It is 30 years since Hazel Holt's biography; many more since David Cecil and Philip Larkin championed her novels. The surprise, perhaps, is that she is read more now than when she first publ... read more
A biography of the man so vividly presented in Robert Edric's 2008 novel 'In Zodiac Light': the poet and composer who, following his experiences as a soldier in WW1, was confined to an asylu... read more
It seems that the stalwart defender of Imperial narratives and values was a compulsive and manipulative womanizer. Thousands of newly discovered letters show an unexpected side to the histor... read more
The fiendish young man, having driven poor Verlaine out of his wits and his marriage, abandoned poetry, then Europe, setting in Aden in 1880. A reprint from Eland.
An understanding and enquiring look at the demon drink and what it enables certain writers to achieve, and at what cost: Patrick Hamilton, Jean Rhys, Charles Jackson, Malcolm Lowry, Dylan Th... read more
The first biography of Mew since Penelope Fitzgerald's of 1984. The poet, once feted, has become as outcast as she felt herself to be; let us hope that Julia Copus' recent new edition of her... read more
Published in February, we missed this from our last list. Jeremy Heywood served under four Prime Ministers in various roles including as the first and only Permanent Secretary of 10 Downing ... read more
Duncan has been in politics for three decades and must therefore wot what of - and whom of - he writes. He was Johnson's deputy at the Foreign Office for two years. The diaries cover the yea... read more
The author moved to Japan aged 21, immersing herself in language and culture with such success that she is now a literary translator. Her route there was by no means straightforward; this bo... read more
The acclaimed graphic novel that took France by storm, about a year in the life of a 10 yr-old schoolgirl. A brilliantly sharp look at our times, tender, wry, funny, extremely direct. Ages 1... read more
MS is an outstanding literary voice in contemporary Russia: here she creates a portrait of three Russian-Jewish generations sifted from the detritus in a late aunt's flat. This book is diff... read more
Rutter - a literature graduate who notes the etymological link between 'text' and 'textile' - travelled the British Isles researching the social history of wool and knitting. This charming a... read more
KnD was born in Derry, on the border between the Five Counties and Eire; one parent was Catholic, the other Protestant. This is a remarkable debut that combines memoir, nature writing and th... read more
The story of the son of a Parsi-convert vicar near Birmingham who, convicted for mutilating horses and writing threatening letters to the vicar, contacted Conan Doyle to unravel the mystery ... read more
A compelling portrait of the writer and her engagement with her own world. Constructed as a series of essays on art, memory, painting, rank, property, appearance, etc., this is immensely rea... read more
As a young man in Germany, AW's grandfather published Kafka and several other depraved authors whose work the Nazis were keen to burn. He fled in 1933, eventually settling in New York where ... read more