From a trunk of diaries and letters, the author constructs the lively story of her mother, Celia Paget, and her sister. Lovers and friends included Orwell, Koestler, Camus, Sartre and de Bea... read more
On his death in 2014, George Lucas left his diaries - spanning 60 years and pertaining not to his career as a civil servant but to his after-hours pursuits - to their editor.
A love hotel on Japan's Inland Sea, H.G. Wells, Rebecca West, 1930s' physics: a mesmerising memoir of his parents by the author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Acute, sensitive novel about a writer's psychic collapse. (The US edition has a different title - Dartmouth Park, which is far more Jane Austen than the contents.)
A dizzying tale of social collapse, generational impasse and mid-life crisis; a Bonfire of the Vanities set in London. Brilliantly observed, lean, slick, clever and gripping.
A new edition of this splendid book, in a smaller format and illustrated with a few drawings rather than photographs. Roddy writes wonderfully about Testaccio (where she has lived for over a... read more
Last encountered in his fine book Dostoevsky in Love, this gifted author has an eye for inner conflict. Now he returns to the Christian/Arab complexities of his native Cyprus.
Electrifying memoir by a former art dealer about his erstwhile friend Inigo Philbrick who, having cut his teeth at White Cube, went on to make millions but came a cropper. He was extradited ... read more
The story of a girl who grows up in China during the 1970s and 1980s, and takes part in the demonstration. An international bestseller, whose author - not surprisingly - uses a pseudonym.
Roads not taken, not thought about for twenty years, until bad news turns the protagonist's head for her Irish home. The humane and introspective sequel to Brooklyn.
A spin on Huckleberry Finn, this harrowing (and characteristically witty) account of his adventures is narrated by James, a runaway slave. It's a scary reflection on racism today.
The 60 years following the Portuguese arrival in the Moluccas in 1511 saw an epic global struggle for the sources and distribution of this new geyser of wealth. Told with verve and authority... read more