of Prince, of Dickens and everyone in
between! In Nick Hornby's completely joyous and original new book
two great figures share the stage. Charles Dickens and Prince. Two
wildly different artists who caught fire and lit up the world in
ways no others could. Where did their magic come from? How did they
work so hard and produce so much? How did they manage or give in to
the restlessness and intensity of their creativity? How did they
use it, and did it kill them? With wit, curiosity and deep
admiration Nick Hornby traces their extraordinary lives - from
their difficult beginnings to the women they fell for to their
limitless energy for work, to their money and the movies - and
brilliantly illuminates their very particular kind of genius. 'I
love this. It's smart and funny and elegantly persuasive' Robert
Douglas-Fairhurst, author of Becoming Dickens
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