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Book of the Week on Radio 4, and in the Observer, Sunday Times,
Daily Mail and The Week 'Riveting, and immaculately written' Sunday
Telegraph 'A superb psychological study of a literary genius'
Business Post 'A rounded picture... and gets to Dahl's flawed,
human core' Country Life 'Crisply done and well-judged' TLS A
brand-new biography of Roald Dahl, re-evaluating the received
narrative surrounding the life of the much-loved author and creator
of numerous iconic literary characters – from one of our finest
contemporary biographers. Roald Dahl was one of the world’s
greatest storytellers. He considered his vocation to be as bold and
exciting as an explorer’s and, in his writing for children, he
was able to tap into a child’s viewpoint throughout his life. He
crafted tales that were exotic in scenario, frequently invested
with a moral, and filled with vibrant characters that endure in the
public imagination to the present day.
Beatrix Potter is one of the world's bestselling, most cherished
authors, whose books have enchanted generations of children for
over a hundred years. Yet how she achieved this legendary status is
just one of several stories of Beatrix Potter's remarkable and
unexpected life. Inspired by the twenty-three 'tales', Matthew
Dennison takes a selection of quotations from Potter's stories and
uses them to explore her multi-faceted life and character:
repressed Victorian daughter; thwarted lover; artistic genius;
formidable countrywoman. They chart her transformation from a young
girl with a love of animals and fairy tales into a bestselling
author and canny businesswoman, so deeply unusual for the Victorian
era in which she grew up. Embellished with photographs of Potter's
life and her own illustrations, this short biography will delight
anyone who has been touched by Beatrix Potter's work.
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The Queen (Paperback)
Matthew Dennison
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R416
R342
Discovery Miles 3 420
Save R74 (18%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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For millions of people, both in Britain and across the world, Elizabeth II is the embodiment of monarchy. Her long life spans nearly a century of national and global history, from a time before the Great Depression to the era of Covid-19. Her reign embraces all but seven years of Britain's postwar history; she has been served by fifteen UK prime ministers from Churchill to Johnson, and witnessed the administrations of thirteen US presidents from Truman to Trump. The vast majority of Britons cannot remember a world without Elizabeth II as head of state and the Commonwealth.
In this brand-new biography of the longest-reigning sovereign in British history, Matthew Dennison traces her life and reign across an era of unprecedented and often seismic social change. Stylish in its writing and nuanced in its judgements, The Queen charts the joys and triumphs as well as the disappointments and vicissitudes of a remarkable royal life; it also assesses the achievement of a woman regarded as the champion of a handful of 'British' values endorsed – if no longer practised – by the bulk of the nation: service, duty, steadfastness, charity and stoicism.
Book of the Week on Radio 4, and in the Observer, Sunday Times,
Daily Mail and The Week 'Riveting, and immaculately written' Sunday
Telegraph 'A superb psychological study of a literary genius'
Business Post 'A rounded picture... and gets to Dahl's flawed,
human core' Country Life 'Crisply done and well-judged' TLS Roald
Dahl was one of the world's greatest storytellers. He conceived his
vocation as one as intrepid as that of any explorer and, in his
writing for children, he was able to tap into a child's viewpoint
throughout his life. He crafted tales that were exotic in scenario,
frequently invested with a moral, and filled with vibrant
characters that endure in public imagination to the present day. In
this brand-new biogrpahy, Matthew Dennison re-evaluates the
received narrative surrounding Dahl - that of school sporting hero,
daredevil pilot, and wartime spy-turned-author - and examines
surviving primary resources as well as Dahl's extensive literary
output to tell the story of a man who identified as a rule-breaker,
an iconoclast and a romantic, both insider and outsider, hero and
child's friend.
A fresh, witty, accessible life of Queen Victoria. Not since Lytton
Strachey has the irony, contradictions and influence of this Queen
been treated with such flourish or biographical insight. Reigning
over a lifetime, Queen Victoria embodied the spirit of the
contradictory era to which she lent her name. She championed modern
art and photography but resisted education for the working classes
and woman's suffrage; she advocated cultural imperialism, tempered
by imperial compassion; in her deference to her husband Prince
Albert and her protracted mourning of his death, she combined
wifely submission with regal obstinacy. Original and accessible,
'Queen Victoria' is a compelling assessment of the ruler's
mercurial character, her key relationships and her impact on her
own age and beyond.
An elegant and magisterial new biography of Her Majesty The Queen,
tracing the events of a reign that now spans seven decades, and
evaluating her achievement as a practitioner of monarchy across the
entirety of her reign. For millions of people, both in Britain and
across the world, Elizabeth II is the embodiment of monarchy. Her
long life spans nearly a century of national and global history,
from a time before the Great Depression to the era of Covid-19. Her
reign embraces all but seven years of Britain's postwar history;
she has been served by fifteen UK prime ministers from Churchill to
Johnson, and witnessed the administrations of thirteen US
presidents from Truman to Trump. The vast majority of Britons
cannot remember a world without Elizabeth II as head of state and
the Commonwealth. In this brand-new new biography of the
longest-reigning sovereign in British history, Matthew Dennison
traces her life and reign across an era of unprecedented and often
seismic social change. Stylish in its writing and nuanced in its
judgements, The Queen charts the joys and triumphs as well as the
disappointments and vicissitudes of a remarkable royal life; it
also assesses the achievement of a woman regarded as the champion
of a handful of 'British' values endorsed - if no longer practised
- by the bulk of the nation: service, duty, steadfastness, charity
and stoicism.
Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, later Princess Henry of Battenberg, was the last-born in 1866 of Victoria and Albert's children, and she would outlive all of her siblings to die as recently as 1944. Her childhood coincided with her mother's extended period of mourning for her prematurely deceased husband, a circumstance which may have contributed to Victoria's determination to keep her youngest daughter as close to her as possible.
She would eventually marry Prince Henry of Battenberg in 1885, but only after overcoming her mother's opposition to their union. Beatrice remained Queen Victoria's favourite among her five daughters, and became her mother's constant companion and later her literary executor, spending the years that followed Victoria's death in 1901 editing her mother's journals and voluminous correspondence.
Matthew Dennison's elegantly written biography restores Beatrice to her rightful place as a key figure in the history of the Victorian age, and paints a touching and revealing portrait of the life and family of Britain's second-longest-reigning monarch.
Aristocrat, literary celebrity, 'Rose Queen', devoted wife,
lesbian, recluse, iconoclast - Vita Sackville-West was many things,
but she was never straightforward. Her life is re-told here in a
dazzling new biography. Vita Sackville-West was a woman who defied
categorisation. She was the dispossessed girl whose lonely
childhood at Knole inspired enduring feats of imagination, the
celebrated author and poet, the adored and affectionate wife whose
marriage included passionate homosexual affairs (most famously with
Virginia Woolf ), and the recluse who found in nature and her
garden at Sissinghurst Castle solace from the contradictions of her
extraordinary life. In this dazzling new biography, Matthew
Dennison traces these complexities, depicting a prolific, radical,
sensitive and uncompromising figure in all her depth.
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR.
'Matthew Dennison skilfully covers the facts, producing a vivid
impression of this strange, shy, awkward figure. The result is a highly
readable book' Literary Review.
'A haunting new biography ... A compelling account of Grahame's life'
Daily Mail.
'A sensitively probing and nuanced portrait that makes sense of the
darker character furled in the dreamer' New Statesman.
During the week Kenneth Grahame sat behind a mahogany desk as Secretary
of the Bank of England; at the weekend he retired to the house in the
country he shared with his fanciful wife Elspeth and fragile son
Alistair and took lengthy walks along the Thames in Berkshire, 'tempted
[by] the treasures of hedge and ditch; the rapt surprise of the first
lords-and-ladies, the rustle of a field-mouse, the splash of a frog.'
The result of these pastoral wanderings was The Wind in the Willows: an
enduring classic of children's literature; a cautionary tale for adult
readers; a warning of the fragility of the English countryside; and an
expression of fear at threatened social changes that, in the aftermath
of the World War I, became reality. Like its remarkable author, it
balances maverick tendencies with conservatism. Grahame was an
Edwardian pantheist whose work has a timeless appeal, an escapist whose
withdrawal from reality took the form of time travel into his own past.
One of them was a military genius; one murdered his mother and
fiddled while Rome burned. Six of their number were assassinated,
two committed suicide, and five of them were elevated to the status
of gods. They have come to be known as the 'twelve Caesars' -
Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba,
Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. Under their rule,
Rome was transformed from a republic to an empire, whose model of
regal autocracy would survive in the West for more than a thousand
years. In The Twelve Caesars, Matthew Dennison offers a beautifully
crafted sequence of imperial portraits, triumphantly evoking the
luxury, licence, brutality and sophistication of imperial Rome at
its zenith.
An unforgettable depiction of the Roman empire at the height of its
power and reach, and an elegantly sensational retelling of the
lives and times of the twelve Caesars
One of the them was a military genius, one murdered his mother and
fiddled while Rome burned, another earned the nickname "sphincter
artist." Six of their number were assassinated, two committed
suicide--and five of them were elevated to the status of gods. They
have come down to posterity as the "twelve Caesars"--Julius Caesar,
Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho,
Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Under their rule, from
49 BC to AD 96, Rome was transformed from a republic to an empire,
whose model of regal autocracy would survive in the West for more
than a thousand years. Matthew Dennison offers a beautifully
crafted sequence of colorful biographies of each emperor,
triumphantly evoking the luxury, license, brutality, and
sophistication of imperial Rome at its zenith. But as well as
vividly recreating the lives, loves, and vices of this motley group
of despots, psychopaths and perverts, he paints a portrait of an
era of political and social revolution, of the bloody overthrow of
a proud, five-hundred-year-old political system and its replacement
by a dictatorship which, against all the odds, succeeded more
convincingly than oligarchic democracy in governing a vast
international landmass.
An engrossing biography of Queen Victoria's youngest daughter that
focuses on her relationship with her willful mother--a powerful and
insightful look at two women of significant importance and
influence in world history Beatrice was the last child born to
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her father died when she was four
and Victoria came to depend on her youngest daughter absolutely,
and also demanded from her complete submission. Beatrice succumbed
to her mother's obsessive love, so that by the time she was in her
late teens she was her constant companion. Although Victoria tried
to prevent Beatrice from even so much as thinking of love, her
guard slipped when Beatrice met Prince Henry of Battenberg. Sadly,
Beatrice inherited the hemophilia gene from her mother, which she
passed on to two of her four sons and which her daughter Victoria
Eugenia, in marrying Alfonso XIII of Spain, in turn passed on to
the Spanish royal family. This new examination will restore her to
her proper prominence--as Queen Victoria's second consort.
Empress of Rome is the fascinating biography of one of the most
perplexing and powerful figures of the ancient world: the empress
Livia. Second wife of the emperor Augustus and the mother of his
successor Tiberius, Livia has been vilified by posterity (most
notably by Tacitus and Robert Graves) as the quintessence of the
scheming Roman matriarch, poisoning her relatives one by one to
smooth her son's path to the imperial throne. In this elegant and
rigorously researched biography, Matthew Dennison rescues the
historical Livia from this crudely drawn caricature of the popular
imagination. He depicts a complex, courageous and richly gifted
woman whose true crime was not was not murder but the exercise of
power, and who, in a male-dominated society, had the energy to
create for herself both a prominent public profile and a
significant sphere of political influence.
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