Biographies & Memoirs

Serving as a perfect introduction to this well-known French writer, Flaubert scholar Meryl Tyers’ work covers the remarkable life of the renowned author of Madame Bovary and A Sentimental Education. Accompanying Memoirs of a Madman and November, both published by Hesperus, this highly informative work ...

"Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857. After finishing school he became a sailor, an experience that he would later draw upon in novels such as Hear of Darkness." "Gavin Griffiths traces the history of this intriguing man from his early childhood in Poland, through his exotic, arduous years ...

Well known for her novels To The Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, and the feminist work A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf led an intriguing and often difficult life that is fascinatingly portrayed in this new biography from Woolf scholar David Bradshaw. The author looks at Woolf’s work in the light of ...

In this biography, Melisa Klimaszewski situates the writer within his own milieu and shows how his work sparks new understandings of Victorian life and letters.

After a childhood marked by loss and grief, Hölderlin studied theology in the illustrious company of Hegel and Schelling, before concentrating on poetry and writing his most famous work, Hyperion. But, afflicted by the pressures of life and a doomed love affair, he gradually went mad, and spent the ...

The extraordinary true love story of a couple who were separated during a shameful and fascinating chapter of British history.

Erica Fischer's Over the Ocean tells the extraordinary story of her own parents and sheds light on a little-known and little-discussed chapter in British history. Fischer's ...

The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most enduring and bestselling books of all time, yet its history is as complex as it is contested. For the first time, this is the extraordinary true story behind the book, its publication and its significance.

Written by the author of "Writing Home", this book presents his family memoir recalling the marriage of his parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts, and the uncovering of a long-held family secret, travelling into his past.

A collection of intimate and explosive essays on literature, life, history, politics and place from the award-winning author of Go, Went, Gone and The End of Days.

Engaging and sharply observed, My Hair Is Pink Under This Veil gives a candid insight into the life of a hijab-wearing Muslim woman in modern Britain.

In 1937 aged just 19, Edmund Murray left his family and a comfortable job in London, caught the boat train to France and signed up for the minimum of five years' service with the French Foreign Legion. Armed with little more than school-boy French and a desire for a life of adventure, Murray travelled ...

The daughter of a minor German princely family, Catherine rose to become the greatest ruler of a vast Russian empire in the 18th century. This biography reveals this remarkable woman who combined intelligence, a passion for the responsibilities of state with a constant search for the love of important men.

George Orwell has become an icon for both the Left and the Right. This perceptive biography restores a sense of balance to his achievements as the famous creator of "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty Four".

This monumental biography, written by Gandhi's grandson, is the first to give a complete and balanced account of his remarkable life, the development of his beliefs, his political campaigns and his complex relationship with his family. Written with unprecedented insights and access to family archives, this biography sheds new light on Gandhi's life

Jean-Paul Sartre dominated the cultural and literary life of post-war France, gathered a large following for his philosophy of existentialism and over-shadowed the work of his equally brilliant partner Simone de Beauvoir.

This book tells the story of this artist/engineer's life and times, and looks at the major themes that dominate his work.

From the bestselling and Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo's memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activism Bernardine Evaristo's 2019 Booker Prize win was a historic and revolutionary occasion, with Evaristo being ...

A memoir of a fundamentalist Muslim childhood and of redefining faith, belonging and family in adulthood

A highly anticipated memoir by acclaimed actor, Gabriel Byrne, Walking with Ghosts is a gorgeous, lyrical portrait of his childhood in Ireland and his journey to movie stardom.