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Lives Between The Lines: A Journey in Search of the Lost Levant
by Michael VatikiotisThe story begins with a parting of the sands - the construction of the Suez Canal that united the Mediterranean with the Arabian Sea. It opened the door of opportunity for people living insecurely on the fringes of a turbulent Europe.The Middle East is understood today through the lens of unending conflict and violence. Lost in the litany of perpetual strife and struggle are the layers of culture and civilisation that accumulated over centuries, and which give the region its cosmopolitan identity. It was once a region known poetically as the Levant - a reference to the East, where the sun rose. Amid the the bewildering mix of races, religions and rivalries, was above all an affinity with the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Today any mixing of this trinity of faiths is regarded as a recipe for hatred and prejudice. Yet it was not always this way. There was a time, in the last century, when Arabs and Jews rubbed shoulders in bazaars and teashops, worked and played together, intermarried and shared family histories. Michael Vatikiotis's parents and grandparents were a product of this forgotten pluralist tradition, which spanned almost a century from the mid-1800s to the end of the Second World War in 1945. The Ottoman empire, in a last gasp of reformist energy before it collapsed in the 1920s, granted people of many creeds and origins generous spaces to nestle into and thrive. The European colonial order that followed was to reveal deep divisions. Vatikiotis's family eventually found themselves caught between clashing faiths and contested identity. Their story is of people set adrift, who built new lives and prospered in holy lands, only to be caught up in conflict and tossed on the waves of a violent history.Lives Between the Lines brilliantly recreates a world where the Middle East was a place to go to, not flee from, and the subsequent start of a prolonged nightmare of suffering frmo which the region has yet to recover.
Lives Between The Lines: A Journey in Search of the Lost Levant
by Michael VatikiotisThe story begins with a parting of the sands - the construction of the Suez Canal that united the Mediterranean with the Arabian Sea. It opened the door of opportunity for people living insecurely on the fringes of a turbulent Europe.The Middle East is understood today through the lens of unending conflict and violence. Lost in the litany of perpetual strife and struggle are the layers of culture and civilisation that accumulated over centuries, and which give the region its cosmopolitan identity. It was once a region known poetically as the Levant - a reference to the East, where the sun rose. Amid the the bewildering mix of races, religions and rivalries, was above all an affinity with the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Today any mixing of this trinity of faiths is regarded as a recipe for hatred and prejudice. Yet it was not always this way. There was a time, in the last century, when Arabs and Jews rubbed shoulders in bazaars and teashops, worked and played together, intermarried and shared family histories. Michael Vatikiotis's parents and grandparents were a product of this forgotten pluralist tradition, which spanned almost a century from the mid-1800s to the end of the Second World War in 1945. The Ottoman empire, in a last gasp of reformist energy before it collapsed in the 1920s, granted people of many creeds and origins generous spaces to nestle into and thrive. The European colonial order that followed was to reveal deep divisions. Vatikiotis's family eventually found themselves caught between clashing faiths and contested identity. Their story is of people set adrift, who built new lives and prospered in holy lands, only to be caught up in conflict and tossed on the waves of a violent history.Lives Between the Lines brilliantly recreates a world where the Middle East was a place to go to, not flee from, and the subsequent start of a prolonged nightmare of suffering frmo which the region has yet to recover.
Three-a-Penny: Radio 4 Book of the Week
by Lucy MallesonA rediscovered classic memoir - a fascinating insight into the life of a crime writer during and after the First World War - a woman ahead of her time.With a new introduction by Sophie HannahTHREE-A-PENNY describes what it is like to be a woman in a man's world - about the ups and downs of earning a living as a writer in the 1920s and 30s.Lucy Malleson wrote over 70 crime novels and was part of what is often referred to as the Golden Age of crime writing. But in order to be published she used a male pseudonym, and successfully concealed her true identity for many years. From the poignancy of the First World War and its aftermath to the invitation to join the infamous Detection Club, this re-discovered classic gives a fascinating insight into what life was like as a woman living and working in a largely male world during and after the First World War.
Three-a-Penny: Radio 4 Book of the Week
by Lucy MallesonA rediscovered classic memoir - a fascinating insight into the life of a crime writer during and after the First World War - a woman ahead of her time.With a new introduction by Sophie HannahTHREE-A-PENNY describes what it is like to be a woman in a man's world - about the ups and downs of earning a living as a writer in the 1920s and 30s.Lucy Malleson wrote over 70 crime novels and was part of what is often referred to as the Golden Age of crime writing. But in order to be published she used a male pseudonym, and successfully concealed her true identity for many years. From the poignancy of the First World War and its aftermath to the invitation to join the infamous Detection Club, this re-discovered classic gives a fascinating insight into what life was like as a woman living and working in a largely male world during and after the First World War.
MAGIC: The Life of Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson
by Roland LazenbyThe definitive biography of the basketball legend Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, from the author of Michael Jordan: the Life. Magic Johnson is one of the most beloved, and also controversial, athletes in history. He lifted the dowdy sport of American pro basketball into the global spotlight, a transformation driven by his ability to eviscerate opponents with a grand sense of fun. He was a master entertainer who directed basketball to the heights of both glory and epic excess, all of it driven by his mind-blowing no-look passes and personal charm. At the charismatic height of his power, Johnson shocked the world with his personal story which pushed public awareness of the HIV and AIDs crisis. Through hundreds of interviews with Johnson's coaches, representatives past and present, teammates, opponents, friends and loved ones, including key conversations with Johnson himself, this is the first truly definitive study of the revolutionary player: the man, the icon, Magic Johnson.
Leading Men: 'A timeless and heart-breaking love story' Celeste Ng
by Christopher CastellaniSoon to be a film, written by Matthew Lopez (Olivier Award winner for The Inheritance), produced by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name)'Movie stars in Italy, a longtime affair, and a missing Tennessee Williams play - what more could you want?' Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere'A book to savour' Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & The Six'Extraordinary... I read Leading Men in one rapt afternoon' Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies'A novel of rare insight and beauty: Castellani is a writer of brilliant gifts' Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You'Blazing... casts a spell right from the start' Dwight Garner, New York TimesPORTOFINO, ITALY. JULY 1953At a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote, literary sensation Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo meet the enigmatic Anja Blomgren, an aspiring Swedish actress.Their encounter will alter the course of their lives forever. Spanning half a century and featuring a dazzling cast of characters - from Anna Magnani cooking pasta amatriciana in a sun-kissed kitchen in Rome, to Ludovico Visconti barking orders on his latest film set - Leading Men is a heart-breaking novel about life in the shadows of greatness, and a moving re-telling of one of the great literary love stories of the twentieth-century.'Seductive and steamy' Boston Globe'Touching' Washington Post'Dazzling' Entertainment Weekly'Spectacular' Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
On the High Wire (W&N Essentials)
by Philippe PetitIn this poetic handbook, written when he was just twenty-three, the world-famous high-wire artist Philippe Petit offers a window into the world of his craft. Petit masterfully explains how preparation and self-control contributed to such feats as walking between the towers of Notre Dame and the World Trade Center. Addressing such topics as the rigging of the wire, the walker's first steps, his salute and exercises, and the work of other renowned high-wire artists, Petit offers us a book about the ecstasy of conquering our fears and reaching for the stars.
How to Think Like a Fish: And Other Lessons from a Lifetime in Angling
by Jeremy WadeFar from being a conventional 'how to' guide, this book is about the simple fundamental principles of fishing - a mindset for success. In other words, how to think like a fish.After starting to fish in rural England more than fifty ago, and going on to become a captor of large, wily carp in his teens, Jeremy Wade started combining angling with far-flung exploration in 1982 - a trip to northern India via Afghanistan in a plane that just weeks later was hit by a ground-to-air missile. Since then Jeremy have caught an unparalleled array of large and outlandish fish from challenging locations all over the world, originally in seat-of-the-pants solo travels and more recently in the company of a TV crew. Among the fish caught are a dozen freshwater species over the weight of 100 pounds, some of which were unknown even to anglers until recently. As these catches have come more to the public attention, many people have approached Jeremy about how they can improve their fishing results.Fishing is about deception, so it has to engage the brain. It is an exercise in problem solving, where no two sets of circumstances are exactly the same, where success is an artful blend of drawing on experience and keeping an open mind.(p) Orion Publishing Group 2019
Invisible Walls: A Journalist in Search of Her Life
by Hella Pick'Memoirs of such richness are rare . . . a joy' JAMES NAUGHTIE'A remarkable personal journey, by one of the great political correspondents of our world - eloquent, enlightening, exhilarating' PHILIPPE SANDSA trailblazer for women in journalism, Hella Pick arrived in Britain in 1939 as a child refugee from Austria. Over nearly four decades she covered the volatile global scene, first in West Africa, followed by America and long periods in Europe. In her thirty-five years with the Guardian she reported on the end of Empire in West Africa, the assassination of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King's march from Selma to Montgomery, the Vietnam peace negotiation in Paris, the 1968 student revolt in France, the birth of the Solidarity movement in Poland, and the closing stages of the Cold War. A request for coffee on board a Soviet ship anchored in Malta led to a chat with Mikhail Gorbachev. A request for an interview with Willy Brandt led to a personal friendship that enabled her to come to terms with Germany's Nazi past.Her book is also a clarion call for preserving professionalism in journalism at a time when social media muddy the waters between fact and fiction, and between reporting and commentary.INVISIBLE WALLS tells the dramatic story of how a Kindertransport survivor won the trust and sometimes the friendship of world leaders, and with them a wide range of remarkable men and women. It speaks frankly of personal heartache and of a struggle over her Jewish identity. It is also the intensely touching story of how, despite a gift for friendship and international recognised achievements as a woman journalist, a continuing sense of personal insecurity has confronted her with a series of invisible walls.
Adrift: Fieldnotes from Almost-Motherhood
by Miranda Ward'What would it mean to name this place I'm in, to map it? To say: this is the landscape. It looks like this, smells like this, at night these are the sounds that carry on the wind. Almost-motherhood . . .'When Miranda Ward and her husband decided to have a baby, they were young and optimistic. But five years, three miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy later, she is still dealing with the ongoing aftermath of that decision, and the shadow it's cast over her relationship to her partner, her body and her future. In this searing, lyrical and radically honest memoir, Ward charts her journey through the uncertain landscape of almost-motherhood, asking questions of geography on the most intimate scale. How can we learn to be at home in our own bodies, even when we feel adrift from them? What language do we have for the spaces in between, the periods of wanting and waiting? And how do we maintain hope as we navigate towards an unknown future?
William Blake Now: Why He Matters More Than Ever
by John Higgs'If a thing loves, it is infinite' William BlakeA short, impassioned argument for why the visionary artist William Blake is important in the twenty-first centuryThe visionary poet and painter William Blake is a constant presence throughout contemporary culture - from videogames to novels, from sporting events to political rallies and from horror films to designer fashion. Although he died nearly 200 years ago, something about his work continues to haunt the twenty-first century. What is it about Blake that has so endured? In this illuminating essay, John Higgs takes us on a whirlwind tour to prove that far from being the mere New Age counterculture figure that many assume him to be, Blake is now more relevant than ever.
William Blake vs the World
by John Higgs'A glittering stream of revelatory light . . . Fascinating' THE TIMES'Rich, complex and original' TOM HOLLAND'One of the best books on Blake I have ever read' DAVID KEENAN'Absolutely wonderful!' TERRY GILLIAM'An alchemical dream of a book' SALENA GODDEN'Tells us a great deal about all human imagination' ROBIN INCE***Poet, artist, visionary and author of the unofficial English national anthem 'Jerusalem', William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. His life passed without recognition and he worked without reward, mocked, dismissed and misinterpreted. Yet from his ignoble end in a pauper's grave, Blake now occupies a unique position as an artist who unites and attracts people from all corners of society, and a rare inclusive symbol of English identity. Blake famously experienced visions, and it is these that shaped his attitude to politics, sex, religion, society and art. Thanks to the work of neuroscientists and psychologists, we are now in a better position to understand what was happening inside that remarkable mind, and gain a deeper appreciation of his brilliance. His timeless work, we will find, has never been more relevant.In William Blake vs the World 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. Taking the reader on wild detours into unfamiliar territory, John Higgs places the bewildering eccentricities of a most singular artist into context. And although the journey begins with us trying to understand him, we will ultimately discover that it is Blake who helps us to understand ourselves.
When the Mountains Dance: Love, loss and hope in the heart of Italy
by Christine Toomey'In the wake of the strongest earthquake in Italy for nearly forty years and the many aftershocks that followed, Italians began speaking of the earth beneath our feet as la terra ballerina, the dancing earth. The dance they spoke of was unrelenting.'Foreign correspondent Christine Toomey spent years renovating her glorious, long-abandoned hill-top home in Le Marche, Italy, as a haven of rest from covering crises around the world. But in 2016, the peace and beauty of this beloved landscape were thrown into chaos when a series of powerful earthquakes struck the heart of the Apennines.Wracked with grief for a place still reverberating with seismic aftershocks, Christine set out on a journey of discovery through the history of a landscape that gave birth to so much of Western culture and civilisation.Fuelled by a collection of century-old letters, oil paintings and an earthquake map of Sicily hidden away and thick with dust in her attic, she becomes increasingly absorbed in the life of the last permanent resident of her house, the enigmatic priest, Don Federico Bellesi, and begins to unravel his own myriad connections to the convulsions that rock the region.When The Mountains Dance is a heartfelt, thought-provoking, and boldly intimate story imbued with love but also tough reality. It is a story about the places that make us, and the life-changing thunderbolts that can come at all of us, at any time, from any quarter.
An Improbable Life: The Autobiography
by Trevor McDonaldSir Trevor McDonald is an extraordinary man - and he has led an improbable life. Now in his 80th year, he is known and loved by people the world over for his humility, charm and natural ease. As a natural storyteller and communicator, he has few equals. In An Improbable Life, Sir Trevor recounts his personal experience of world events and interviews with globally famous - or notorious - figures. He has witnessed war and death and risked his own life to meet and talk with despots and liberators. We read about his first trip to South Africa, and obtaining the first British television interview with Nelson Mandela; his reflections on the Windrush generation; and experiencing Barack Obama's momentous inauguration as President of the USA. We are also present at his dramatic meetings with Saddam Hussein (the first and only one by a British television correspondent) and Muammar Gaddafi.Engaging, intimate and moving, this is the life story of an exceptional journalist and broadcaster who over decades has expertly revealed to us history in the making.
The Foghorn's Lament: The Disappearing Music of the Coast
by Jennifer Lucy Allan'A truly unusual and strangely revealing lens through which to view music and history and the dark life of the sea' Brian Eno'As memorable, pleasurable and irrational as all the highest quests' John Higgs'A perfect example of the power and beauty of industrial music' Cosey Fanni TuttiWhat does the foghorn sound like?It sounds huge. It rattles. It rattles you. It is a booming, lonely sound echoing into the vastness of the sea. When Jennifer Lucy Allan hears the foghorn's colossal bellow for the first time, it marks the beginning of an obsession and a journey deep into the history of a sound that has carved out the identity and the landscape of coastlines around the world, from Scotland to San Francisco.Within its sound is a maritime history of shipwrecks and lighthouse keepers, the story and science of our industrial past, and urban myths relaying tales of foghorns in speaker stacks, blasting out for coastal raves.An odyssey told through the people who battled the sea and the sound, who lived with it and loathed it, and one woman's intrepid voyage through the howling loneliness of nature.
Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother
by Anne SebbaJennie Churchill was said to have had two hundred lovers, three of whom she married. But her love for her son Winston never wavered. Jennie Churchill is an intimate picture of her glittering but ultimately tragic life, and the powerful mutual infatuation between her and her son. Anyone who wants to understand Winston must start here, with this revelatory interpretation. Anne Sebba has gained unprecedented access to private family correspondence, newly discovered archival material and interviews with Jennie's two surviving granddaughters. She draws a vivid and frank portrait of her subject, repositioning Jennie as a woman who refused to be cowed by her era's customary repression of women.
Music Comes Out of Silence: A Memoir
by Andras SchiffAndras Schiff is one of the most important pianists of our time. This stimulating account of his life and work, told in two parts, takes readers on an intimate journey from Schiff's childhood in Hungary through to the present day.In conversationw with Martin Meyer, Schiff discusses a diverse range of topics from his experiences with anti-Semitism and communist rule to his musical training with maestros such as Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Rados, as well as his thoughts on playing techniques and musical interpretation.In a collection of Schiff's writings we are enthralled by a guided tour of Bach's 'Goldberg' Variations, sobered by Schiff's public defiance against nationalistic and racist attitudes - to the extent that he refused to perform in Haider's Austria or Orban's Hungary - and delighted by the playful 'Ten Commandments' for concertgoers.More than a memoir, this is a seminal compilation of the thoughts and experiences of one of the greatest musicians of our time, of his inimitable art of making music out of silence.
Music Comes Out of Silence: A Memoir
by Andras SchiffAndras Schiff is one of the most important pianists of our time. This stimulating account of his life and work, told in two parts, takes readers on an intimate journey from Schiff's childhood in Hungary through to the present day.In conversationw with Martin Meyer, Schiff discusses a diverse range of topics from his experiences with anti-Semitism and communist rule to his musical training with maestros such as Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Rados, as well as his thoughts on playing techniques and musical interpretation.In a collection of Schiff's writings we are enthralled by a guided tour of Bach's 'Goldberg' Variations, sobered by Schiff's public defiance against nationalistic and racist attitudes - to the extent that he refused to perform in Haider's Austria or Orban's Hungary - and delighted by the playful 'Ten Commandments' for concertgoers.More than a memoir, this is a seminal compilation of the thoughts and experiences of one of the greatest musicians of our time, of his inimitable art of making music out of silence.
Sing Backwards and Weep: The Sunday Times Bestseller
by Mark LaneganTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER"Mark Lanegan-primitive, brutal, and apocalyptic. What's not to love?" NICK CAVE"A stoned cold classic" IAN RANKIN'Mark Lanegan writes like he sings, from the pained heart of a damaged soul with brutal honesty' BOBBY GILLESPIE"Powerfully written and brutally, frighteningly honest" LUCINDA WILLIAMSA ROUGH TRADE AND MOJO BOOK OF THE YEARFrom the back of the van to the front of the bar, from the hotel room to the emergency room, Mark Lanegan takes us back to the sinister, needle-ridden streets of Seattle, to an alternative music scene that was simultaneously bursting with creativity and saturated with drugs. He tracks the tumultuous rise and fall of Screaming Trees, from a brawling, acid-rock bar band to world-famous festival favourites with an enduring legacy, and tells of his own personal struggles with addiction, culminating in homelessness, petty crime, and the tragic deaths of his closest friends.Gritty, gripping and unflinchingly raw, SING BACKWARDS AND WEEP is about a man who learned how to drag himself from the wreckage, dust off the ashes, and keep living and creating.'The most brutally honest rock memoir imaginable' DAILY TELEGRAPH
Not Far From Brideshead
by Daisy DunnOxford thought it was at war. And then it was. After the horrors of the First World War, Oxford looked like an Arcadia - a dreamworld - from which pain could be shut out. Soldiers arrived with pictures of the university fully formed in their heads, and women finally won the right to earn degrees. Freedom meant reading beneath the spires and punting down the river with champagne picnics. But all was not quite as it seemed. Boys fresh from school settled into lecture rooms alongside men who had returned from the trenches with the beginnings of shellshock. It was displacing to be surrounded by aristocrats who liked nothing better than to burn furniture from each other's rooms on the college quads for kicks. The women of Oxford still faced a battle to emerge from their shadows. And among the dons a major conflict was beginning to brew. Set in the world that Evelyn Waugh immortalised in Brideshead Revisited, this is a true and often funny story of the thriving of knowledge and spirit of fun and foreboding that characterised Oxford between the two world wars. One of the protagonists, in fact, was a friend of Waugh and inspired a character in his novel. Another married into the family who inhabited Castle Howard and befriended everyone from George Bernard Shaw to Virginia Woolf. The third was an Irish occultist and correspondent with the poets W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and W. B. Yeats. This singular tale of Oxford colleagues and rivals encapsulates the false sense of security that developed across the country in the interwar years. With the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich came the subversion of history for propaganda. In academic Oxford, the fight was on not only to preserve the past from the hands of the Nazis, but also to triumph, one don over another, as they became embroiled in a war of their own.
Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past
by Richard CohenMAKING HISTORY is an epic exploration of who writes about the past and how the biases of certain storytellers - whether Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare or Simon Schama - continue to influence our ideas about history (and about who we are) today. In this authoritative and entertaining book, Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses (such as the writers of the Bible, major novelists, dramatists, journalists and political propagandists) influence what become the accepted records of human experience. Is there, he asks, even such a thing as 'objective' history? The depth of Cohen's inquiry and the delight he takes in his subjects includes the practitioners of what he calls 'Bad History,' those thieves of history who twist reality to glorify themselves and conceal their or their country's behaviour. Cohen investigates the published works and private utterances of our greatest historical thinkers to discover the agendas that informed their views of the world, and which in so many ways have informed ours. From the origins of history-writing, when such an idea seemed itself revolutionary, through to television and the digital age, MAKING HISTORY abounds in captivating figures brought to vivid life, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, from Winston Churchill to Mary Beard. Rich in character, complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a unique exploration of both the aims and craft of history-making. It will lead us to think anew about our past and ourselves.
Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: Enchanting memoir of a struggling writer and an eccentric Paris bookshop
by Jeremy MercerEnchanting memoir of a struggling writer living and working in the eccentric Parisian bookshop, 'Shakespeare and Company''Completely riveting ...a vivid picture of modern Paris' OBSERVER'Shakespeare and Company' in Paris is one of the world's most famous bookshops. The original store opened in 1921 and became known as the haunt of literary greats, such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Bernard Shaw, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and James Joyce.Sadly the shop was forced to close in 1941, but that was not the end of 'Shakespeare and Company'... In 1951 another bookshop, with a similar free-thinking ethos, opened on the Left Bank. Called 'Le Mistral', it had beds for those of a literary mindset who found themselves down on their luck and, in 1964, it resurrected the name 'Shakespeare and Company' and became the principal meeting place for Beatnik poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, through to Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell.Today the tradition continues and writers still find their way to this bizarre establishment, one of them being Jeremy Mercer. With no friends, no job, no money and no prospects, the thrill of escape from his life in Canada soon palls but, by chance, he happens upon the fairytale world of 'Shakespeare and Co' and is taken in.What follows is his tale of his time there, the curious people who came and went, the realities of being down and out in the 'city of light' and, in particular, his relationship with the beguiling octogenarian owner, George.
Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford
by Julia FoxThe story of Henry VIII's queens - as seen through the eyes of Jane Rochford, sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn and cousin to Katherine Howard.'Outstanding ... fascinating and moving' Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of THE DUCHESSJane Rochford was sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn and Lady of the Bedchamber to Katherine Howard, whom she followed to the scaffold in 1542. Hers is a life of extraordinary drama as a witness to, and participant in, the greatest events of Henry's reign.She arrived at court as a teenager when Katherine of Aragon was queen. Even before Henry's marriage to Anne, her own marriage to George Boleyn brought her into the closest royal circles - and there she remained through the unfolding spectacle and tragedy of Henry's succession of marriages. She survived the trauma of Anne and George's executions and despite briefly being banned from Court managed to regain her place there to attend on Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves. Her supposed part in both Anne Boleyn's and Katherine Howard's downfall has led to her being reviled through centuries.In this fascinating biography Julia Fox repudiates the idea of the infamous Lady Rochford and Jane emerges as a rather modern woman forced by brutal circumstance to fend for herself in a politically lethal world.
Wilfred Owen: The definitive biography of the best-loved war poet
by Dominic HibberdThe definitive biography of the war poet - 'Dominic Hibberd has probably done more more than any other individual to illuminate Owen's life and work. His new Life is a triumph ... it is difficult to believe it will ever be superseded' Mark Bostridge, The Independent on SundayWhen Wilfred Owen died in 1918 aged 25, only five of his poems had been published. Yet he became one of the most popular poets of the 20th century. For decades his public image was controlled by family and friends, especially his brother Harold who was terrified anyone might think Wilfred was gay. In recent years much new material has become available. This book, based on over thirty years of wide-ranging research, brings new information to almost every part of Owen's life. Owen emerges as a complex, fascinating and often endearing character with an intense delight in being alive.
Wilfred Owen: The definitive biography of the best-loved war poet
by Dominic HibberdThe definitive biography of the war poet - 'Dominic Hibberd has probably done more more than any other individual to illuminate Owen's life and work. His new Life is a triumph ... it is difficult to believe it will ever be superseded' Mark Bostridge, The Independent on SundayWhen Wilfred Owen died in 1918 aged 25, only five of his poems had been published. Yet he became one of the most popular poets of the 20th century. For decades his public image was controlled by family and friends, especially his brother Harold who was terrified anyone might think Wilfred was gay. In recent years much new material has become available. This book, based on over thirty years of wide-ranging research, brings new information to almost every part of Owen's life. Owen emerges as a complex, fascinating and often endearing character with an intense delight in being alive.