The author must presumably be glad to have used an alias on reading Dominic Sandbrook's review in the Sunday Times. An interminable, banal and exploitative account of her two-year affair.
A portrait of the scandalous Oxford club, of which EW was briefly secretary, and looks at the lives of several of his contemporaries too. Seven of them found their way into Brideshead... The... read more
The first biography of the extraordinary writer who died in 2020. An officer in the 9th Lancers, Morris was posted to Trieste in 1945. He was the only journalist to accompany the 1953 Britis... read more
A former editor of The Times Literary Supplement argues that the trajectory of Rome's richest man presents pertinent questions about the intertwining of money, ambition, and power.
A biography of Marguerite Steinheil (1869-1954), who ascended the social ladder in Belle Epoque Paris on the rungs of many lovers, until a night in May 1908 when her husband and mother were ... read more
Born near Lemburg in Galicia - now in Ukraine - the author of The Radetzky March and several other outstanding works died in alcoholic exile on the eve of WW2. This is a powerful account of ... read more
The recent unsealing of Eliot's letters revealed 1,131 written to Emily Hale, an American drama teacher. This careful book also considers the role of Vivienne, Valerie and Mary Trevelyan in ... read more
Privilege and pain play out in this scintillating memoir that bounds across society's uplands, trips into alcoholism, and bravely clambers onto the wagon of recovery and the making of a new ... read more
A re-issue of LB's famous and very funny memoir about working in a New York Hotel. He came to the US in 1914, aged sixteen, and worked at the 'Hotel Splendide' as he called it for the next t... read more
Already known to many as the author of the superb black comedy Death and the Penguin and others, Kurkov - a Russian-born Ukrainian - has recently been a tireless commentator on the Russian i... read more
Grant is a distinguished actor with a fine narrative voice in his memoir - Withnail of course is here, but also his 40-year marriage to Joan Washington, and his aching grief at her death in ... read more
Recently outed as 'Deep Miaow', we understand that Larry, the Downing Street cat, has been an important source helping Gimson with his researches. Clearly a descendant of Tobermory.
First volume of Freud's letters - irreverent, affectionate, scurrilous - reproduced in facsimile. Many illustrations and beautifully produced in dun cloth.
Neutral for fifty years in his work for the BBC, now he tells us what he thinks and thought about all those prime ministers, presidents, elections and scandals.
"I have borne the musket of a soldier, the traveller's cane, and the pilgrim's staff: as a sailor my fate has been as inconstant as the wind: a kingfisher, I have made my nest among the wave... read more
Barbara Cartland's daughter, Princess Diana's stepmother, who is said to left the Althorp estate with just a few bin bags of clothes. She was irrepressible, controversial - and perfectly man... read more
The late lamented drummer of the Rolling Stones, who died just over a year ago. He was also a jazz fiend, playing and recording with several other musicians. His deadpan demeanour set off hi... read more
After her adventures with Bonnie Prince Charlie in the aftermath of Culloden, Flora MacDonald emigrated to North Carolina, married, and got caught up in the War of Independence. This is an a... read more
A collection of essays about this most extraordinary C17th woman, artist, traveller and naturalist; looks at her methods and materials, her journey to Suriname, her entomological studies, he... read more
The first biography of one of the most important women in C20th British politics; Lady Forkbender - as Private Eye used to call her - was Harold Wilson's political secretary and ran Downing ... read more
Pieces together three generations of a family, moving between Italy and England, in an attempt to understand what roots and home might mean. Subtle, charming memoir.
"...It was on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and I was in Mrs Protheroe's garden, waiting for cats, with her son Jim...". Every adult and every childs needs to have Thomas's words and image... read more
The Jena set: Caroline Schlegel's salon in the 1790s, in that small German university town, included Novalis, Schiller, Hegel, Goethe and Humboldt. They radically changed our ideas as the Fr... read more