Biography: literary

Over 70 years since his premature death, George Orwell (1903-50) has become one of the most significant figures in western literature. His two dystopian masterpieces, 'Animal Farm' (1945) and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949) have together sold over 40 million copies. Even now, he continues to exert ...

Patrick O'Brian was an enigmatic personality, a gifted biographer and author, friend of Picasso, and creator of the now well-known Aubrey-Maturin series of 20 novels about Nelson's Royal Navy. This text tells the story of O'Brian's life up to his decision to move to Collioure in the South of France.

Paul Foot was one of the most powerful and influential investigative reporters of his generation. For nearly 50 years he was the scourge of corrupt politicians and dodgy businessmen, and the champion of the causes of working people, the under-represented and the underprivileged. In this biography...

One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old lady on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. S...

When her mother Celia Paget died, Ariane Bankes inherited a trunk stuffed with letters and diaries belonging to Celia and her twin Mamaine, which charted the remarkable lives of the Paget sisters and their famous friends and lovers.

'The Reacher Guy' is a life of bestselling superstar Lee Child, a portrait of the artist as a young man, refracted through the life of his fictional avatar, Jack Reacher. It tells the story of how the boy from Birmingham reinvented himself to become the strongest brand in publishing, selling over...

'The Reacher Guy' is a life of bestselling superstar Lee Child, a portrait of the artist as a young man, refracted through the life of his fictional avatar, Jack Reacher. It tells the story of how the boy from Birmingham reinvented himself to become the strongest brand in publishing, selling over...

Determined not to read Plath's work as if her every act, from childhood on, was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Heather Clark presents new materials about Plath's scientist father, her juvenile writings, and her psychiatric treatment, and evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth centur...

Roald Dahl was one of the world's greatest storytellers. He conceived his vocation as one as intrepid as that of any explorer and, in his writing for children, he was able to tap into a child's viewpoint throughout his life. He crafted tales that were exotic in scenario, frequently invested with ...

1917. Virginia Woolf arrives at Asheham, on the Sussex Downs, immobilized by nervous exhaustion and creative block. 1930. Feeling jittery about her writing career, Sylvia Townsend Warner spots a modest workman's cottage for sale on the Dorset coast. 1941. Rosamond Lehmann settles in a Berkshire v...