Biography: literary

The Mystery of Charles Dickens [9781786497918]

Charles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Although he specified an unpreten…

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Tolkien's Worlds: The places that inspired the writer's imagination [9780711241275]

This new book from renowned Tolkien expert John Garth investigates the places that inspired the Lord of the Rings author to create his fictional locat…

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Keeping on Keeping on [9781781256497]

Alan Bennett's third collection of prose, Keeping On Keeping On, follows in the footsteps of the phenomenally successful Writing Home and Untold Stori…

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Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time [9780141030791]

BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 in The Sunday Times, Spectator, Mail on Sunday, Observer and Financial Times 'A landmark biography' The Times, Books of the …

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The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah: The Autobiography [9781471168956]

*BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week* Benjamin Zephaniah, who has travelled the world for his art and his humanitarianism, now tells the one story that encom…

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Jeoffry: The Poet's Cat [9780750995672]

Jeoffry was a real cat who lived 250 years ago, confined to an asylum with Christopher Smart, one of the most visionary poets of the age. In exchange…

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Patrick Melrose Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope [9781509897681]

Patrick Melrose Volume 1 contains the first three novels in Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical series, filmed for Sky Atlantic and starring Bened…

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Patrick Melrose Volume 2: Mother's Milk and At Last [9781509897704]

Patrick Melrose Volume 2 contains the final two novels in Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical series, filmed for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedic…

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In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein [9781781255285]

'Perfect equilibrium between the numinous and the touchable is typical of Sampson's achievement.' - Guardian Mary Shelley was brought up in a house fi…

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Stieg Larsson, My Friend [9780857381965]

Five years after his death, Stieg Larsson is best known as the author of the Millennium Trilogy, but during his career as a journalist he was a crucia…

Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse [9781782399384]

The remarkable story of Hemingway's love affair with both the city of Venice and the muse he found there - a young Italian girl who inspired him to co…

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Arthur & Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes [9781408858530]

'Carefully researched but thoroughly readable ... Will surely appeal to the millions of Holmes's admirers as well as students of crime writing' - Kirk…

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Philip Roth: The Biography [9780224098175]

Appointed by Philip Roth and granted complete access and independence, Blake Bailey spent years poring over Roth's personal archive, interviewing his …

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The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Boxed Set [9780008214548]

Stunning three-volume slipcased set containing the most comprehensive in-depth companion to Tolkien's life and works ever published, including synopse…

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings [9780860685111]

'A truly phenomenal woman' - Barack Obama 'I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in books were more real than the people one saw…

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The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym [9780008322205]

A brilliant, intimate biography of English writer Barbara Pym. She was Pym to friends. Miss Pym in her diaries. Sandra in seduction mode. Pymska at h…

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Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That (1895-1929) [9781472929143]

The writer and poet Robert Graves suppressed virtually all of the poems he had published during and just after the First World War. When his son,…

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The Making of Poetry: Coleridge Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels [9780008126476]

Wordsworth and Coleridge as you've never seen them before in this new book by Adam Nicolson, brimming with poetry, art and nature writing. Proof that …

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Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books [9780241354780]

What is The Tiger Who Came to Tea really about? What has Meg and Mog got to do with Polish embroidery?Why is death in picture books so often represent…

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath [9781787332539]

The first biography of this great and tragic poet that takes advantage of a wealth of new material, this is an unusually balanced, comprehensive and d…

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