Born in Australia, she lived and worked in Hong Kong after WW2 and then for the UN in New York. After marrying the great Flaubert scholar Francis Steegmuller, she lived mostly on Capri. She ... read more
When a young woman in Renaissance Italy is taken by her husband, the Duke of Ferrara, to a remote villa, she realises he intends to kill her... Richly told, by the author of Hamnet.
A move to the country leaves Jem feeling desultory - but who is filling his shoes with conkers? Magic, mythology, moods and mayhem in O'Farrell's clever hands. Ages 6-8.
An unusual study of ten houses that were burnt down in Ireland during the 1920s, and how it was for their owners and families, some of whom believed themselves to be integrated members of th... read more
Skims through a dozen gardens in all their glory, green or golden, all over England. Nichols is a fabulous photographer of gardens and this will be a visual feast.
A gazeteer of 365 monuments in England and Wales - the finest that CBN has surveyed in his quarter-century of patiently traipsing about the countryside.
The fifth and final book in the Barbarotti series sees the investigator take on a cold case, in which the chief witness/suspect of course turns out to be a particularly slippery and terrifyi... read more
A tour of private spaces belonging to Nicky Haslam, Beata Heuman, Luke Edward Hall, and other such in-crowdish company. Irreverent and witty, VNL's previous work includes an early stint ass... read more
An anthology of the writings by the often overlooked women of the Raj, many of whom flourished in India - Fanny Parks, Emily Eden et alia. A fascinating counterpoint to the stereotypical vie... read more
A brilliant, perky novella about the foibles of Professor Timofey Pnin, an eccentric Russian teacher at a school in New England. 'Pninian' should really be part of our daily vocabulary; it w... read more
A brilliant, perky novella about the foibles of Professor Timofey Pnin, an eccentric Russian teacher at a school in New England. 'Pninian' should really be part of our daily vocabulary; it w... read more
Ten women: Doña Maria Picasso y Lopez (Picasso's mother), Maria Dolores Ruiz Picasso (his sister), Gertrude Stein, Fernande Olivier, Eva Gouel (Marcelle Humbert), Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thé... read more
In one generation, the Mongols reshaped the balance of world power, aided by the internecine struggles of the Byzantines, Seljuks, Crusaders and others.
The little daughter of a train driver stows away on the Flying Scotsman...With exhilarating illustrations of the steam locomotive rushing through the countryside and in and out of tunnels. A... read more
Born in Victorian Sydney, she was presented at Court to Queen Victoria and then married a Prussian count. The marriage was unhappy, and her subsequent marriage to Bertrand Russell's brother ... read more
CM has become the supreme chronicler of Italy under Mussolini. Indefatigable and brilliant, she turns her attention now to Mussolini's favourite and influential daughter, who married Count C... read more
Both a brief history of gardening and a where-do-we-go-from-here manual: Moore shows us not only what we think a garden is but why we think it ought to be thus and so. He's an advocate of a ... read more
The history of the world through the lens of the family, from a group walking along a beach 950,000 years ago to Caesars, Medicis, Bonapartes, Krupps, Assads, etc.