Phizzwhizzing new cover look and branding for the World's NUMBER ONE Storyteller!BOY, Roald Dahl's bestselling autobiography, is full of hilarious anecdotes about his childhood and school days, illustrated by Quentin Blake.As a boy, all sorts of unusual things happened to Roald Dahl. There was the time he and four school friends got their revenge on beastly Mrs Prachett in her sweet shop.There are stories of holidays in fishing boats, African adventures and the days of tasting chocolate for Cadbury's.You'll hear tales of horrible school bullies and the motor-car accident when Roald's nose was nearly sliced clean off . . .Roald Dahl vividly shares his memories; some are funny. Some are painful. Some are unpleasant. All are true.You can listen to all of Roald Dahl's stories on Puffin Audiobooks, read by some very famous voices, including Kate Winslet, David Walliams and Steven Fry - plus there are added squelchy sound effects from Pinewood Studios! Also look out for new Roald Dahl apps in the App store and Google Play- including the disgusting TWIT OR MISS! and HOUSE OF TWITS inspired by the revolting Twits.

The Ven Archdeacon Professor Emeritus Peter Tshobisa Mtuze is a poet, priest and academic. He has worked as an interpreter in the law courts of the old South Africa, as a radio announcer, a salesperson for a publishing company, a civil servant in the homeland government structures, a lecturer at UNISA, and as Editor in Chief of the Greater Dictionary of isiXhosa at Fort Hare. He then joined Rhodes University as Professor and Head of the isiXhosa Department, and he also served there as Deputy Campus Director and Deputy Registrar. From 1966 to date, he has published more than 30 books in many genres – novels, short stories, essays, drama, poetry, autobiography, and cultural and theological publications. Some of these works received awards and accolades from various institutions, and one of his novels is on the list of literary classics. Many of the titles are available in Braille and as audio recordings. Mtuze translated former President Nelson Mandela’s monumental autobiography Long Walk to Freedom into isiXhosa as Indlela ende eya enkululekweni. From a poverty-stricken farm background, he fought his way up to become one of the most accomplished academics, with a PhD from the University of Cape Town, a DTh from UNISA and a DLitt (Honoris Causa) from Rhodes University. Mtuze’s autobiography will serve as an inspiration to one and all.

Readers and students of Ayn Rand will value seeing in this collection of interviews how Ayn Rand applied her philosophy and moral principles to the issues of the day. Objectively Speaking includes half a century of print and broadcast interviews drawn from the Ayn Rand Archives. The thirty-two interviews in this collection, edited by Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, include print interviews from the 1930s and edited transcripts of radio and television interviews from the 1940s through 1981. Selections are included from a remarkable series of radio broadcasts over a four-year period (1962-1966) on Columbia University's station WKCR in New York City and syndicated throughout the United States and Canada. Ayn Rand's unusual and strikingly original insights on a vast range of topics are captured by prominent interviewers in the history of American television broadcasting, such as Johnny Carson, Edwin Newman, Mike Wallace, and Louis Rukeyser. The collection concludes with an interview of Dr. Leonard Peikoff on his radio program in 1999, recalling his 30-year personal and professional association with Ayn Rand and discussing her unique intellectual and literary achievements. Ayn Rand is the best-selling author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, and We the Living. Fifty years or more after publication, sales of these novels continue to increase.

The Small Years was first published in June 1930 and printed three times in its first six months. In 1937 it was re-issued in a smaller pocket edition, and this went out of print during the war. This second edition, which was originally published in 1950, returned the text to its larger form. This is simply one man's account of what it meant to him to be a child - to be born and brought up at an unusual school in a remote and beautiful rurality; an account which, by all the evidence, clearly has power over its readers of inciting them to recover and live over again their own private memories of a great variety of childhoods. Mr Walter de la Mare's introduction to the first edition is retained, and the author's original map of the village is in its place once more.

John Forster (1812-76), an exact contemporary of Charles Dickens, was one of his closest friends, and acted for him (as for many other authors) as advisor, editor, proofreader, agent and marketing manager: according to Thackeray, 'whenever anyone is in a scrape we all fly to him for refuge. He is omniscient and works miracles.' Forster was Dickens' literary executor, and was left the manuscripts of many of the novels, which he in turn left (along with the rest of his magnificent library) to the South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria and Albert Museum). He was ideally placed to write a biography of Dickens, having known him since the 1830s, and having been involved in deeply private matters such as Dickens' separation from his wife. This three-volume account was first published between 1872 and 1874; the version of Volume 1 reissued here is the 'seventh edition' of 1872.

John Forster (1812-76), an exact contemporary of Charles Dickens, was one of his closest friends, and acted for him (as for many other authors) as advisor, editor, proofreader, agent and marketing manager: according to Thackeray, 'whenever anyone is in a scrape we all fly to him for refuge. He is omniscient and works miracles.' Forster was Dickens' literary executor, and was left the manuscripts of many of the novels, which he in turn left (along with the rest of his magnificent library) to the South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria and Albert Museum). He was ideally placed to write a biography of Dickens, having known him since the 1830s, and having been involved in deeply private matters such as Dickens' separation from his wife. This three-volume account was first published between 1872 and 1874; the version of Volume 2 reissued here is the 'tenth thousand' of 1873.

This second volume of the acclaimed Cambridge biography of D. H. Lawrence covers the years 1912-22, the period in which he forged his reputation as one of the greatest and most controversial writers of the twentieth century. The story opens as the twenty-six-year-old Lawrence travels to Germany with Frieda Weekley, the wife of a university professor and mother of three small children. In his baggage on that prosaic cross-channel ferry was a draft of Sons and Lovers, the first of a group of novels with which Lawrence was to revolutionize English fiction over the next decade. This meticulously researched volume opens a new perspective on the central period of Lawrence's life and literary career. Drawing on memoirs, oral recollections, and unpublished manuscript material, it deals squarely with the vexing issue of Lawrence and Frieda's personal relations--issues that have more often been gossiped about than scrupulously examined. Above all it reveals the triumph of Lawrence's art during a decade of extraordinary trials in which, against all reasonable odds, the coal-miner's son established himself as the most innovative and notorious novelist of his generation.

Autobiography of Mark Twain (1907) is a collection of autobiographical writings by American humorist Mark Twain. Dictated toward the end of his life, the Autobiography of Mark Twain is a series of brief reflections on 74 years of fame, hard work, and adventure by an icon of American literature. Originally serialized in the North American Review, the United States' oldest literary magazine, the Autobiography of Mark Twain has gone through countless editions in the century after Twain's death, and is considered a masterpiece of literary nonfiction. "I intend that this autobiography shall become a model for all future autobiographies when it is published [...] because of its form and method-a form and method whereby the past and the present are constantly brought face to face, resulting in contrasts which newly fire up the interest all along, like contact of flint with steel." Focusing on the small events, unremarkable encounters, and marginalia which make a life both common and particular, Mark Twain envisions a model of autobiography capable of dispelling the myth of the writer as a man of fortune and mysterious talent. Capturing episodes from his youth and the early stages of his writing career, reflecting on the importance of his wife Olivia and daughter Susy, and describing the influence of labor on his philosophy of life, Twain invites his reader to recognize him not just as Samuel Clemens, his birth name, but as a man who lived and worked and triumphed and suffered alongside others, as a man whose success was a testament to the power of community. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Mark Twain's Autobiography of Mark Twain is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Published posthumously in 1766, A Journal to Stella by Jonathan Swift is a complete collection consisting of sixty-five letters he wrote to Esther Johnson, whom he bestowed the name of Stella. It is known that Stella is the name Swift gave to Esther Johnson. They met when she was only eight years old and knew each other for the entirety of the rest of their lives. Swift was first a mentor to young Esther. He taught her to read and write then introduced her to the arts. Jonathan's relationship to Esther is intriguing. While they shared a friendship for many years, Jonathan left her in Ireland when he moved to London for some time. In that time, he drew interest from several other women, but nothing came of those relationships. However, when a man showed interest in Esther and wished to propose, the letters disclose how Jonathan prevented this from happening. Such interference provides greater evidence for the affection he felt for Stella. There are no accounts from Stella herself, but Swift depicts her character wonderfully as a loyal, kind, and clever woman. The sixty-five letters to Stella that compose A Journal to Stella, explores Swift and Johnson's relationship and history. A Journal to Stella is an interesting study on the relationship between the highly esteemed classical author, Jonathan Swift and a woman who was very dear to him. Written with affection and detailed prose, the letters that are featured in A Journal to Stella also reveal insights on the culture of 18th century London and features many of the prominent men that Swift met. As he wrote of his daily routine and life, readers are allowed a privileged glimpse of how this famous author lived day to day, including the intimate details of his relationships. Containing the wit and humor Swift is famous for, A Journal to Stella reveals the author for who he really was, allowing even modern readers to know this incredible 18th century man. This edition of Jonathan Swift's A Journal to Stella features an eye-catching cover design and is printed in a readable font, making it both accessible and modern.

George's memory is inseparable from Orkney, where he was born the youngest child of a poor family and which he rarely left. His mother was a beautiful woman who spoke only Gaelic and his father was a wit, mimic and singer, who also doubled as postman and tailor. Tuberculosis framed George's early life and kept him in a kind of limbo. He discovered alcohol which gave him insights into the workings of the mind. While attending the University of Edinburgh he came into contact with Goodsir Smith, MacDiarmid and Norman MacCaig - and Stella Cartwright with whom perhaps all of them were in love. By the time of his death in 1996 he was recognised as one of the great writers of his time and country.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name of Mark Twain, is one of the most famous writers in American (and world) literature. Twain had a fascinating life that began in hardship in 1835 (only three of his seven siblings survived childhood) and ended shortly before the First World War. Best known for his writing, Twain was also a gifted raconteur, entrepreneur, publisher, freemason, and lecturer across a very busy life that saw him patent inventions, go bankrupt and receive a PhD from Oxford University, all the while putting out an enormous volume of superbly written literary work. Twain also recorded some of the most biting commentary and criticism of politics and culture and is famous for his brilliant words, aphorisms, one-liners and sayings. He was never a man stuck for words, and he lived through one of the most amazing eras of politics, social and scientific change and evolution. Many of his words are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago and plenty of his classic phrases grace the pages of The Little Book of Mark Twain, alongside numerous extracts from his writings, as well as comment and criticism from his contemporaries, fans and followers. It adds up to a superb overview of the man, his character, his writing and his incredible talent. SAMPLE QUOTE: 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.' - Mark Twain SAMPLE FACT: Twain was very close friends with Nikola Tesla and they worked together in Tesla's laboratory.

First published in 1836, this lively two-volume autobiography of Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) reveals the background and mindset of this fascinating character. Best-known for helping to stimulate interest in bibliography and for his enthusiasm in promoting book collecting among the aristocracy, the English bibliographer adopts a conversational and anecdotal tone as he shares the details of his life and work with the reader. Volume 2 begins with Dibdin's experiences at Althorp, describing how the rich library there was thrown open to him. He then continues his detailed discussion of his publications, and focuses on his life in London, before the final chapter turns to private libraries and their importance in his life. Drawing upon letters and literature throughout, Dibdin recounts many entertaining tales, including an unfortunate encounter with a 'savage-hearted critic' at a dinner party, and introduces the influential characters he meets along the way.

This book is available as an Open Access ebook under a CC-BY_NC-ND licence. This is a comprehensive and definitive study of the Man Booker Prize-winning novelist, Howard Jacobson. It offers lucid, detailed and nuanced readings of each of Jacobson's novels, and makes a powerful case for the importance of his work in the landscape of contemporary fiction. Focusing on the themes of comedy, masculinity and Jewishness, the book emphasises the richness and diversity of Jacobson's work. Often described by others as 'the English Philip Roth' and by himself as 'the Jewish Jane Austen', Jacobson emerges here as a complex and often contradictory figure: a fearless novelist; a combative public intellectual; a polemical journalist; an unapologetic elitist and an irreverent outsider; an exuberant iconoclast and a sombre satirist. Never afraid of controversy, Jacobson tends to polarise readers; but love him or hate him, he is difficult to ignore. This book gives him the thorough consideration and the balanced evaluation that he deserves. -- .

In 1911, the New York Times alerted its readers to the forthcoming 'authoritative' biography of Ruskin with the words 'out of a life's devotion to Ruskin and the Herculean task of editing the definitive Ruskin, Mr E. T. Cook is to give us a definitive Ruskin biography also. It will have the authority of a brilliant Oxford scholar, combined with the charm and lightness of a style which makes Mr Cook one of the first of English journalists'. Cook had been given complete access to Ruskin's diaries, notebooks and letters by his literary executors, and Ruskin's family and friends co-operated fully with him. His depth of knowledge of, and sympathy for, his subject make Cook's biography a vital tool for anyone wishing to understand Ruskin's extraordinary achievements in so many fields. Volume 1 covers the period to 1860, the year in which the final volume of Modern Painters was published.

In 1911, the New York Times alerted its readers to the forthcoming 'authoritative' biography of Ruskin with the words 'out of a life's devotion to Ruskin and the Herculean task of editing the definitive Ruskin, Mr E. T. Cook is to give us a definitive Ruskin biography also. It will have the authority of a brilliant Oxford scholar, combined with the charm and lightness of a style which makes Mr Cook one of the first of English journalists'. Cook had been given complete access to Ruskin's diaries, notebooks and letters by his literary executors, and Ruskin's family and friends co-operated fully with him. His depth of knowledge of, and sympathy for, his subject make Cook's biography a vital tool for anyone wishing to understand Ruskin's extraordinary achievements in so many fields. Volume 2 covers the period from 1860 to Ruskin's death in 1900, and includes an index to both volumes.

Alun, Gweno and Freda is a radical reworking of John Pikoulis's classic biography, Alun Lewis: A Life (Seren, 1984) with new material which sheds further light on the greatest writer of the Second World War, Alun Lewis (1915-1944). Born in the impoverished industrial valleys of south Wales, the story of Lewis has many varied aspects - he was a talented academic, a gifted writer, a depressive personality, politically aspirational in left wing terms, a pacifist by nature who was faced with a war against fascism. In the course of the war he became caught between two women on opposite sides of the world, his wife Gweno and Freda Aykroyd, an ex patriot in India whose house provided respite for officers on leave there. Lewis's relationships with Gweno and Freda informed his poetry but also contributed to an inevitable emotional turmoil. He died in mysterious circumstances on active service in Burma: was his death an accident or suicide? And did his triangular relationship with Gweno and Freda contribute to the ending of his life? Essentially the story of Lewis's short and sometimes tortured life, the book is also the story about how it was written. It quotes extensively from interviews with and correspondence from the main players in the story, and explores the sometimes difficult and delicate territories to be negotiated by the biographer as a story unfolds.

Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600 81) is Spain's most important early modern dramatist. His varied career as a playwright, courtier, soldier and priest placed him at the heart of Spanish culture, and he reflected on contemporary events in his plays, most famously La vida es sueno (Life is a Dream). In this 2009 scholarly biography of Calderon in English, Don Cruickshank uses his command of the archival sources and his unparalleled understanding of Calderon's work to chart his life and his political, literary and religious contexts. In addition, the book includes much fresh research into Calderon's writings and their attributions. This elegant, erudite work will bring Calderon to a new audience both within and beyond Spanish studies. With illustrations, extensive notes and a detailed index, this is the most comprehensive English-language book on Calderon, and it will long remain the key work of reference on this important author.

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.

From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks - writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles Here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through. And from a different notebook: the "California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage.

In this charming and thought-provoking 1926 volume, Arthur Gray, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1912 to 1940, explored the possibility that William Shakespeare spent his formative years at Polesworth Hall in the Forest of Arden, perhaps serving as a page boy. The Forest of Arden once stretched from just north of Stratford-upon-Avon to Tamworth, and covered what is now Birmingham; Polesworth, near Tamworth, was the home of Sir Henry Goodere and the centre of the famed 'Polesworth Circle'. This splendid focus of creative and cultural activity would have offered the young William exposure to the finest minds, a wonderful education and valuable introductions. Sir Henry, who evidently knew John Shakespeare in Stratford, was certainly patron of many young writers and musicians, including the eminent Elizabethan poet, Michael Drayton. If Gray is correct, Drayton would have been a contemporary of Shakespeare's at Polesworth.

One of the world's greatest writers, John Updike chronicled America for more than five decades. This book examines the essence of Updike's writing, propelling our understanding of his award-winning fiction, prose, and poetry. Widely considered "America's Man of Letters," John Updike is a prolific novelist and critic with an unprecedented range of work across more than 50 years. No author has ever written from the variety of vantages or spanned topics like Updike did. Despite being widely recognized as one of the nation's literary greats, scholars have largely ignored Updike's vast catalog of work outside the Rabbit tetralogy. This work provides the first detailed examination of Updike's body of criticism, poetry, and journalism, and shows how that work played a central role in transforming his novels. The book disputes the common misperception of Updike as merely a chronicler of suburban, middle-class America by focusing on his novels and stories that explore the wider world, from the groundbreaking The Coup (1978) to Terrorist (2006). Popular culture scholar Bob Batchelor asks readers to reassess Updike's career by tracing his transformation over half a century of writing.

R. B. Cunninghame Graham (1852 1936) was one of the most brilliant and mercurial characters of his day. Known as 'Don Roberto' and 'the Modern Don Quixote' because of his Spanish blood and impetuous life-style, and as 'the Uncrowned King of Scotland' because of his descent from King Robert II, he was a paradoxical man whose career was astonishingly varied. After an early period as an adventurer, when he worked as a cattle-rancher and horse-dealer in South America and Texas, he embarked on a stormy political career. He was the first socialist in Parliament, was gaoled after assailing the police at the Battle of Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday, 1887, later became the founder and president of the first Labour Party, and was eventually elected president of the Scottish National Party. Meanwhile he travelled in Morocco disguised as an Arab sheik and prospected for gold in Spain.