Thirteen essays by the Northcliffe Professor of English at UCL. An entertaining guide that looks at Dickens's choice of names, use of outrageous coincidence, and why he works best when read ... read more
"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb - and I'm not blonde either." Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, business... read more
Rebanks inherited his grandfather's farm in the hills of the Lake District and became a sheep farmer, developing a fine flock of Herdwicks. The first part of that story he told, to great ac... read more
Huygens developed the theory of light travelling as a wave, invented the mechanism for the pendulum clock, and discovered the rings of Saturn - via a telescope that he had also invented. His... read more
A valuable reminder of the remarkable rise and achievements of the uneducated orphan farm boy who became Minister of Labour during WW2, and one of the prime architects of West Germany, NATO ... read more
A hardback edition of this memoir of an Anglo-Irish woman married to a German lawyer and her experiences of living in Germany during WW2. A classic, and should be given to all who don't know... read more
A marvellous debut from a young man of complex literary and musical parentage: birds of a feather, sins of the father, on and off the rails (the cenotaph too, memorably) - and a magpie calle... read more
Revisits the circumstances surrounding the death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjoeld in 1961, who was found dead in the smoking wreckage of his plane on the way to Leopoldville in the ... read more
SK's father was Bernat Klein, a Yugoslav Jew who came to Britain after WW2 and became a successful textile designer - Chanel, Dior & Balenciaga were amongst his clients. He lived in a moder... read more
Tall, red-haired, green-eyed, Enid Lindeman caused havoc in pursuit of love and wealth. No less than five lovers killed themselves, her husbands died at regular intervals (one was known as C... read more
"A lesser life does not seem lesser to the person who leads one" ...Diane Johnson's sensitive, witty and and intelligent biography of Mary Ellen Peacock Meredith (1821-1861), the well-educat... read more
She went from socialite to pariah when she married George III's sixth son in 1793, without the King's permission. Her children were declared illegitimate, the family scorned: this is a movin... read more
A comic masterpiece of a memoir: the subject, chiefly, is the Irish filmmaker Brian Desmond Hurst, who once described himself as tri-sexual - "the Army, the Navy and the Household Cavalry"..... read more
The cover of this book shows the gorgeous Zoffany portrait of these talented and influential siblings, who were born in a Northumberland rectory and became involved in such a wide range of C... read more
Brought up in North Carolina in the Jim Crow era, AT won a postgraduate scholarship to Brown University, worked at Warhol's Factory and volunteered for Diana Vreeland. He went on to become e... read more
A remarkable work of research and skill, which brings to life Tsunemo, a country priest's daughter who defied conventions when her world was radically changing.
Born into a farming family in the eastern Tibetan province of Kham, the author fled with his older brother following the Chinese invasion in 1959. He has spent many years in the UK and the U... read more