Rewarding as a study on Bacon - it gets closer to understanding his enigma than anything has since - this memoir is also a tribute to Sylvester's clarity and verve. A re-issue, this was firs... read more
A thorough, readable biography of the Queen's grandfather that seeks to understand how this supposedly dull man navigated the monarchy successfully through a succession of crises.
A panorama spanning 150 years and three generations of 'the Rothschilds of the East', written with full access to family documents. Emerging as Jewish refugees from Ottoman Baghdad, their em... read more
One of the great patrons of the Renaissance, creator of perhaps the most remarkable library outside the Vatican, the Duke of Urbino was also the most successful and feared mercenary of the a... read more
Born in Dublin in 1934, McGahern has corresponded with all his contemporary Irish writers. The letters are wonderful, and form a snapshot of late C20 Irish literature.
Beautifully attuned to her subject, CA unravels Sebald's work from his life with subtlety and sympathy. She has previously written a marvellous biography of Primo Levi.
Better remembered now as Vanessa Bell's husband, CB's 1914 'Art' was a ground-breaking re-evaluation that stood at the centre of early C20th art. This fine biography reclaims his significanc... 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