The first work of non-fiction by a very fine novelist ('The Western Wind', 'All is Song', etc) is lit with her characteristic intelligence and clarity of expression. Distilled bleakness.
We are familiar with Sonia, but Orwell's remarkable first wife is usually overlooked. The author of a poem called 'End of the Century, 1984' (published in 1934), she was with him through the... read more
A life well lived: MC grew up in the East End, hit the stage, founded Stonewall, became an MEP and is now a life peer in the House of Lords. A brave and powerful memoir.
In this critique of economic models (including, perhaps, the above), the distinguished economist argues that philosophy, history, sociology, and politics are also essential to understanding ... read more
An acclaimed novel by a Georgian who writes in German... at 900 pages it promises loves, lives, and losses through a hundred years on the fringes of the Russian and Soviet empires. We have ... read more
Those who read 'Look Who's Back' will know that Vermes does white-knuckle satire. In this, he imagines a column of refugees walking to Europe in front of TV cameras.
The conflict between rights and responsibilities: a Sri Lankan immigrant in Australia must choose whether to tell the police what he has seen in relation to a murder, thereby risking deporta... read more
A lauded debut novel by a graduate - like her father - of the UEA writing course. She also describes herself as a 'bibliotherapist' because she once was a bookseller in Bath, which raises th... read more
Keats wrote his six most famous odes in 1819: 'Ode to a Nightingale', 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', 'Ode to Melancholy', 'Ode on Indolence', 'Ode to Psyche' and 'On Autumn'. The Keats-Shelley Me... read more
She arrived in America in 1807 as a refugee from Napoleonic France. Her sketches of the world she encountered there must show what Madame de la Tour du Pin a decade earlier. A lovely book.
An American voice on the environmental disaster of post-war industrial agriculture, and the positive signs of recovery from poly-cultural farms and permaculture embraced by a new generation ... read more