An original and entertaining book on the smoke and mirrors of the modern consumer's world - case studies that take apart our ideas of the real and the fake, of appearance and deception.
Quiet utterances like snatches of conversation, from the magnificent JB. These brief reflections and observations are not quite poetry, not quite prose - an absolute joy to read and to pause... read more
This delightful slim volume consists of Newcomb's watercolours of still lives around the house & garden, accompanied by a few lines from Blackburn, her indefatigable Suffolk neighbour.
Argues that the physical form of books makes them distinctive, and sometimes dangerous, quite as much as their content. (John Morgan’s recent, limited edition Usylessly, with its beautiful... read more
The great Russian poet became a master of the English language in his long American exile: these essays evoke his youth in post-WW2 Leningrad with memorable portraits of his parents, in whom... read more
From the library of Marguerite Littman.
Wolfe’s legendary trip around the US with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in a psychedelic bus is arguably the best literary introduction to A... read more
From the library of Marguerite Littman.
A fine collection of essays and portraits in Wolfe’s inimitable style; the 1960s laid out like a Victorian butterfly collection, with sharp pins;... read more
From the library of Marguerite Littman.
Her seminal collection of essays. First edition, first printing, published in New York. Book in fine condition, cream boards with stamped floral de... read more
From the library of Marguerite Littman.
First edition, first impression. Published Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1974. Fine in very good dust jacket; pages very slightly yellowed, and dust ja... read more
From the library of Marguerite Littman.
Blackwood’s first book is a mix of stories and reportage; she began her writing career while married to the poet Robert Lowell. First edition, fi... read more
A memoir by the Egytian woman who set up an independent book shop with a friend and her sister in 2002 - ten years later it had grown to include ten shops and 150 employees. Full of the nois... read more
Includes 'Egyptian Nights', 'Dubrovsky' and 'History of the Village of Goriukhino'; Pushkin's great-grandfather is thought to be the model for Ibrahim, the former slave of the title. A new t... read more
A feminist polemic that looks at women's resistance to male domination, both historically and now, and the consequences of independence, education, knowledge and power.
Having escaped the massacre at Katyn, Czapski was interned and lived to write these essays on some of those who were murdered, as well as pieces on Blok, Soutine, and others. He was the mode... read more
Five piercingly brilliant essays on stories from the margins, art, Black history, and the crossroads of Africa and Asia as well as with the West. First work of non-fiction by an author much ... read more
Secular wisdom in an age of unbelief, from Montaigne, Akhmatova, Hume, Camus, Cicero, Job and many others who sought, lost or found consolation. Perceptive, intelligent, a giving of necessar... read more
Kristeva's most recent book, translated from the French, is a (not surprisingly) complex engagement with the work of Dostoyevsky. Enhanced by a thoughtful foreword by Rowan Williams.
A study of that curious phenomenon: the deification of explorers, politicians, rulers and mavericks, from Columbus to Prince Philip, the late volcano god. A smart take on empire too; provoca... read more
This two-volume masterpiece by the author of The Master and His Emissary is a long conversation between neuropsychology and philosophy, science and poetry, the two sides of our brains. Truly... read more
The first translation by a woman, using Arabic and French sources, with detailed notes and commentary. Beautifully illustrated with Arab and Persian works of art as well as many drawn from p... read more
Ambrose Bierce, Robert Aickman, Tove Jansson, Alexander Pushkin, Henry James, Emily Brontë et al - an anthology of stories and excerpts from around the world. A new addition to the attracti... read more
A superb anthology of poems and prose based around the isles of Britain and Ireland, derived from the literary magazine Archipelago. Contributions from luminaries such as Heaney, Oswald, Lo... read more
Perhaps the most high-profile political prisoner in the Arab world, Alaa has spent most of the last seven years in prison in Egypt. These essays were smuggled, compiled by friends and relati... read more
Begins with a Perec epigraph: "De l'autobus, je regarde Paris" - and Elkin does, in a diary of vignettes about the 'infra-ordinary' (Perec again): fellow commuters, a diversion, a girl with ... read more
The Booker Prize winner reflects on her long journey to literary fame, and how her personal experience is bound up in Britain's complex racial and colonial past.
While MG's early short stories have recently found acclaim as modern classics, she is less well known as a brilliantly perspicacious critic and essayist. This new selection of her non-fictio... read more
Athena, Circe, Penelope, Helen et al.: female characters and narrators are given centre stage in this fine reworking of the familiar. By the author of Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman ... read more
A new anthology from the most cerebral of Scottish bishops. RH brings together a thoughtful selection of work from various writers and poets reflecting on faith, hope, forgiveness, sin and m... read more
As well as a bestselling novelist, Hustvedt has lectured on neuroscience, psychoanalysis and philosophy at scientific conferences across the world. This new essay collection draws both on he... read more