Recruited into MI5 against a backdrop of the Cold War in 1972, Cambridge student Serena Frome, a compulsive reader, is assigned to infiltrate the literary circle of a promising young writer whose politics align with those of the government, a situation that is compromised when she falls in love with him.

Barbara Pym became beloved as one of the wittiest novelists of the late twentieth century, revealing the inner workings of domestic life so brilliantly that her friend Philip Larkin announced her the era's own Jane Austen. But who was Barbara Pym and whywas the life of this English writer - one of the greatest chroniclers of the human heart - so defined by rejection, both in her writing and in love?

"A perfect match of writer and subject: one of our most brilliant biographers takes on one of our greatest living playwrights--with his cooperation and access to a trove of hitherto unseen material. Tom Stoppard is a towering and beloved literary figure. Known for his dizzying narrative inventiveness and intense attention to language, he deftly deploys art, science, history, politics, and philosophy in works that span a remarkable spectrum of literary...

Regarded as one of the finest literary biographies ever published, this book reveals a man of outsized appetites and private vulnerabilities, and is the source of much of what we know about one of the towering figures of English literature. This edition collates and corrects the textual inaccuracies of previous versions, returning to the original manuscript in order to present a definitive edition of this landmark text.

A Rona Parish Mystery - Journalist Rona Parish continues her popular series on local family businesses with a piece on the Willow furniture emporium. For once, there don't seem to be any skeletons in the Willow family cupboards. But when Louisa, the daughter of Rona's reserved elderly neighbours, comes to Rona with a plea for help, it seems there may be a dark secret closer to home, and all Rona's journalistic instincts are aroused . . .

The first full account of a truly remarkable life. When Jan Morris passed away in 2020, she was considered one of Britain's best-loved writers. The author of Venice, Pax Britannica, Conundrum, and more than fifty other books, her work was known for its observational genius, lyricism, and humor, and had earned her a passionate readership around the world. Morris's life was no less fascinating than her oeuvre. Born in 1926, she spent her childhood amidst...

This memoir is a tough-minded search for belonging, for love, an identity, a home, and a mother by the author of "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit"--winner of the Whitbread First Novel award and the inspiration behind the award-winning BBC television adaptation "Oranges."

"A luminous, wise, and joyful insight into what really matters at the end of a long life, from the beloved author of the award-winning Somewhere Towards the End. What will you remember if you live to be 100? Diana Athill charmed readers with her prize-winning memoir Somewhere Towards the End, which transformed her into an unexpected literary star. Now, on the eve of her ninety-eighth birthday, Athill has written a sequel every bit as unsentimental,...

Biographer Rona Parish has a new project, contributing a series for the local glossy magazine, Chiltern Life, documenting life changing experiences from those who have lived through them. When her father suggests she speaks to his friend Frank Hathaway, who was in Iraq during the invasion of Kuwait, Rona decides to pay him a visit. But Frank was also badly injured in a failed rescue attempt following a car crash the previous year, and has been tormented...

When Rona Parish is commissioned to write a biography of artist Elspeth Wilding, who disappeared months earlier, by the artist's concerned sister, Rona discovers that Wilding's closest friend committed suicide shortly after having an argument with her.