Cover design by Marion Dorn It all began in 1949 with a letter enquiring about second-hand books, written by Helene Hanff in New York, and posted to a bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road, London. As Helene's warm and wi

In 1997, Tony Blair won the biggest Labour victory in history to sweep the party to power and end 18 years of Conservative government. He has been one of the most dynamic leaders of m

"Friendships, connections, family ties, trust, loyalty, obedience-this was the 'glue' that held us together." These were the principles that the greatest Mafia "Boss if Bosses," Joseph Bonnano, lived by. Born in Cas

The ideal concise biography of an American icona now available in paperback for the bicentennial of his birth
The self -mad e man from a log cabin, the great orator, the Emancipator, the Savior of t

A passionate and accomplished writer, Laura Thompson now turns her highly acclaimed biographical skills to Agatha Christie. Arguably the greatest crime writer in the world, thirty years after her death Christie's boo

Although Alan Clark died in 1999 his reputation lives on - a TV series (John Hurt as Alan) gave BBC4 its first million+ audience. His diaries (3 vols) sold more than half a million copies. A noted historian, he was To

On October 16, 1957, Albert Camus was dining in a small restaurant on Paris's Left Bank when a waiter approached him with news: the radio had just announced that Camus had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Camus insisted that a mistake had

01 As the son of a noble family which was nearly wiped out in the Revolution and as an ambitious politician during the July Monarchy and the Second Republic, Alexis de Tocqueville had a front seat at the revolutionary

An entertaining and eye-opening biography of Americaas most memorable first daughter From the moment Teddy Rooseveltas outrageous and charming teenage daughter strode into the White Houseacarrying a snake and dangli

At the turn from our bedroom into the hallway, there is an old full-length mirror in a wooden frame a This reflected version of myself, shaking, rumpled, pinched and slightly stooped, would be alarming were it not fo

When she disappeared in 1937 over a shark-infested sea, Amelia Earhart had lived up to her wish - internationally famous, a daring and pioneering aviator, and ambassador extraordinary for the United States. Married t

Over the three decades since her death on 12 January 1976, many of Agatha Christie's readers and reviewers have maintained that her most compelling book is probably still her least well-known. Her candid Autobiography,

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in India in 1869. He was educated in London. In 1915 he returned to British-controlled India, bringing to a country in the throes of independence his commitment to non-violent change. Writ

On February 12th, 1809, two men were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one-room Kentucky log cabin; Charles Darwin on an English country estate. Each would see his life's work transform mankind's understanding

This volume provides the memoirs of the woman who gave her name to London's hippest nightclub, 'Annabel's' and was married to the entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith.

For the millions moved by Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, here is Miep Gies's own astonishing story. For more than two years, Miep and her husband helped hide the Franks from the Nazis. Like thousands of uns

Critically acclaimed writer and award-winning foreign correspondent, Anthony Loyd is also an ex-heroin addict. ANOTHER BLOODY LOVE LETTER exposes the thrilling and brutal reality of life as a war journalist - from th

The wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of a very brave and clever TV presenter, Arctic Explorer and general drawer of the Short Straw. Moving quickly on from the devastating crash that nearly killed him he ra

"Mark Twain's autobiography is a classic of American letters, to be ranked with the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Adams.... It has the marks of greatness in it--style, scope, imagination, laughter, tragedy."--F

01 The definitive biography, reissued to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of her death.

James D. Watson looks back on his extraordinary and varied career -- from its beginnings as a schoolboy in Chicago's South Side to the day he left Harvard almost 50 years later, world-renowned as the co-discoverer of

A historic survey of 22 of ruthless, ambitious women. Each story speaks for itself: from Queen Mary I who did 'what it took' to

A political tour of Obamas legislative experience as well as his ideas about race, religion, and politics, this book provides an in-depth look at what this presidential candidate believes, what he represents, and how he might transf

02 Robin Gerber, a noted author and speaker on women and leadership, skillfully entwines the stories of two exceptional women. There's Barbie: the diminutive yet arrestingly voluptuous doll unveiled at the 1959 Toy Fai

"My first big break came when I was five years old. It's taken me more than seventy years to realise that. You see, at five I first learnt to read. It's that simple and it's that profound. I left school at th

Bess of Hardwick was one of the most remarkable women of the Tudor era. Gently-born in reduced circumstances, she was married at 15 and when she was widowed at 16, she was still a virgin. At 19 she married

The bestselling author of "Complications" reveals what you need to be a great surgeon - and shows how everyone can improve at what they doThe struggle to perform well is universal, but nowhere is this drive to do better

A biography of the American poet Sylvia Plath which presents a different view of her life and death by shifting any blame away from Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, and suggesting the problems lay in her personality difficul

Wentworth is in Yorkshire and was surrounded by 70 collieries employing tens of thousands of men. This book tells the story of its demise: family feuds, forbidden love, class war, and a tragic and violent death played their part.

On Friday 25th May, 1934, a forty-one-year-old woman walked into the lobby of Claridge's Hotel to meet the nineteen-year-old son whose face she did not know. Fifteen years earlier, as the First World War ended, Idina

The seventeenth-century philosopher-statesman Francis Bacon famously declared that nothing had changed the world more profoundly than three great inventions: gunpowder, printing and the compass. What he didn't know w

Two weeks after September 11th, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad went to Afghanistan to report on the conflict. In the following spring she returned to live with a bookseller and his family for several months. The Boo

In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up a

Walker Brown was born with a genetic mutation so rare that doctors call it an orphan syndrome: perhaps 300 people around the world also live with it. Walker turned twelve in 2008, but he weighs only 54 pounds, is still in diapers, can't spea

When William Kamkwamba was just 14 years old his parents told him that he must leave school and come and work on the family farm as they could no longer afford to $80 a year tuition fees. This is the story of his refus

A thrilling portrait of the extraordinary childhood of Pearl Buck ?

01 A young American woman's journey to Love and Islam

The years that have passed since Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins piloted the Apollo 11 spacecraft to the moon in July 1969 have done nothing to alter the fundamental wonder of the event: man reaching

In the 1990s Jordan Belfort became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper.He was THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, whose life of greed, power and excess was so outrageous it could only be true: no one

Elyn Saks is Professor of Law and Psychiatry at University of Southern California Law School. She's the author of several books. Happily married. And - a schizophrenic. Saks lifts the veil on schizophrenia with her s

She revolutionized how women looked. She banned corsets, shortened skirts and scented the world with Chanel No.5. Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was an icon. But how closely did her carefully moulded image match the truth?

An Everyman who expressed the defiant spirit of freedom, Charlie Chaplin was first lauded and later reviled in the America that made him Hollywood's richest man. He was a figure of multiple paradoxes, and many studies h

Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life is the classic biography of Charles Bukowski, the hard-drinking barfly whose semi-autobiographical books about low-life America made him a cult figure across the globe. Extensive original research

Few lives of great men offer so much interest - and so many mysteries - as the life of Charles Darwin, the greatest figure of nineteenth-century science, whose ideas are still inspiring discoveries and controversies

Sergio Vieira de Mello - a humanitarian, peacemaker and state builder - was at centre of the most significant geopolitical crises of the last half-century. Born in 1948, just as the post-World War II order was taking shape, he died

In April 1945, Churchill said to Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 'There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them!' When he became Prime Minister on 10

Walter H Thompson was Churchill's bodyguard from 1921 until 1945, being brought back from retirement at the outbreak of war. This biography draws heavily on extracts from a manuscript, in which Thompson gives an insid

A GROUNDBREAKING BOOK about the modern presidency, "The Clinton Tapes" invites readers into private dialogue with a gifted, tormented, resilient President of the United States. Here is what President Clinton thought and felt but could not sa

01 A groundbreaking biography of one of the twentieth century's greatest fashion icons.

Bruce Feiler, bestselling author and award-winning journalist, was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. On learning this, he decided to approach six friends who could each provide advice and support to his young twin daughters through their lives

Winner of the Crossword Prize for non-fiction, '"Curfewed Night'" is a passionate and important book -- a brave and brilliant report from a conflict the world has chosen to ignore.' Salman Rushdie Basharat Peer was a

01 IA Dangerous Liaison/I tells the intense, passionate and sometimes painful story of how these two brilliant free-thinkers - and rivals - came to a share a relationship that was to last over fifty years. Moving f

By the age of twelve, Susan Campbell had been flirting with Jesus for some time, and in her mind, Jesus had been flirting back. Why wouldn't he? She went to his house three times a week, listened to his stories, loudly and lustily sang songs

Many people discover the secret lives of their parents, few find they reveal a monster. 1947: a man is found murdered in the high mountains that straddle the Italian border with Austria. He is not what his papers claim

Dawn French is one of the greatest comedy actresses of our time, with a career that has spanned nearly three decades, encompassing a vast and brilliant array of characters. Loved for her irreverant humour, Dawn has a

Waris Dirie, born in Somalia of nomadic parents, underwent extreme female circumcision at the age of five and ran away after being sold into marriage at 13. She became a fashion model in the USA, and on behalf of the

Evelyn Waugh kept a diary almost continuously from the age of seven until a year before his death in 1966. Extracts from the diaries caused sensation when they were published by the OBSERVER. They are a unique litera

When Sofia Behrs married Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of "War and Peace", husband and wife regularly exchanged diaries covering the years from 1862 to 1910. Sofia's life was not an easy one: she idealized her husband, but was torm

A tragic tale of young love lost ?

After his execution by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer has gained a position as one of the most prominent Christian martyrs of the last century. Bonhoeffer has gained a position as one of the most prominent Christian martyrs of the last

Although Bogarde and his partner destroyed many of his papers, his family has made available his personal archive to John Coldstream, former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, who knew him well in his last years and edi

The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his experiences locked inside his body. A masterpiece and a bestseller in France

Joseph Frank's award-winning, five-volume "Dostoevsky" is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language - and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Frank's monumental, 25

Shortly after completing THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED, Primo Levi committed suicide. The matter of his death was sudden, violent and unpremiditated, and there were some who argue that he killed himself because he was tormented by g

Sex, intrigue and adultery in the world of high politics and huge wealth in late eighteenth-century England. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was one of the most flamboyant and influential women of the eighteenth c

01 One of the great mysteries in the life of E. M. Forster (1879-1970) is why, after the publication of A Passage to India in 1924, he never published another novel although he lived to be 90. In Wendy Moffat's biograp

The pieces here span reflections on personal and collective identity, on home and family, on literature, language and politics, and on Achebe's lifelong attempt to reclaim the definition of 'Africa' for its own author

01 Leonid Eitingon was a KGB killer who dedicated his life to the Soviet regime. He was in China in the early 1920s, in Turkey in the late 1920s, in Spain during the Civil War, and crucially, in Mexico when Trotsky was

Richard Attenborough and Diana Hawkins have been friends and colleagues for nearly 50 years. Now they are teaming up to write a frank, funny and revelatory account of their unlikely partnership and his extraordinary

Murderer, philanthropist, drug dealer, politician, devil, saint: many words have been used to describe Pablo Escobar, but one is irrefutable -- legend. For the poor of Colombia, he was their Robin Hood, a man whose g

Born in 1867 and orphaned at three, Ettie Fane was brought up by a beloved grandmother and then two adoring, almost incestuous, bachelor uncles. At twenty she married Willy Grenfell, later Lord Desborough. Beautiful,

Dirk Bogarde was known as the star of more than sixty films and a critically acclaimed author. To a privileged few, however, he was also a prolific, stimulating and treasured correspondent. Bogarde was a secretive ma

'Head and shoulders above almost all other new books about China, this unflinching and yearningly compassionate portrait of the lives and loves of ordinary Chinese workers is quite unforgettable' - Simon Winchester.

The Waugh family has been writing books since the 19th century. Evelyn's father, brother and son were all writers and now his grandson has taken up the baton.

More than a decade in the making, this volume examines the dark story of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship--the sexually fervid and deeply peculiar academy/commune where Wright did some of his greatest

The landscape of American literature was fundamentally changed when Flannery O'Connor stepped onto the scene with her first published book, Wise Blood, in 1952. Her fierce, sometimes comic novels and stories reflecte

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 s

01 From the time she was a little girl, Maryam rebelled against the terrible second-class existence that was her destiny as an Afghan woman. Although she grew up in a privileged family, she had witnessed the miserabl

'I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories' One morning in February 1952, a journalist called Ian Fleming sat down at his desk and set about creating a fictional secret agent. James Bond was born and w

Frances Partridge was one of the great British diarists of the 20th century. She became part of the Bloomsbury group encountering Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, the Bells, Roger Fry, Maynard Keynes, Dora Carrington and Ralph Partridge. Sh

This beautifully-illustrated and engrossing biography of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality and an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her own experiences. Born and

From the publishers of the bestselling BORN ON A BLUE DAY and MARLEY AND ME: themoving and bestselling story of how a devoted family dog helped free a little boy from the prison of his autism.

Friedrich Engels is one of the most attractive and contradictory figures of the nineteenth century. Born to a prosperous mercantile family in west Germany, he spent his career working in the Manchester cotton industr

The brutal military regime of Ne Win cracked down on "dissidents" in the late 1980s. Pascal's girlfriend was raped and murdered by soldiers, and Pascal took to the jungle with a guerrilla army. How he was eve

A tough Welshman, he was softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman: she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Mark Antony. For quarter of a century, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Bu

01 Now in paperback, the highly acclaimed biography of the author of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.

A giant of science, Galileo's achievements allow him to be bracketed alongside Newton, Einstein and Darwin. A devout Roman Catholic, his genius threw him into conflict with his Church and his refusal to back down tur

The pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India's independence movement, pioneer of non-violent resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience (satyagraha), honoured in India as 'father of nation', Mohandas

The Genius and the Goddess, based on Jeffrey Meyers' long friendship with Arthur Miller and extensive archival research from Washington to Los Angeles, is a portrait of a marriage. The greatest American playwright of

In this wonderful addition to the Eminent Lives series, widely acclaimed biographer Brenda Maddox sheds a fascinating new light on the life of legendary novelist George Eliot. On 22 November 1819, Mary Ann Evans was born on a far

Gertrude Stein and Alice Babette Toklas first met on Sunday 8 September, 1907, in Paris. From that day on they were together, until Gertrude's death on Saturday 27 July, 1946. Everyone who was anyone went to their sa

A beguiling and utterly original life story and social history told through a hand-sewn tapestry.

Presents a memoir of a successful journalist's journey from the deserted and dusty mining towns of the American Southwest, to an antique filled apartment on Park Avenue. This book narrates her nomadic and adventurous

Worshipped by her fans, denounced by her enemies, and forever shadowed by controversy and scandal, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand was a powerful thinker whose views on government and markets shaped the con

Pugin was one of Britain's architects and his short career one of the dramatic in architectural history. This book draws on letters and drawings to recreate his life and work as architect, propagandist and roma

Posterity has not been kind to Douglas Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front for much of the First World War. Received wisdom, powerfully reinforced by the lacerating caricatures

During the first seventeen years of his life, spent in Shanghai, Sam experienced wars, changing regimes, different currencies and a variety of schools that reflected the evolving political landscape. In a world obsessed with conflicting nati

One of the undisputed masters of English prose in the twentieth century, Graham Greene (1904-91) wrote tens of thousands of personal letters. This substantial volume presents a new and engrossing account of his life

* The first book of Graham Greene's letters ? the most intimate record we have of a life lived at the heart of modern history

This is a joint biography of architects Walter Burley Griffin, of Canberra fame, and his wife, Marion Mahony Griffin. After their formative years in Chicago - the centre of the Prairie School of architecture made most famous by Fran

'The temptation to write about yourself is irresistible, especially when you are prodded into it by a crafty publisher who has slyly baited you into doing it with a miserly advance of fifty dollars and a box of cheap

Osama bin Laden is the western world's most wanted terrorist. Intent on secrecy at all costs, his personal life has been shrouded in mystery until now. For the first time, Osama's first wife and fourth son break the

Meyer Guggenheim, a Swiss immigrant, founded a great American business dynasty. At their peak in the early twentieth century, the Guggenheims, were reckoned among America's wealthiest. Through research, Irwin Unger, the winn

The second volume of Michael Palin's diaries covers the 1980s, a decade in which the ties that bound the Pythons loosened as they forged their separate careers. After a live performance at the Hollywood Bowl, they mad

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited th

Harold Macmillan was a figure of paradox. Outwardly, it was Edwardian elegance and civilised urbanity. Inwardly, it was emotional damage from his wife's open adultery and his progressive perplexity at the onward march of time. The First Worl

Will you do my eulogy? With those words, Mitch Albom begins his long-awaited return to non-fiction. His journey to honour the last request of a beloved clergyman ultimately leads him to rekindle his own long-ignored f

Gervase Phinn is back with his tales of life as a schools inspector in Yorkshire. His colourful cast of characters have now become firm favourites - the mostly mad staff at County Hall as well as the children themselves who find wa

This epic work tells the story of the Hemings family, whose close blood ties to the third president of America had been systematically expunged from history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annet

In this book Pierre Assouline reveals the life and art of Tintin's Belgian creator, Georges Prosper Remi, better known as 'Herge'. Assouline has had privileged access to personal papers to explore Herge's life and wor

In just seven years (from 1950 through 1956), Grace Kelly made eleven feature films. They established her as one of the screen's iconic beauties, and as a performer of rare intelligence and wit. Donald Spoto, a perso

The acid, hilarious, confessional and provocative memoirs of the great contrarian, and bestselling author of God is Not Great.

The Wittgenstein family was one of the richest, most talented and most eccentric in European history. The domineering paternal influence of Karl Wittgenstein left his eight children fraught by inner antagonisms and ner

I'm a simple village girl whose family had to move to the capital, and I have always obeyed the orders of the men in my family. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today, I have decided to say no.o Uplifting and

"To Kill a Mockingbird "is one of the most widely read novels in American literature. It's also a perennial favorite in highschool English classrooms across the nation. Yet onetime author Harper Lee is a mysterious figure who leads a very pr

Two works of autobiography. "If This is a Man" tells of Levi's experiences as a victim of the Holocaust, from his arrest by the Fascists in 1943 to the liberation of Auschwitz by the Russians. "The Truce" is the story of

Hannah Shah is an Imam's daughter. She lived the life of a Muslim but, for many years, her father abused her in the cellar of their home. At 16, she discovered a plan to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage,

The extraordinary true story of a man whose upper-crust surface belied darker depths and desires, and how his behaviour affected his wife and daughter.

In 1956, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire youngest of the six Mitford sisters invited the writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor to visit Lismore Castle, in Ireland. This halcyon stay sparked off a deep friendship and a lifelong ex

Neil White was once a man who lived by appearances; he owned expensive cars, house and worked at glossy magazines. When his bank balance couldn't keep up with his lifestyle, he started kiting - illegally depositing and drawing cheques

Through his words and actions, Nelson Mandela has been embraced worldwide as our leading symbol of courage, hope and reconciliation. 'In the Words of Nelson Mandela' is a unique collection of quotations from one of the most admired men on t

Jacqueline van Maarsen's first book - "My Name is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank" - ends in 1947, two years after the death of her close friend Anne Frank. But Anne's death did not spell the end of the friendship. Otto Frank clung desperately to

The descendant of German and French Catholic mercenaries, a Scots Presbyterian subaltern, and their secluded Indian wives, David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre defied all classification in the North Indian principality where he was raised. Add to th

m Examines the true story of Chris McCandless, a young man, who in 1992 walked deep into the Alaskan wilderness and whose SOS note and emaciated corpse were found four months later. This book explores the obsession

A vanished, tattered black and white photograph, taken in Tehran in 1946. The image of a sombre and inscrutable middle-aged man called Salman Fuladvand, a lieutenant and controversial police chief under Iran's second last king. It is the mem

01 Never before published diaries and letters from Iris Murdoch ...

The first Salinger biography in over a decade ? here is the definitive account of the life of one of the most famous and best-selling authors of our time. In January 2010, J.D. Salinger, author of the much-loved classic Catcher in the Rye, died

James Lees-Milne (1908--97) -- known to friends as Jim -- is remembered for his work for the National Trust, rescuing some of England's greatest architectural treasures, and for the vivid and entertaining diaries which have earned h

The six novels of Jane Austen picture a world of civility and reassuring stability. From local archives, Claire Tomalin has reconstructed the lives of her relatives and Hampshire neighbours. Passages of literary criticism as

This book re-examines scrupulously the writings and the life records of John Milton, in the context of a proper understanding of the recent developments in seventeenth-century historiography. Milton's thought has ofte

Now in paperback, Richard Reeves' beautifully written book is the definitive life of one of the heroic giants of Victorian England and the first biography for general readers since 1954: 'The best book I have read in

'Arthur Wellesley, the First Duke of Wellington, is at his desk writing letters. It is Sunday, 18 June 1815; the place is Waterloo...' Jane Wellesley is a descendent of the First Duke of Wellington whose victory at W

Best remembered for his operas and his War Requiem, Benjamin Britten's radical politics and his sexuality have also ensured that he remains a controversial public figure. "Journeying Boy" is a selection of his diaries t

The delicious life of one of the most beloved figures in twentieth century American culture played by Meryl Streep in a major motion picture
With a swooping voice, an irrepressible sense of humor, and a passion

Rosie Belton was a high-achieving theatre director, producer and teacher, a casting agent and director, as well as a fully involved wife, mother of three and grandmother of six. But then a bang on the head changed ev

Patti Smith's evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.

In this stunning book, the first comprehensive biography of Marx since the end of the Cold War, Francis Wheen gives us not a socialist ogre but a fascinating, ultimately humane man, while still examining the criticisms of his d

Widely acknowledged as New Zealand's finest writer, Katherine Mansfield holds a special place in the hearts of New Zealanders. A new biography is a significant literary event. Katherine Mansfield: The Story-teller is the first new biography

The outline of the story of John Keats's life is well known: the archetypal life of the Romantic genius, critically spurned and dying young. This biography aims to enrich the facts with an under

01 Engaging and authoratitive, Keynes: The Twentieth Century's Most Influential Economist explores the often misunderstood man in the context of his own life and times - the impact of his homosexuality and his l

For 6,557 miles, from New York to Mississippi to Seattle, Chuck Klosterman decided to chase rock 'n' roll and death across a continent. 21 days later, after three relationships, an encounter with various snakes, and a night

Kate Adie has reported from many of the world's trouble spots since she joined the BBC in 1969. This autobiography covers her experiences in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Tiananmen Square and the Gulf War of 1991, revea

Plumbing recently unearthed archives and mountains of primary sources, Himelstein has uncovered a rich historical record. In prose that's vivid and assured, she takes the reader beyond the formation of one of the old

Best known as the author of the classic "Darkness at Noon", Koestler was one of the most influential and controversial intellectuals, involved in and commenting on almost every political movement of the twentieth centu

At the age of twenty-two, Elizabeth Gilbert was doing everything she could to avoid a nine-to-five job. She worked on ranches in Wyoming, rode horses pretending to be a cowgirl, and fell for the smooth-talking cowboy

Beautiful, powerful and sexy, Madame Chiang Kai-shek was at the centre of one of the great dramas of the twentieth century: the founding of modern China, beginning with a revolution that swept away more than 2,000 yea

Arthur Ransome was, from 1930 to the early 1960s, what J.K. Rowling is today: author of a series of children's books which shaped the imagination of a generation. Rooted in the heyday of the British Empire, "Swallows a

01 Arthur Ransome was, from 1930 to the early 1960s, what J.K. Rowling is today: author of a series of children's books which shaped the imagination of a generation. Rooted in the heyday of the British Empire, Swallows

Aims to unearth the life story of the creator of "The Leopard", one of the novels of the twentieth century. This book stands as a meditation on what it is that makes a writer.

The journal of the last months of William Burroughs' life. 20 November 1996: 'Well, it's time for my Ovaltine and a long good night.' Burroughs died in 1997, after a lifetime of notoriety. The granddaddy of the Beats

A new biography of Lawrence of Arabia. T.E. Lawrence is one of the most enigmatic characters in British history. At the outbreak of the First World War he was working as an archaeologist in the Middle East. He had no m

An adult LEGO fan's dual quest: to build with bricks and build a family. There are 62 LEGO bricks for every person in the world, and at age 30, Jonathan Bender realized that he didn't have a single one of them. While reconsidering his childh

In the summer of 1967, not long after the Six Day War, a young Palestinian man and two friends ventured into the town of Ramla in Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes, from which they and their fa

Lenin is a colossal figure whose influence on twentieth-century history cannot be underestimated. Robert Service has written a calmly authoritative biography on this seemingly unknowable figure. Making use of recentl

On 10 May 1994, Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president, uttering the words 'let freedom reign' as part of his famous inaugural address. More than 100,000 people turned up to hear him speak. This collection, which marks t

Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER reveals Maya Angelou's path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: i

For the last fiftenn years of Burma's traumatic history, Aung San Suu Kyi has been the inspirational leader of attempts to restore democracy to her country. In these fifty-two pieces she paints a vivid, poignant yet

Evelyn Waugh was the last of the great letter-writers, and his witty, elegant correspondence to a wide circle of friends contains more than a touch of malice. In the 1920s Waugh wrote to a schoolfriend about his unde

Sylvia Beach (1887-1962) has been called the patron saint of independent bookstores. Founder of the Left Bank's Shakespeare & Company in 1919 and first publisher of James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), her facility for nurturing talent a

01 At the outset of his career Ted Hughes described letter writing as 'excellent training for conversation with the world', and he was to become a prolific master of this art which combines writing and talking. This se

William Cobbett is best known for his "Rural Rides", a classic account of early-nineteenth century Britain. But he was a much greater figure than that implies, being the foremost satirist and proponent of reform of t

Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. Others think it all started with his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey

George Orwell was a tireless and lively correspondent. He communicated with family members, friends and newspapers, figures such as Henry Miller, Cyril Connolly, Stephen Spender and Arthur Koestler, and strangers who

Alan Bennett's "A Life Like Other People's" is a poignant family memoir offering a portrait of his parents' marriage and recalling his Leeds childhood, Christmases with Grandma Peel, and the lives, loves and deaths of

In writing about Charlotte Bronte, who became her life-long friend, and whom she greatly admired but whose novels she did not entirely like, Elizabeth Gaskell portrays the struggle of a woman artist for whom she ha

Irene Nemirovksy's own life was as dramatic as any fiction. And few writers enjoy a posthumous resurgence as astonishing as hers after the international triumph of Suite Fran aise. She was born in 1903 in Kiev to a well-off Jewish

Sir David Attenborough is Britain's best-known natural history film-maker. His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly six decades, and in this volume of memoirs Sir David tells stories of the peop

In 2008, a YouTube clip became an internet phenomenon. It showed the emotional reunion of two young men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa to be introduced into his rightful home in the

Though in her lifetime only ten of Emily Dickinson's poems were published, her death revealed 1,800 poems, many of them in hand-sewn booklets, secreted in a locked chest. She is now regarded as one of the greatest po

The first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy.

From the private papers of Jane Austen and Mozart to those of Anne Boleyn and Nelson, "Love Letters of Great Men and Women" collects together some of the most romantic letters in history. For some of these great men, love is a 'del

The love affair between the celebrated writer Elizabeth Bowen and the elegant and charming Canadian diplomat Charles Ritchie blossomed quickly after their first meeting in 1941 and continued over the next three decad

A dazzling Venetian life in the age of Napoleon, from the author of A Venetian Affair. In 1797, Lucia, a beautiful statesman's daughter was married off to a powerful Venetian, only to be caught up in the turbulence of

From the horrors of the Holocaust to becoming a Judge at the International Court in The Hague. 03 Thomas Buergenthal is unique. He is a judge at the International Court in The Hague who was rescued from the death camps

Discover Sir Ranulph Twistelton-Wykham-Fiennes's personal expedition to trace his extraordinary family through the twists and turns of history. From Charlemagne -- himself a direct ancestor of the author -- to the count who very ne

A terrifically engaging and original biography about one of England's greatest novelists, and the glamorous, eccentric, debauched and ultimately tragic family that provided him with the most significant friendships of

A razor-sharp and achingly funny memoir of the men and movies that shaped one woman's life. A unique and wondeful memoir, 'Madame Depardieu and the Beautiful Strangers' is the story of how a young female film critic

The stranger-than-fiction story of how one well-respected money manager built a business empire over decades by means of a classic Ponzi scheme (this is a fraudulent investment strategy which pays returns to early investors with money put in

Madresfield Court is an arrestingly romantic stately home in the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. It has been continuously owned and lived in by the same family, the Lygons, back to the time of the Domesday Book, and, unusually, re

The extraordinary -- and true -- story of a cat with a remarkable gift. In the summer of 2007 Oscar the cat made headlines around the world. Why? Because he knows when the patients in the Rhode Island hospice where he lives are going to die.

In the tradition of "The Orchid Thief," a compelling narrative set within the strange and genteel world of rare-book collecting: the true story of an infamous book thief, his victims, and the man determined to catch him.
Rare-book theft

Nelson Mandela stands out as one of the most admired political figures of the twentieth century. It was his leadership and moral courage above all that helped to deliver a peaceful end to apartheid in South Africa after

Updated and expanded, this 90th birthday edition of Mandela: An Authorised Portrait features the most complete collection of pictures on Mandela's life ever assembled, and sixty specially commissioned interviews with world leaders,

Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policeman's Union, offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautif

Samuel Clemens, the man known as Mark Twain, invented the American voice and became one of our greatest celebrities. His life mirrored his country's, as he grew from a Mississippi River boyhood in the days of the frontier, to a

Mark Twain, who was often photographed with a cigar, once remarked that he came into the world looking for a light. In this new biography, published on the centennial of the writer's death, Jerome Loving focuses on Mark Twain,

A remarkable new biography from one of Britain's leading young historians that recovers the co-founder of communism from the shadows of historyFriedrich Engels is one of the most intriguing and contradictory figure

Mary Tudor was the first woman to be crowned queen of England. Her accession, in the summer of 1553, took place against the odds and it was, in many ways, emblematic of her life. Anna Whitelock's assured, impassione

This book is a more personal history than has ever before been written by or about Marianne Faithfull