Showing titles in Art & Literature

The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone, here, for the first time, is Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography, in its entirety, exactly as he left it. This major literary event offers the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain’s authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave, as he intended.

Colm Tóibín's Lady Gregory's Toothbrush is a beautiful insight into the life of outspoken Irishwoman, Augusta Gregory. A remarkable figure in Celtic history, she was married to an MP and land-owner, yet retained an unprecedented independence of both thought and deed, actively championing causes close to her heart. At once conservative and radical in her beliefs, she saw no conflict in idealizing and mythologizing the Irish peasantry, for example, while her landlord husband introduced legislation that would, in part, lead to the widespread misery, poverty and starvation of the Great Famine.

Robert Dessaix’s Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story to story, Dessaix describes an identity in flux: his beginnings as an adopted child named Thomas Robert Jones, his youthful interest in religious thinking, his obsession with all things Russian, his marriage to Lisa and divorce, his discovery of travel.

On 10th June 2020, the scholar James Nwoye Adichie died suddenly in Nigeria. In this tender and powerful essay, expanded from the original New Yorker text, his daughter, a self-confessed daddy's girl, remembers her beloved father. Notes on Grief is at once a tribute to a long life of grace and wisdom, the story of a daughter's fierce love for a parent and a revealing examination of the layers of loss and the nature of grief.

Carr, best known for his dark one-liners and signature laugh, didn't begin life as a comedian. After studying social science and political science at Cambridge, he began working for fuel company Shell. While there, he began reading self-help books and, feeling miserable, decided to make a change - he gave up his job and learned how to write jokes, got his first gig as a stand-up and changed his life!

Theroux began his career in America working on Michael Moore's TV Nation, and from this sprang his Weird Weekends (1998-2000) where Theroux spent time on porn sets, with swingers, body builders and white supremacists, to name but a few. Then came the hugely popular series When Louis Met..., in which Theroux spent time with the likes of Max Clifford, Chris Eubank and Jimmy Savile.

A deeply moving memoir about growing up in the 90s, written in the wake of the senseless killing of a beloved friend. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Memoir. 'A quiet, occasionally hilarious, ultimately devastating book . . . the most moving and memorable piece of autobiography I read this year...

Following the death of her beloved mother Jennifer Worth in 2011, Suzannah Worth discovered amongst her manuscripts a folder simply labelled 'Fifth Book'. Imagine her excitement when she sat down to read and her mother's distinctive voice came flooding back. She found herself once again immersed in the world of the 1950s East End of London. The voices of much loved, familiar characters spoke loud and clear, particularly that of Fred the boiler man, who features extensively in this joyful collection.

Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life is the first work to explore the origins of Beatrix Potter's love of gardening and plants and show how this passion came to be reflected in her work.

Known for his network of conservative websites that draws millions of readers everyday, Andrew Breitbart has one main goal: to make sure the "liberally biased" major news outlets in this country cover all aspects of a story fairly. Breitbart is convinced that too many national stories are slanted by the news media in an unfair way. In Righteous Indignation, Breitbart talks about the key issues that Americans face, how he has aligned himself with the Tea Party, and how one needs to deal with the liberal news world head on.

Best known for her internationally, multi-million-copy bestselling novel Flowers in the Attic, Cleo Virginia Andrews lived a fascinating life. Born to modest means, she came of age in the American South during the Great Depression and faced a series of increasingly challenging health issues. Yet, once she rose to international literary fame, she prided herself on her intense privacy.

George Orwell wasn’t just the author of 1984 and Animal Farm — He was the man who saw it all coming. From the jungles of British Burma to the slums of Paris, from the trenches of the Spanish Civil War to the propaganda halls of the BBC, Orwell lived through the machinery of power — and spent every ounce of his voice trying to tear it apart. Orwell: The Man Who Warned Us is a literary biography that doesn’t just tell you who Orwell was — it shows you how he became one of the most dangerous writers in history.

Hunter S. Thompson is often misremembered as a wise-cracking, drug-addled cartoon character. This book reclaims him for what he truly was: a fearless opponent of corruption and fascism, one who sacrificed his future well-being to fight against it, rewriting the rules of journalism and political satire in the process. This skillfully told and dramatic story shows how Thompson saw through Richard Nixon's treacherous populism and embarked on a life-defining campaign to stop it.

One of the most influential, admired, and innovative women of our time: fashion designer, philanthropist, wife, mother, and grandmother, Diane von Furstenberg shares stories about becoming the woman she wanted to be. Diane von Furstenberg started out with a suitcase full of jersey dresses and an idea of who she wanted to be - in her words, "the kind of woman who is independent and who doesn’t rely on a man to pay her bills."

Roses, pleasure, and politics: a fresh take on Orwell as an avid gardener, whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world. "Outside my work the thing I care most about is gardening" wrote George Orwell in 1940. Inspired by her encounter with the surviving roses that Orwell planted in his cottage in Hertfordshire, Rebecca Solnit explores how his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power.

Every hero works to soothe the fears of the people during their period in history. Heroes are not only brave, but they’re also able to navigate the convoluted corridors of society, and to see through the respectable pretense of others to detect the evil that lies within. So, who better to take on the foggy, crime-ridden streets and strict social mores of Victorian London than the iconic literary detective Sherlock Holmes? In Sherlock Holmes: Beyond the Elementary, you’ll investigate the history behind Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s whip-smart, charismatic detective.

In this inspirational and unflinchingly honest memoir, acclaimed author Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border. Reyna Grande...

Thomas Keneally has been observing, reflecting on and writing about Australia and the human condition for well over 50 years. In this deeply personal, passionately drawn and richly tuned collection, he now turns inwards to reflect on what has been important to him, drawing on a lifetime of engagement with the great issues of our recent history and his own moments of discovery and understanding.

The NBC journalist who covered - and took fire from - Donald Trump on the campaign trail offers an inside look at the most shocking presidential election in American history. Intriguing, disturbing, and powerful, Unbelievable is an unprecedented eyewitness account of the 2016 election from an intelligent, dedicated journalist at the center of it - a thoughtful historical record that offers eye-opening insights and details on our political process, the media, and the mercurial 45th president of the United States.

On July 19, 2001, Jeffrey Archer—politician and international best-selling author—was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury. He became Prisoner FF8282 and spent the first three weeks of his sentence in a high-security prison that housed some of Britain's most violent criminals. He was moved to the Lifer's wing—because of the security it provided—where he became a trusted confidant to fellow convicts. Prisoners and guards alike asked for his autograph and sought his advice—though one cellmate sold a story about Archer to the British tabloids.