Showing titles in Authors

Born to the ranks of the lower English gentry in 1775, Jane Austen led what some have mistakenly described as an ordinary and unremarkable life - a life that ended all too soon at the age of 41. But from this life, Austen drew inspiration for six novels that all rank as literary masterpieces, including the widely beloved Pride and Prejudice. So, what do we really know about Austen’s life and influences?

Nora Ephron was one of the most popular, accomplished, and beloved writers in American journalism and film. Nora Ephron: A Biography is the first biography of the Manhattan-born girl who forged a path of her own, earning accolades and adoration from critics and fans alike. Author Kristin Marguerite Doidge explores the tremendous successes and disappointing failures Ephron sustained in her career and examines the private life she tried to keep in balance with her insatiable ambition.

Joining us in the Audible Studios to discuss his latest book, Lost Connections, is New York Times best-selling author and journalist Johann Ari. A Cambridge graduate, Johann Ari has a long and experienced career as an award-winning journalist. His in-depth research and accessible style, beginning with the war on drugs, which made up his first acclaimed title, Chasing the Scream, challenged the way we see drug addiction and legalisation.

Professor Yuval Noah Harari is a lecturer at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Gaining his PhD from Oxford University, he has published several books and articles. His most recent works comprise the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and, most recently Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.

Unlike anything Joyce Carol Oates has written before, A Widow’s Story is the universally acclaimed author’s poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of Raymond Smith, her husband of forty-six years, and its wrenching, surprising aftermath. A recent recipient of National Book...

This is perhaps one of the best-loved of all journals. William Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, began it in May 1800 and resolved to keep it for a short time. She continued it for nearly three years. In it, she brought the Dove Cottage years to vivid and intimate life. She noted the walks and weather, the friends, country neighbours, and travellers on the roads. She set down accounts of the garden, of Wordsworth's marriage, their concern for Coleridge, and the composition of Wordsworth's poetry.

The Fall of the House of Wilde for the first time places Oscar Wilde as a member of one of the most dazzling Anglo-Irish families of Victorian times and in the broader social, political and religious context. A remarkable and perceptive account, this is a major repositioning of our first modern celebrity, a man whose own fall from grace in a trial as public as his father's marked the end of fin de siècle decadence.

Diez años después de la muerte de su padre, el narrador de este libro decide escribirla. Con la sombra del suicidio privándole del duelo, se pregunta: ¿es posible encontrar las palabras de una despedida que no se produjo? Así, este relato personal e íntimo se convierte en una búsqueda para entender cómo se forjan los vínculos familiares, a qué condena el silencio, dónde se esconde la verdad de una historia. Pero la escritura falla, y el autor recurre a las biografías de escritores que se suicidaron y a sus últimas notas para reconstruir un adiós posible, tentativo.

Antwone Quenton Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment his single mother gave birth to him in prison. As a foster child, he suffered more than a dozen years of emotional abandonment and physical abuse, until he escaped and forged a life on the streets. And just as his life was about...

If Vasily Grossman's 1961 masterpiece, Life and Fate, had been published during his lifetime, it would have reached the world together with Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago and before Solzhenitsyn's Gulag. But Life and Fate was seized by the Russian KGB. When it emerged posthumously, decades later, it was recognized as the War and Peace of the 20th century.

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë created some of the greatest works of 19th-century English literature. How did these three young women, born into a humble parsonage on the isolated moors of Northern England, write such striking work? What influenced them? How did they get their stories out into the world? Why do their novels continue to grip readers to this day? These and other questions are what you will explore in The Brontës: Romantic Passion and Social Justice.

Celebrated for being the ‘Nora Ephron’ of the millennial generation, Dolly Alderton joined us for a chat about female friendships, recording her audiobook, and revealed who she’d like to play her in a film.

Dolly Alderton is an award-winning journalist, writer and director, known for her podcast The High Low, as well as her honest and relatable writing. She brings us her debut audiobook, Everything I Know about Love, a spot-on, wildly funny and sometimes heartbreaking book about growing up, growing older and navigating all kinds of love along the way.

Alannah Hill, one of Australia’s most successful fashion designers, created an international fashion brand that defied trends with ornamental, sophisticated elegance, beads, bows and vintage florals. But growing up in a milk bar in Tasmania, Alannah’s childhood was one of hardship, fear and abuse. At an early age she ran away from home with eight suitcases of costumes and a fierce determination to succeed, haunted by her mother’s refrain of ‘you’ll never amount to anything, you can’t sew, nobody likes you and you’re going to end up in a shallow grave, dear!’

‘A uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature’ Philip Hoare ‘An exciting new voice’ Mark Cocker, author of Crow Country In his late thirties, Edward Parnell found himself trapped in the recurring nightmare of a family tragedy. For comfort, he turned to his bookshelves, back to the...

During his youth, the boy who would become C. S. Lewis formed his most basic impressions and tastes regarding music, art, literature, religion, sports, friendship, imagination, education, war, and more. The issues young "Jack" Lewis wrestled with drove him toward the foundation on which his life would be built. His childhood interests, influences, longings, struggles, and even failures prepared him to engage his gifts as a writer, teacher, and friend. Lewis expert Harry Lee Poe unfolds young Jack's key relationships, hobbies, spiritual conflicts, decisions, desires, and dreams.

In his new book, The Fast 800, he gives recipes and meal plans to help you take your future health into your own hands. He gives scientific evidence for using intermittent fasting, tells of the power of time-restricted eating and confirms that 800 calories is the magic number for weight loss. If you can stick to 800 calories a few days a week, you will trigger desirable metabolic changes while still having enough calories to keep you sustained. We spoke about enduring diet myths that need busting, how fasting can help the brain and always trying things out on himself.

Alongside her academic position at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL, where her research into the patterns of human behaviour can apply to a huge range of social problems, Fry’s expertise has also led to the development of several BBC documentaries including City in the Sky and her long-running BBC Radio 4 show, The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry. Her latest book, Hello World, was published in September 2018.

This explosively entertaining memoir abounds in gossip, satire, historical apercus, and trenchant observations. Vidal’s compelling narrative weaves back and forth in time, providing a whole view of the author’s celebrated life, from his birth in 1925 to today, and features a cast of memorable characters - including the Kennedy family, Marlon Brando, Anais Nin, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

"Was, um Himmels willen, hat mich bloß ins gleißende Scheinwerferlicht getrieben, mitten unter die Showwölfe? Eigentlich bin ich doch mehr der gemütliche, tapsige Typ und überhaupt keine Rampensau. Warum wollte ich also bereits im zarten Kindesalter mit aller Macht "berühmt werden"? Und wieso hat das dann tatsächlich geklappt? Nun, vielleicht einfach deshalb, weil ich es meiner Oma als sechsjähriger Knirps genau so versprechen musste.

Ant and Dec met on CBBC's Byker Grove and an instant friendship was formed, on and off screen. They moved from acting to music, releasing three albums as PJ & Duncan, including their still popular hit, 'Let's Get Ready to Rhumble'. From there, presenting children's TV with shows such as SMTV and Gimme 5 was the next step in their journey towards international renown. Next came primetime slots, with the duo presenting shows such as Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Britain's Got Talent and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!