Literary biography

Vladimir Nabokov's early novel is the dazzling story of the coarse, strange yet oddly endearing chess-playing genius Luzhin. Discovering his prodigious gift in boyhood and rising to the rank of International Grandmaster, Luzhin develops a lyrical passion for chess that renders the real world a phantom. As he confronts the...

An essential new translation of Franz Kafka’s complete, uncensored diaries—a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century’s most important, influential, and visionary writers Dating from 1909 to 1923, Franz Kafka’s Diaries contains a broad array of writing, including accounts of daily events, assorted reflections...

From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date—a brutally honest, surprisingly poignant, and deeply intimate memoir of growing up Black, poor, and queer in a broken home to discovering the power of performance, found family, and self-acceptance.A profound introspection of...

BORN IN THE SHADOWS. LIVED FOR THE SPOTLIGHT. WAS SHE MURDERED? Before Marilyn Monroe, there was Norma Jeane. No one would have thought that the girl who spent her childhood between foster homes and orphanages would one day become a global star. The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe...

The comprehensive collection of letters spanning the adult life of one of the world’s greatest storytellers, now revised and expanded to include more than 150 previously unseen letters, with revealing new insights into The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of the languages...

True beauty lies in the sum of our qualities, used for positive purposes. In other words, using your power for the good This new book delves deeper into the stories behind the captivating images that have made Mihaela Noroc an online sensation. With 500 portraits from over 60 countries, including...

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years is terminally ill, the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset...

Tristessa is a strange fever-dream of morphine sickness and belly-deep sadness. Or, in the words of Allen Ginsberg: ‘a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuahua dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken...

In this unique book, His Holiness the Dalai Lama tells the full story of his 75-year struggle with China to save Tibet and its people. The Dalai Lama has had to contend with the People’s Republic of China his entire life. He was 15 years old when communist China invaded...

I'm here to tell you my story, which is also the story of my people and the story of this forest. 'Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, Nemonte Nenquimo was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. Age 14, she left the...

Writers Revealed tells the stories of the best-loved writers in English literature, investigating their enduring appeal from the sixteenth century to today through the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the British Library. Intimate handwritten manuscripts, letters and notebooks as well as rare first editions of books from...

A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition of Virginia Woolf’s classic plea for aworld in which women are free to use their gifts. In this influential extended essay and using powerful images and memorable thought experiments -such as a fictional sister of William Shakespeare, who is as talented as her brother but...

Eve Babitz died on December 17, 2021. Found in the wrack, ruin and filth of her apartment, a stack of boxes packed by her mother decades before. Inside, a lost world, centred on a two-story rental in a down-at-heel section of Hollywood in the sixties and seventies. 7406 Franklin Avenue,...

Thomas Bayes was an eighteenth-century Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician whose obscure life belied the profound impact of his work. Like most research into probability at the time, his theorem was mainly seen as relevant to games of chance, like dice and cards. But its implications soon became clear....

The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. It is based on access to the latest research, especially into his archive at the University of the Arts, London, and other papers as...

'Leonard Cohen taught us that even in the midst of darkness there is light, in the midst of hatred there is love, with our dying breath we can still sing Hallelujah.' - The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks'Among the finest volumes on Cohen's life and lyrics ... An exploration which would...

The powerful and moving memoir of a fearless political opposition leader who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs. Alexei Navalny began writing PATRIOT shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020. It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, his...

In 1944, sixteen-year-old ballerina Edith was sent to Auschwitz and endured unimaginable experiences. When the camp was finally liberated, she was pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive. Celebrated therapist and Holocaust survivor Edith Eger captivated millions with her incredible tale of survival and strength in her best-selling...

With what this poor woman had been through the sight of her crying tore at my heartstrings. What if something should happen to her; who would care for her little baby?   To conceal the fear and terror in my heart I left her, trying to put up a cheerful front. But...

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives...

A thought-provoking exploration of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic album, Born in the U.S.A.—a record that both chronicled and foreshadowed the changing tides of modern America On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic,...

Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tucci’s life: from stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to marinara sauce cooked between scene rehearsals and costume fittings, to home-made pizza eaten with his children before bedtime. Now, in What I Ate In One Year Tucci records...

Now with a new afterword covering the months-long landmark trials of Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani. 'I couldn't put down this thriller . .. the perfect book to read by the fire this winter.' Bill GatesWinner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2018The riveting true story...

Hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the greatest rock memoirs of all time, Be My Baby is the true story of how Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ronnie Spector carved out a space for herself against tremendous odds amid the chaos of the 1960s music scene and beyond.With an introduction by...

A beautiful new edition of the cult classic that counts Zadie Smith and Rachel Kushner among its fans - with a new introduction by Celia Paul. 'I am an artist. Even to write it makes me feel deeply uneasy.' Renowned American artist Anne Truitt kept this illuminating and inspiring journal...

THE SUNDAY TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARA TELEGRAPH BEST MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARA NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEARFaith, Hope and Carnage is a book about Nick Cave's inner life. Created from over forty hours of intimate conversations with Sean O'Hagan, it is a profoundly thoughtful exploration,...

Frida Kahlo transcended art history like no woman artist before her. She was a key figure of Mexican revolutionary modern art and a pioneer of the politics of gender, sexuality, and feminism. This monograph combines Kahlo’s paintings with rare photos, diary pages, and an illustrated biography.

In this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy bestselling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the incredible life of Lewis Hamilton, Formula One champion.Little Lewis's childhood was filled with cars, motorcycles and watching Formula One with his dad. On his fifth birthday, he received a remote-controlled racing car and joined...

'A monumental work filled with first-person accounts of the master's life and a dizzying array of never-before heard details' Michael Imperioli, author of The Perfume Burned His Eyes The most complete and penetrating biography of the rock master, whose stature grows every year.Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed's...

Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in popular...