So the shortest day came, and the year died: a poem about how humans have responded to midwinter - the fading of the light and its mighty return - for millennia, by a well known children's a... read more
A memoir of youth in Henan province and the liberating power of the pen, by a prolific Chinese writer still relatively little known in this country, despite a festoon of international prizes... read more
Dedicated to her friend Tirzah Garwood, this is a deliciously charming and funny mix of commonplace book and diary from the 1950s, illustrated with woodcuts not by Tirzah as intended (she ha... read more
Simms and Medd were part of the mass-release of Allied prisoners when Italy surrendered in 1943. Their escape story - and the bravery and kindness of the Italians who helped them on their ... read more
Most lives are untidy, and mine is no exception... She made herself a success in Fleet Street when journalism was still a very male domain, edited Elizabeth David and inspired the look - if ... read more
Beautifully written and sensitive to his subject, this is a moving novel about Lampedusa, his remarkable wife Alexandra von Wolff-Stomersee, and the writing of 'The Leopard'.
A lauded debut novel by a graduate - like her father - of the UEA writing course. She also describes herself as a 'bibliotherapist' because she once was a bookseller in Bath, which raises th... read more
The most popular of Szabo's books in her native Hungary, published for the first time in English. It forms a loose trilogy with 'The Door' and 'Katalin Street'.
A wonderful novel about a group of active, idealistic teenagers. Thirty years later, all have lost their zeal for reform and become famous except for Spike, who remains true to his earlier s... read more
Stoppard's new play is a major event. Set in the Jewish quarter of Vienna during the first 50 years of the C20th, it is regarded as his most personal play to date.