Biographical fiction

In the 1770s and 1780s Dr Johnson, having completed his life's work, is running an increasingly chaotic life. Torn between his strict morality and his undeclared passion for the widow of an old friend, he is revealed here in all his wit and glory.

Continuing the saga of Alexander the Great, The Ends of the Earth describes his quest to conquer Asia, the limitless domain ruled by the Great King of the Persians.

Doris Lessing explores the lives of her parents, both of them irrevocably damaged by the Great War. Her father wanted the life of an English farmer, but shrapnel almost killed him in the trenches, & thereafter had to wear a wooden leg. Her mother's great love was a doctor, who drowned in the Chan...

This is an evocation of the woman who married Chairman Mao and fought to succeed him. The unwanted daughter of a concubine, she refused to have her feet bound, ran away to join an opera troupe and eventually met Mao Zedong in the mountains of Yenan.

Recounting the early life of arguably the most evil person who ever lived, Norman Mailer's account of Adolf Hitler's upbringing is appropriately narrated by someone who was there at his conception - one of Satan's devils.

After a career spent playing African 'savages' in white companies, Bert Williams slowly felt degraded by his situation, turning to drink in order to ease the pain of his predicament. This novel is based on the story of his life, at a time when racism was normal and political correctness a foreign...

After a career spent playing African 'savages' in white companies, Bert Williams slowly felt degraded by his situation, turning to drink in order to ease the pain of his predicament. This novel is based on the story of his life, at a time when racism was normal and political correctness a foreign...

'Devil's Brood' has at its heart the implosion of a family, a story of devastating betrayal as King Henry II's three eldest sons and his wife Eleanor enter into a rebellion against him, aligning themselves with his most bitter enemy, Louis of France.

Follow Maria de las Nievas Moran on her journey from closeted girlhood in a riotous convent to social, sexual & intellectual emancipation in late 19th century New York. Along the way she meets a cast of eccentric & lovingly drawn characters, including the Cuban poet Jos¿̐ưe Mart¿̐ưi.