Publication date: 2001-05-18
Dewey code: 821.914
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.88
Review Today Tomorrow: The Collected Poems of George Bruce, 1933-2000 / Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited:
Creator: Kathleen Tillotson
Edition: Pilgrim Ed
Publication date: 1977-03-30
Dewey code: 823.8
RRP: £141.00
Price: £99.00
Review Letters of Charles Dickens: 1844-46 Vol 4 (British Academy/Pilgrim Edition) / OUP Oxford:
Publication date: 2008-04-17
Dewey code: 811.4
RRP: £13.20
Price: £8.65
Review A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Jo / Penguin Press:
Authors
- Marina Tsvetayeva
- Rainer Maria Rilke
- Boris Pasternak
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1988-12
Dewey code: 831.912
Price: £2.00
Review Letters, Summer 1926 (Oxford Paperbacks - Oxford Letters & Memoirs) / Oxford Paperbacks:
Publication date: 2007-01
RRP: £14.95
Price: £9.86
Review The Knife and Fork Man: The Life and Works of Charles Benjamin Redrup / Diesel Publishing:
Publication date: 2007-10-16
Dewey code: 822.33
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.50
Review Shakespeare (Life & Times) / Haus Publishing Limited:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2000-09-28
RRP: £25.00
Price: £12.74
Review Some Sort of Genius: A Life of Wyndham Lewis / Jonathan Cape:
Edition: Reprint
Publication date: 2001-11-08
Dewey code: 809
RRP: £12.95
Price: £5.10
Review Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation / W. W. Norton & Co.:
Publication date: 2000-02-17
Dewey code: 828.91209
RRP: £18.95
Price: £17.99
Review Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake / Peter Owen Ltd:Reading this biography of Mervyn Peake one is left with undiluted admiration for his seemingly boundless creativity. Best known for his Gormenghast trilogy, which has now been introduced to a wider audience with the BBC's all-star television adaptation, Peake made his name as a painter first, one of the outstanding talents of his generation, and was also prodigious in his output in other media, notably his poetry and wonderfully interpreted illustrations of classics such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. G Peter Winnington, who has previously edited the Mervyn Peake Review and Peake Studies together with revised editions of the Gormenghast trilogy, is both a sympathetic and astute guide to the life and works of a remarkable talent. His considered appreciation offers much intriguing insight into the imagination of the man and the creative processes that brought forth such extraordinary creations, particularly Titus Groan, the first of the Gormenghast books. Peake comes across as a wonderful man-vivacious, considerate and humorous-as the book recounts his life from a childhood in China as the son of a missionary, through the development of his own distinctly idiosyncratic style on the Channel island of Sark to his years of marriage and fatherhood in London. In later life a degenerative illness prevented him from working and led eventually to a premature death, though the book doesn't dwell too long on this more tragic element which has been the focus of some previous accounts. This will be a fascinating read for fans of Peake's work and particularly for those who are interested in the act of artistic creation, but one feels that there may yet be a book to come that will more completely capture Peake's life and character, if, as seems likely, his reputation continues to grow. In part this is owing to the fact that Winnington has not been afforded permission to use all the material he would have liked to, but more noticeably, there are loose ends which leave the man shrouded in mystery, most notably when we are told, without any further comment, that there is little doubt he had at least one extramarital affair. Still, this is a fluent and highly readable book that is sure to enhance Peake's standing as one of the jewels of 20th-century British culture. -Alisdair Bowles.
Publication date: 2007-06-28
Dewey code: 780.92
RRP: £60.00
Price: £57.00
Review Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books / Ashgate:
Publication date: 2007-08-09
Dewey code: 821.4
RRP: £4.99
Price: £0.01
Review John Milton (Very Interesting People) / OUP Oxford:
Edition: 2nd Carroll & Graf Ed
Publication date: 1999-10-20
Dewey code: 823.914
Price: £5.99
Review Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen / Carroll & Graf Publishing:
Publication date: 1976-06
Dewey code: 811.52
RRP: £6.59
Price: £23.44
Review Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby / Random House Inc (T):
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1998-05-07
RRP: £7.99
Price: £0.01
Review Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, 1880-91 / Vintage:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2002-08-22
Dewey code: 809
RRP: £29.95
Price: £16.96
Review Dostoevsky: Mantle of the Prophet 1871-1881 v. 5 / Robson Books Ltd:
Publication date: 2007-11
Dewey code: 700.92
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.59
Review Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry / Nelson Books an imprint of Thomas Nelson Publishers:
Creator: Alan Bennett
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2003-12-12
Dewey code: 828.91209
RRP: £11.99
Price: £5.25
Review Denton Welch: Writer and Artist / Tauris Parke Paperbacks:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2004-02-02
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £8.99
Price: £0.01
Review Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams / Coronet Books:The untimely death of Douglas Adams was a sharp reminder of what a protean talent (and remarkable character) the man was. As MJ Simpson's Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams reminds us, when The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy appeared as a radio series, few could guess that its gifted author would, in the space of several books (and adaptations in various other media), single-handedly inaugurate a whole new genre: the sardonically funny, outrageous science fiction parody that combined the sharp-edged sensibility of Monty Python and a marvellously jaded view of British life (taking in some hilarious philosophical asides along the way). Many writers continue to be influenced by Adams, and a new film of Hitchhiker's Guide has been much discussed. So the time is right for this exhaustive and sympathetic biography. Although several such books are in the pipeline, genre specialist MJ Simpson (a cofounder of the glossy SF magazine SFX) is the perfect chronicler of a strange and eventful life. Adams' quirky personality comes brilliantly to life (thanks to Simpson's impressive research, which he began before Adams' death). We are taken back to his auspicious beginnings as a comic talent in the Cambridge Footlights and through his phenomenal later success (not ignoring the man's pathological inability to meet a deadline). Simpson's writing style is never academic, and sounds the same wry and witty note as his subject effortlessly found. By interviewing a host of friends and associates (and consulting exclusive archives), Simpson paints a picture of this complex and fascinating man that is unlikely to be beaten for quite some time. -Barry Forshaw.
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2006-04
RRP: £11.99
Price: £8.14
Review Ancient as the Hills: Diaries 1973-1974 / Michael Russell Publishing:
Publication date: 2001-09-06
Dewey code: 822.914
RRP: £18.99
Price: £28.21
Review Backing into the Limelight: The Biography of Alan Bennett / Headline Book Publishing:
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Today Tomorrow: The Collected Poems of George Bruce, 1933-2000, Letters of Charles Dickens: 1844-46 Vol 4 (British Academy/Pilgrim Edition), A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Jo, Letters, Summer 1926 (Oxford Paperbacks - Oxford Letters & Memoirs), The Knife and Fork Man: The Life and Works of Charles Benjamin Redrup, Shakespeare (Life & Times), Some Sort of Genius: A Life of Wyndham Lewis, Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation, Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake, Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books, John Milton (Very Interesting People), Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen, Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby, Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, 1880-91, Dostoevsky: Mantle of the Prophet 1871-1881 v. 5, Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry, Denton Welch: Writer and Artist, Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, Ancient as the Hills: Diaries 1973-1974, Backing into the Limelight: The Biography of Alan Bennett |
