Showing titles in Art & Literature

In August 2014 Jenny Diski was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and given 'two or three years' to live. She didn't know how to react. All responses felt scripted, laden with cliché. Being a writer, she decided to write about it (grappling with the unoriginality even of this) and to tell a story she had not yet told: that of being taken in, aged 15, by the author Doris Lessing and the subsequent 50 years of their complex relationship.

TV celebrity and national treasure Ruby Wax joins Robin Morgan in the Audible Studios to discuss her new book, A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled.

This collection of 59 short poems consists of verses, some of them incomplete, which remained unpublished at the time of Shelley’s death. Some of them have become the best known of Shelley’s shorter works. The poems were collated and edited by Mary Shelley, who also wrote an introduction to...

Here for the first time is this controversial writer's real childhood and early adulthood. The mixed feelings of an intelligent, sensitive child – talented but tormented; the eventual separation from his family; violence, crime, borstal and finally prison in England. How he turned his life around to become, not only New Zealand's bestselling novelist, but also a spokesperson for a large number of underprivileged New Zealanders, a controversial columnist and the initiator of the brilliantly successful Books in Homes schemes is both moving and compelling reading.

My adventures with the Legend, John Allen from our first meeting in 1970 to what is going on today. From the jungles if Cambodia to the swamps of Florida to the swamps of Washington, DC. And many exploits in between.

A literary tour through the notable diaries of history, giving us a window into the private lives of the famous and infamous, with a new introduction by the author “Charming, diverting, and exceptionally intelligent.” —The New Yorker Before the age of social media, chronicling one’s life...

Tuvieron que transcurrir muchos años para que las palabras de Pla perdieran finalmente vigencia. Fruto de un trabajo lento y laborioso, Gijs van Hensbergen ha conseguido construir un retrato del hombre que fue Antoni Gaudí, tanto como persona como ciudadano dentro de su contexto social, político, artístico y religioso. Esta deslumbrante biografía cubre con equilibrio y claridad todas las etapas de su vida, desde su infancia en Reus hasta su amistad con la familia Güell y el renacimiento catalanista, prestando gran atención a su fervor religioso y su vida austera.

One Christmas, Cathy Rentzenbrink finds herself drained by life's upheavals. In need of comfort and escape, she turns to her first literary love: Agatha Christie. As Cathy delves into Agatha's novels and her mysterious disappearance in 1926, she discovers more than she expected. Beyond the hidden jewels, detectives and thrilling escapes on trains and automobiles, Cathy unearths an adventurer and innovator who hid - within the pages of her own books - the secrets of how she survived a personal crisis and started life again.

In 30 feinsinnigen Skizzen erinnert er sich an seine Kindheit im wilhelminischen Berlin – an Straßen, Plätze, Räume, Geräusche, Gerüche und Gefühle. Diese Erinnerungsminiaturen sind keine lineare Lebensgeschichte, sondern literarische Momentaufnahmen – zwischen sinnlicher Beobachtung und philosophischer Reflexion, zwischen persönlichem Empfinden und kollektiver Erinnerung. Ein Klassiker der modernen Erinnerungsliteratur, geschrieben in poetischer Prosa, voller Melancholie, Schärfe und Tiefe.

‘Most smart people tend to feel queasy when the conversation turns to things like “certain death” and “total failure” and the idea of “a doomed generation”. But not me. I am comfortable with these themes.’ Hunter S. Thompson, celebrated author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...

Brought to you by Penguin. Over his thirty-year career at Condé Nast, Nicholas Coleridge has witnessed it all. From the anxieties of the Princess of Wales to the blazing fury of Mohamed Al-Fayed, his story is also the story of the people who populate the glamorous world of glossy magazines...

Poet, artist, visionary and author of the unofficial English national anthem 'Jerusalem', William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. In this radical new biography, we return to a world of riots, revolutions and radicals, discuss movements from the Levellers of the sixteenth century to the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s, and explore the latest discoveries in neurobiology, quantum physics and comparative religion to look afresh at Blake's life and work—and, crucially, his mind. 

Nanako Hanada's life is in crisis. Recently separated from her husband, living in youth hostels and internet cafes, her work is going no better. Book sales at the eccentric Village Vanguard bookstore in Tokyo, which Nanako manages, are dwindling. Fallen out of love in all aspects of her life, Nanako realises how narrow her life has become, with no friends outside of her colleagues, and no hobbies apart from reading and arranging books. That's when Nanako joins a meet-up site where people meet for 30-minute bursts to find romance, build a network, or just share ideas.

This is the real story of QAnon - what it is, what it means and where it goes. And be warned - none of it is pretty. On 5th October 2017, President Trump made a cryptic off-the-cuff remark in the State Dining Room. He called this gathering of top-ranking military officials 'the calm before the storm' and refused to elaborate as journalist and politicos inquired further. But on the online message boards of 4chan, elaboration began all on its own. 

Whatever Jenn Ashworth turns her hand to, I'm there to read it' BENJAMIN MYERS, author of The Offing 'With honesty, humour and determination, Ashworth's journey takes the reader from coast to coast in search of freedom' JESSICA ANDREWS, author of Milk Teeth 'A miracle of a book . . . One of our...

George Orwell was more than just a writer. He was a political and social sage who valued, above all else, individual freedom. His works aren’t just entertainment - they’re cautionary tales and red flags of warning. And if we ever hope to understand threats to freedom and how to stop them, we must learn from them. In these 24 lectures, learn how the man born as Eric Blair forged himself into a writer of international importance and renown.

Known for his journalism, biographies and novels, A. N. Wilson turns a merciless searchlight on his own early life, his experience of sexual abuse, his catastrophic mistakes in love (sacred and profane) and his life in Grub Street—as a prolific writer. The audiobook begins with his heart-torn present-day visits to Katherine, now for decades his ex-wife, who has slithered into the torments of dementia. At every turn of this reminiscence, Wilson is baffled by his earlier self—whether he is flirting with unsuitable lovers or with the idea of the priesthood.

A searing confessional infused with the darkest humor, Permanent Midnight chronicles the opiated abyss of a Hollywood screenwriter and his formidable climb into sobriety. Made into a major motion picture starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, Permanent Midnight is revered by critics and an ever-growing cult of devoted fans as one of the most compelling contemporary memoirs.

Roger Deakin, author of the immortal Waterlog and Wildwood, was a man of unusually many parts. A born writer who nonetheless took decades to write his first book, Roger was also variously—and sometimes simultaneously—maverick ad-man, seller of stripped pine furniture on the Portobello Road, cider-maker, teacher, environmentalist, music promoter, and filmmaker. But above all he was the restorer of ancient Walnut Tree Farm in Suffolk.

Internationally bestselling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins' legendary memoir--wild tales of his life and times, both at home and around the globe. Tom Robbins’ warm, wise, and wonderfully weird novels—including Still Life With Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, and Fierce Invalids Home...