From Shakespeare & Jane Austen to Gabriel Garcia Marquez & Toni Morrison, delve into more than 100 biographies of the world`s greatest writers. Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured novelist, playwright, or poet, biographical entries trace the friendships, loves, & rivalries that inspired each individual & influenced their work, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots, & evocative settings that they created. Lavishly illustrated with photographs & paintings of writers` homes, studies, & personal artefacts
- along with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, & their correspondence
- this book introduces the key ideas, themes, & literary techniques of each writer, revealing the imaginations & personalities behind some of the world`s greatest novels, short stories, poems, & plays. With a foreword introduction by James Naughtie, & covering an eclectic range of authors from the Middle Ages to the present day, Writers provides a compelling glimpse of the lives & loves of each great writer.

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Writers` Houses reflects Britain`s impressive literary & architectural heritage, offering a revealing insight into how leading British writers lived & wrote. Illustrated in colour, the book guides you through the very rooms that inspired writers to produce some of their greatest work. Drawing upon the writers` own words, the book examines in detail the personal relationship between each house & writer & discusses the influence these places have had upon the imagination & creativity of British novelists, poets & playwrights from the past five hundred years. Over fifty houses are explored including Agatha Christie`s secluded West Country retreat, the ancient, timber-framed residence in Stratford-upon-Avon where Shakespeare spent his boyhood, Dylan Thomas` boat-house at Laugharne, the cottage where Robert Burns was born & brought up, & the moated house & garden in East Sussex that inspired the evocative setting for a Sherlock Holmes story. Follow in the footsteps of your favourite authors & be inspired by the surroundings in which some of literature`s best-loved characters were created. ...

The love of place is endemic in English literature, from the work of the earliest poets & hermits to the suburban celebrations of John Betjeman, covering all varieties of the British rural & urban landscape. This book presents an image of Britain as seen by writers of different regions & periods, & also illuminates the way in which their work has changed our visual attitudes, our taste in landscape & our relation to nature. ...

Who had the most commercial success in their lifetime, Ernest Hemingway or Agatha Christie? Whose work has the most adaptations, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Franz Kafka? Who courted the most scandal, Colette or James Joyce? Pit 32 of the world`s greatest modern writers against each other with these beautifully illustrated cards. An ideal gift for the book lover in your life. ...

International migration has long been a dominant feature of world literature from both post-industrial & developing countries. The increasing demands of the global economic system & continued political instability in many of the world`s region have highlighted this shifting map of the world`s peoples. Yet, political concern for the larger scale economic & social impact of migration has effectively obscured the nature of the migratory nature of the migratory experience itself, the emotions & practicalities of departure, travel, arrival & the attempt to rebuild a home. Writing Across Worlds explores an extraordinary range of migration literaturesm from letters & diaries to journalistic articles, autobiographies & fiction, in order to analyse the reality of the migrant`s experience. The sheer range of writings
- Irish, Friulian, Italian, Jewish & South Asian British, Gastarbeiter literature from Germany, Pied noir, French-Algerian & French West Indian writing, Carribbean novels, Slovene emigrant texts, Japanese-Canadian writing, migration in American novels, narratives from Australia, South Africa, Samoa & others
- illustrate the diversity of global migratory experience & emphasise the social context of literature. The geographic & literary range of Writing Across Worlds makes this collection an invaluable analysis of migration, giving voice to the hope, pain, nostalgia & triumph of lives lived in other places.

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Throughout his career, David Grossman has been a voice for peace & reconciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian divide. In this groundbreaking collection of essays on literature & politics, he addresses the conscience of present-day Israel, a country that has lost faith in its leaders & its ideals. Writing in the Dark ends with the speech in which Grossman famously attacked Israel`s disastrous Lebanon war that tragically took the life of his twenty-one-year-old son, Uri. Moving, brave & clear-sighted, these essays on literature, political ethics & the morality of the imagination are a cri de coeur from a calm voice of reason at a time of doubt & despair. ...

Writing London in a series of City Map/ Guides from Herb Lester Associates, a witty & imaginatively selected alternative to the usual lists of addresses where various writers lived in London. Some “so-&-so lived here” addresses are included but you will also find references to places where Homes first met Dr Watson, Bow Street Magistrates Court where Oscar Wilde was charged, or the location of John Le Carre’s Circus. Locations of the guide’s 70 entries are roughly indicated by drawings of the relevant buildings, etc. Maps in this series are an eclectic selection of quirky titles designed to illuminate particular aspects of a city or a district. Each title lists publishers’ recommendations, ranging from the already famous attractions to little gems known only to the well informed locals, all with brief descriptions &, where appropriate, contact details. Accompanying maps are designed to highlight the locations of the recommended places rather than to provide an accurate presentation of the street network. To see other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Powerful essays by such luminaries & literary giants as Daniel Day-Lewis & Martin Amis offer a compassionate look at the crises that most affect our world today. An important book for anyone interested in global issues, ” Writing on the Edge” features twelve essays that take the reader to countries in crisis. Award-winning writer Martin Amis experienced firsthand the problems of gang violence in Colombia, South America; ” New York Times” bestselling author Tracy Chevalier focuses on the abuse of women in Burundi, East Africa; Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis writes of meeting children raised in war-torn Palestine; Booker Prize-winning author DBC Pierre addresses the unusually high incidence of mental health issues in Armenia. Award-winning photographer Tom Craig was commissioned by the humanitarian charity Medecins Sans Frontieres/ Doctors without Borders to document the writers in these places in trouble. His striking photographs amplify the sense of compassion required while also demonstrating that beautiful humanity is the victim of tragedy. ...

This book is not just funny (or sad) stories of campervan trips in Scotland; it is not just ` Zen & the art of campervan maintenance` (with stories of sweetness & light that will entertain or make you cry); & it is not just nature writing (with observations of wildlife in the western Scottish Highlands). But if you enjoy reading about how books are written & about recovery stories from relationship breakdowns, & if you like reading about women travelling alone & all the things that can go wrong (and right), about strategies for facing fear, dealing with creepy crawlies & noises in the night, & about surviving all that life throws at you (especially when you are over a certain age), then you will probably enjoy this book. Writing on the Road is by Sue Reid Sexton, who, while writing two novels (Mavis`s Shoe & Rue End Street) over the past six years, needed to escape from her hectic household to create some space to write them. As the mother of two & a step-mum of four, Sue realised her only real option was to get into her campervan & have it function as a mobile office. Whether she camped by a beach overlooking the Atlantic in the Kintyre peninsula with buzzards, golden eagles, deer, seals, surfers, other campervanners & dead fish for company, or in the hills around Glasgow, or on Skye, Morvern, the Cowal peninsula or even in southern France, her main aim was to switch off her phone, get out her laptop & write. Sue has made countless journeys in campervans in the last few years & thanks to her practice of taking notes as she travels, we, too, can enjoy her campervan experiences. In Writing on the Road Sue also writes about the many & varied practical difficulties of campervan life that she has had to overcome. They include locking herself out of the campervan at night miles from home; coping with local byelaws & negative attitudes to campervans & to women travelling solo; driving a hundred miles with a window open before she could empty a cracked toilet; & finding out the wrong (and the right) way to buy a campervan. We hope this book will inspire anyone looking for encouragement in the expressive arts to get creative & persuade any would-be campervanners to get out there & enjoy the campervan life. ...

Thames aficionado Robert Gibbings once wrote that `the quiet of an age-old river is like the slow turning of the pages of a well-loved book`. Writing the Thames tells a much-loved river`s story through the remarkable prose, poetry & illustration that it has inspired. In eight themed chapters it features historical events such as Julius Caesar`s crossing in 55 BCE & Elizabeth I`s stand against the Spanish at Tilbury, explorations of topographers who mapped, drew & painted the river & the many congenial riverside retreats for authors ranging from Francis Bacon, Thomas More & Alexander Pope to Thomas Love Peacock, William Morris & Henry James. A chapter on messing about in boats tells the story of William Hogarth`s impulsive five-day river trip with four inebriated friends & features satirical novels making fun of frenetic rowers (Zuleika Dobson) & young London men-about-town on camping holidays (Three Men in a Boat). The river has also inspired some of the best children`s literature (The Wind in the Willows) & naturalists such as Richard Jeffries & C.J. Cornish (A Naturalist on the Thames) have recorded the richness of its wildlife. But there are also dark undercurrents: Charles Dickens`s use of its waters as a symbol of death, Sax Rohmer`s Limehouse villain Dr Fu Manchu, & the many fictional criminals who dispose of corpses in its sinister depths in detective novels ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Inspector Morse. Beautifully illustrated, this book celebrates the writers who have helped to make England`s greatest river an enduring legend. ...