The first biography of this much loved author, bonne vivante, European, and John Sandoe customer, mentored by Aldous Huxley. Hastings' earlier biographical subjects include Somerset Maugham,... read more
A wickedly funny portrait of a group of liberal New Yorkers. Appalled by the political catastrophe of 2016, they think they are safe in their nice homes...
Cars, guns, computers etc have stopped working. Safe in rural Maine, the protagonists are visited by an old acquaintance in a retro-fitted tunnel-digger powered by a nuclear reactor. It can'... read more
The author's mother came from a Sikh family that fled the Punjab in Partition; later she moved to Berlin and Washington. A fine memoir of family whose identity and roots have been complicate... read more
I had my first French meal and never got over it: a collection of Child's amiable witticisms and observations. "In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by... read more
SB-C argues that the secrets of humanity's cognitive development - from the invention of agriculture to musical instruments - can be found in the genes for autism.
This is a new edition of V S Vernon Jones's translation, first published by Gregynog Press in the 1930s. The woodcuts are marvellous. Almost more for parents than children.
Natural selection and the table, served as a meal of several courses... beginning with oysters. Who knew of the role of mussels in the exodus of our ancestors from Africa? A fascinating and ... read more
Cities, economies and national infrastructures of every kind were reduced to rubble by the end of WW2. Betts looks at the efforts made by western European countries to rebuild their societi... read more
As a war photographer and his driver travel through Germany in late 1945, it becomes apparent that they have different reasons for wanting to be there.
On a Greek island in 1977, Calista finds herself working for Billy Wilder on a film. His career is on the wane, and she's a young woman with a lot to learn...
CC is the distinguished Australian publisher who founded Virago. Her forebear was transported for seven years for stealing a piece of hemp, but managed to prosper in Australia. He returned t... read more
A lively history of sculpture from the pre-Ice Age lion-man, made of bone, to Eliasson and Saraceno's use of light and air. Who better to celebrate the elements of (and in) sculptural form t... read more
An updated edition of Barnes's acclaimed essays on artists - mostly French - that includes 7 new ones. Gericault, Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Morisot, Fantin-Latour, Cezanne, Degas, Cassatt, ... read more
Humane and witty ruminations on science, history, philosophy and politics by the bestselling physicist: Dante's universe, Nabokov's butterflies, Einstein's errors, etc.