In 1995 before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire to move back to the States for a few years with his family Bill Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain a sort of valedictory tour of the green & kindly island that had so long been his home His aim was to take stock of the nation's public face & private parts (as it were) & to analyse what precisely it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite; a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy; place names like Farleigh Wallop Titsey & Shellow Bowells; people who said ' Mustn't grumble' & Ooh lovely' at the sight of a cup of tea & a plate of biscuits; & Gardeners' Question Time Notes from a Small Island was a huge number-one bestseller when it was first published & has become the nation's most loved book about Britain going on to sell over two million copies ...

The 900-day siege of Leningrad (1941-44) was one of the turning points of the Second World War It slowed down the German advance into Russia & became a national symbol of survival & resistance An estimated one million civilians died most of them from cold & starvation Lydia Ginzburg a respected literary scholar (who meanwhile wrote prose 'for the desk drawer' through seven decades of Soviet rule) survived Using her own using notes & sketches she wrote during the siege along with conversations & impressions collected over the years she distilled the collective experience of life under siege Through painful depiction of the harrowing conditions of that period Ginzburg created a paean to the dignity vitality & resilience of the human spirit This original translation by Alan Myers has been revised & annotated by Emily van Buskirk This edition

Includes:: A Story of Pity & Cruelty' a recently discovered documentary narrative translated into English for the first time by Angela Livingstone

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From Raymond Briggs the beloved & bestselling author of The Snowman comes his first book in a decade now in an updated edition with new columns & illustrations Notes from the Sofa is a beautifully illustrated compilation of reflections on life & what it means to get older Raymond dips into his past to remind us of scrumping apples National Service party lines on telephones the torment of cinema organs & the endless obsession with laxatives alongside his take on the absurdities of the modern world This collection gives us warm & memorable sketches of Raymond's life now & reminds us why he is one of our best-loved storytellers ...

Notes from the Underground (1864) is one of the most profound works of nineteenth-century literature A probing speculative book often regarded as a forerunner of the Existentialist movement it examines the important political & philosophical questions that were current in Russia & Europe at the time The Gambler (1866) set in the fictional town of Roulettenberg explores the compulsive nature of gambling one of the author's own vices & a subject he describes with extraordinary acumen & drama Specially commissioned for the World's Classics this new translation

Includes:: a full editorial apparatus ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more

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Lou Reed who died in 2013 was best known to the general public as the grumpy New Yorker in black who sang ' Walk on the Wild Side' To his dedicated admirers however he was one of the most innovative & intelligent American songwriters of modern times a natural outsider who lived a tumultuous & tortured life In this in-depth meticulously researched & very entertaining biography respected biographer Howard Sounes examines the life & work of this fascinating man from birth to death including his time as the leader of The Velvet Underground
- one of the most important bands in rock'n'roll Written with a deep knowledge & understanding of the music Sounes also sheds entirely new light on the artist's creative process his mental health problems his bisexuality his three marriages & his addictions to drugs & alcohol In the course of his research Sounes has interviewed over 140 people from every part of Lou Reed's life
- some of whom have not spoken publicly about him before
- including music industry figures band members fellow celebrities family members former wives & lovers This book brings Lou Reed & his world alive


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Collected here in Penguin Classics are two of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's shorter works Notes from Underground & The Double translated by Ronald Wilks with an introduction by Robert Louis Jackson Alienated from society & paralysed by a sense of his own insignificance the anonymous narrator of Dostoyevsky's groundbreaking Notes from Underground tells the story of his tortured life With bitter irony he describes his refusal to become a worker in the 'anthill' of society & his gradual withdrawal to an existence 'underground' The seemingly ordinary world of St Petersburg takes on a nightmarish quality in The Double when a government clerk encounters a man who looks exactly like him
- his double perhaps or possibly the darker side of his own personality Like Notes from Underground this is a masterly tragicomic study of human consciousness Ronald Wilks's extraordinary new translation is accompanied here by an introduction by Robert Louis Jackson discussing these pivotal works in the context of Dostoyevsky's life & times This edition also contains a chronology bibliography table of ranks & notes on each work Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was born in Moscow From 1849-54 he lived in a convict prison & in later years his passion for gambling led him deeply into debt His other works available in Penguin Classics include Crime & Punishment The Brothers Karamazov The Idiot & Demons If you enjoyed Notes from Underground & The Double you might like Dostoyevsky's Demons also available in Penguin Classics' Notes from Underground with its mood of intellectual irony & alienation can be seen as the first modern novel That sense of meaninglessness of existence that runs through much of twentieth-century writing
- from Conrad & Kafka to Beckett & beyond
- starts in Dostoyevsky's work' Malcolm Bradbury


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Presenting the apology & confession of a minor mid-19th-century Russian official this title offers a half-desperate half-mocking political critique & an account of man's breakaway from society & descent 'underground' ...

Beginning in 1967 Bukowski wrote the column Notes of A Dirty Old Man for the underground newspaper Open City Perennially drunk broke & in search of a woman Bukowski takes on the guise of a wise fool as he ventures through America's seedy lowlife Peopled by Kerouac Burroughs & other much less salubrious characters his exploits provoke humour & despair whilst highlighting the inherent beauty & futility of life ...

'A deeply honest & brave portrait of of an individual sensibility reckoning with her country's violent role in the world' Hisham Matar New York Times Book Review In the wake of the 11th September attacks & the US-led invasion of Iraq Suzy Hansen who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper Increasingly though the disconnect between the chaos of world events & the response at home took on pressing urgency for her Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines she moved to Istanbul Hansen arrived in Istanbul with romantic ideas about a mythical city perched between East & West & with a naive sense of the Islamic world beyond Over the course of her many years of living in Turkey & traveling in Greece Egypt Afghanistan & Iran she learned a great deal about these countries & their cultures & histories & politics But the greatest most unsettling surprise would be what she learned about her own country?and herself an American abroad in the era of American decline It would take leaving her home to discover what she came to think of as the two Americas the country & its people & the experience of American power around the world She came to understand that anti-Americanism is not a violent pathology It is Hansen writes 'a broken heart A one-hundred-year-old relationship' Blending memoir journalism & history & deeply attuned to the voices of those she met on her travels Notes on a Foreign Country is a moving reflection on America's place in the world It is a powerful journey of self-discovery & revelation?a profound reckoning with what it means to be American in a moment of grave national & global turmoil ...

Shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal is a darkly compelling novel that explores the taboo subject of pupilteacher relationships obsession & betrayal From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St George's history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced she has found a kindred spirit Barbara's loyalty to her new friend is passionate & unstinting & when Sheba is discovered having an illicit affair with one of her pupils Barbara quickly elects herself as Sheba's chief defender But all is not as it first seems in this dark story & as Sheba will soon discover a friend can be just as treacherous as any lover' Brilliant nasty gripping' Zadie Smith' Compelling dark sexy' Observer' Superbly gripping One of the most compelling books I've read in ages' Daily Telegraph' Deliciously sinister' Daily Mail Zoe Heller is the author of three novels Everything You Know Notes on a Scandal which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003 & The Believers The 2006 film adaptation of Notes on a Scandal starring Cate Blanchett & Judi Dench received four Oscar nominations She lives in New York ...