6 Biography / Autobiography


covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist, approximately 100 colour illus and a concise biography. 9.4 x 11.8", 96 pages. ONLY £6.50


71676 GOD’S ARCHITECT: Pugin and


the Building of Romantic Britain by Rosemary Hill


Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) was one of Britain’s greatest architects. The son of a French draftsman, he worked for King George IV at Windsor Castle at the age of 15. By the time he was 21 he had been shipwrecked, bankrupted and widowed. 19 years later he died, insane and disillusioned, having changed the face and the mind of British architecture in works as revered as the House of Lords and the Clock Tower at Westminster, Big Ben. Our book is the first modern biography which draws on thousands of unpublished letters and drawings to recreate his life and work as architect, propagandist and Gothic designer. It also tells the turbulent story of his three marriages. Colour plates, photos and woodcuts. 601pp. $45 NOW £9


72300 THE PAINTINGS OF JOHN DUNCAN: A


Scottish Symbolist by John Kemplay


John Duncan’s early works in oil are exquisite studies in a pre-Raphaelite mode, for instance his tapestry-inspired “Joan of Arc”, his grey-tinted “Taking of Excalibur”, the decorative “Peacocks and Fountains” or the beautiful young women who crowd into a roundel shape in “Hymn to the Rose”. Two formative years in the Chicago School of Art were followed by the setting up of a studio in Edinburgh in 1903. His first major Symbolist work was “The Riders of the Sidhe”, executed in tempera which was to be his main medium for the rest of his career. 128pp, numerous colour reproductions. 23.4 x 28.5cm. £17.95 NOW £6


BIOGRAPHY / AUTOBIOGRAPHY


When you’re down and out, something always turns up – and it’s usually the noses of your friends.


- Orson Welles


74213 TOLSTOY by A. N. Wilson Every reader has been overwhelmed by the greatness and the masterpiece ‘War and Peace’ which you do not read, but live. What is it that made Tolstoy the writer so supremely great? Tolstoy organised two enormous programmes of famine relief in his lifetime which exposed him not only to the cruelty but the pathetic inefficiency of the Tsarist regime to deal with such crises. One of his earliest works of fiction, The Cossacks, is an account of Russian Soldiers fighting a war against so- called Muslim terrorists and realising the utter futility of the war but also wondering whether the so-called infidel did not have something to teach us. At the very end of his life, he wrote what is one of his very finest short stories, Hadji Murat in which once again the superior wisdom of the Muslim over the Western secularist is empathised. In his biography of Count Lev Nikloayevich Tolstoy, A. N. Wilson narrates the complex drama of his childhood of aristocratic privilege and emotional deprivation, his discovery of his literary genius after aimless years of gambling and womanising, and his increasingly disastrous marriage. Wilson sweeps away the long-held belief that Tolstoy’s works were exact mirrors of his life and instead traces the roots of his art to his relationship with God, women and with Russia. A highly intelligent biography which won the Whitbread Prize for Biography. 572 pages. £25 NOW £8.50


74186 JOSEPH ROTH: A Life in Letters translated and


edited by Michael Hofmann The award winning translator presents a new biography of the master novelist and legendary European journalist, told through his letters. Joseph Roth wrote barely a dozen letters before 1925 when he was 30, a married professional, a published novelist, an experienced vagrant already on his third country


and maybe his fourth newspaper when he got his big break as a journalist in Paris. There is little in the way of chat, description, narrative, confessional scandal. This is a man with books to write and columns to fill. His newspaper bosses quite deliberately despatched their acutest, most highly strung war correspondent to 11 different places. He wrote his masterpiece The Radetzky March between 1930 and 1932. The legendary Austro-Hungarian novelist and essayist Joseph Roth, was born in the Ukraine in 1894 and died tragically in Paris in 1939. The letters here translated capture Roth’s calamitous life, marked with his father’s madness and his wife’s schizophrenia and by war, poverty and alcoholism. It is a moving portrait of the life of the writer as an outsider in Vienna, Berlin, Frankfurt and Paris. 554pp, photos. £25 NOW £7


74199 PEELING THE ONION by Gunter Grass


Skins beneath the skin - today as in past years, the temptations to camouflage oneself in a third person remains great. Gunter Grass peels back the layers of his vibrant, uncompromising and picaresque life in his searingly honest account. We begin with his modest upbringing in Danzig, his time as a boy soldier


fighting the Russians and the writing of his masterpiece, The Tin Drum, in Paris. It is a portrait of a young boy and young man alive in Germany through its most devastating decades and it will stand as a factual masterpiece, beautifully gruff, and no-nonsense in its direct and conversational spirit. 425pp in softback. £9.99 NOW £3.50


74204 SHADES OF GREENE: One Generation of an English


Family by Jeremy Lewis Of the 12 children born to brothers Charles and Edward Greene, eight recorded remarkable achievements - from BBC Director General to an Everest mountaineer, from a female MI6 agent to a champion of Communist China, from a founder of a far-right political party to the inevitable black sheep - and in documenting the interlacing lives of


this generation, Lewis provides an exercise in group biography and a masterly account of English society in the 20th century. It is a family saga to make you marvel again and again. Grahame Greene was one of the great writers of the last century - a secret agent, traveller, publisher and man of letters, but his siblings are just as entertaining. 575pp in paperback, photos. £9.99 NOW £4


74316 ALL TEACHERS


GREAT AND SMALL by Andy Seed


Newly qualified as a teacher 25 years ago, Andy Seed moved to a remote village in the Yorkshire Dales with his wife Barbara. The picturesque scenery did not disappoint, but life as a primary school teacher was anything but simple. With a classroom full of colourful characters whose capacity


for misunderstanding was exceeded only by their enthusiasm and their ability to leave him incredulous, Andy fell in love with teaching and with village life. His book tells the true story of his first year at Cragthwaite Primary School, how he bravely negotiated the vagaries of the local dialect, made disastrous bids to provide a family home, naively and hilariously tried out new- fangled ideas in a school stuck in a 1950s time warp, and ultimately discovered a little part of England he was proud to call home. You will enjoy meeting these little characters and you may need some dialect coaching! 369pp.


£14.99 NOW £5 74322 CHARLES AND


CAMILLA by Gyles Brandreth A revealing portrait of two unusual individuals and a family saga like no other, told in a highly accomplished, informative portrait of a love affair. Here is the definitive account by Gyles Brandreth, acclaimed biographer of the Queen and Prince Philip who now presents a unique portrait of their son, Charles, Prince of Wales and of the one ‘non-


negotiable’ love of his life, Camilla Shand, now Duchess of Cornwall. What are Charles and Camilla really like? What is their heritage? What has made them the way they are? A riveting, gossipy and touching account of the heir to the throne and his unfortunate first marriage, here is an extremely readable tale of their separate lives and eventual togetherness. Especially insightful reminiscing about meeting Wallis Simpson and historic occasions. 356pp in paperback with many photos. £9.99 NOW £4.50


74071 MARGARET THATCHER: The Autobiography Commemorative Edition edited by Robin Harris


The present edition is an abridged version of the original two volumes of Margaret Thatcher’s memoirs. The Downing Street Years, describing the author’s time as Prime Minister, was the first to appear, in 1993. The Path to Power, an account of her youth and early political career, was published two years later. This single, abridged volume sets them right. It excludes altogether the last section of The Path to Power, which was a series of essays on issues of the day. She writes candidly about the formation of her character and values, and the experiences that propelled her to the very top in a man’s world when, after rising through the ranks to Education Secretary and then Leader of the Opposition, she led the Conservative Party to a historic victory in the 1979 general election, becoming Britain’s first woman prime minister. Here are the triumphs and the critical moments of the Falklands War, the miners’ strike, the Brighton bomb and the Westland Affair. Her judgements of the men and women she encountered are astonishingly frank. She is lavish with praise where it is due, devastating with criticism when it is not. 788 pages with chronology and many illus. £30 NOW £7


74074 MICHAEL MORPURGO: War Child to War Horse


by Maggie Fergusson


Few people will not know the name of Michael Morpurgo. Maggie Fergusson explores Michael Morpurgo’s life through seven biographical chapters, to which he responds with seven stories. The portrait she paints is one of light and shade - the light very bright, the shade complex and often painful. Morpurgo’s story is as strange and surprising as any he has written, and is shot through with the same thread of sadness that is found in almost all his work. How did this supremely un-bookish boy who dreamed of becoming an army officer instead end up as a bestselling author and Children’s Laureate? What personal price has he paid for success? And why, amidst all his triumphs, is he now haunted by regret? A very revealing 307 pages illustrated in b/w. £18.99 NOW £7


74058 P. G. WODEHOUSE: A Life In Letters


edited by Sophie Ratcliffe Christopher Hitchens dubbed him ‘the gold standard of English wit’. In a book that every lover of Wodehouse’s comic characters will want to possess, an Oxford academic has managed to produce what must be the definitive edition of his letters. These missives cover everything from his schooldays at


Dulwich College, the family’s financial reverses - which saw his hopes of university dashed - to his life working in musical comedy with Jerome Kern and George and Ira Gershwin and his years of fame as a novelist. Not glossed over is an unhappy episode in 1940, when he was interned by the Germans, and later erroneously accused of broadcasting pro-Nazi propaganda. These letters give an illuminating biographical background to his nearly 100 books, his poems, his legendary comic creations such as Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, Psmith and the Empress of Blandings, and his own unexpectedly quiet, retiring personality. He exchanged correspondence with numerous well-known figures of the time, including artists and writers such as Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell, Lawrence Durrell, Malcolm Muggeridge, Tom Sharpe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 602 pages, selected list of recipients and photos. £30 NOW £9


74076 NEW ELIZABETHANS: Sixty Portraits


of Our Age by James Naughtie When BBC Radio 4 listeners were asked to nominate New Elizabethans - people from public life: the arts, science, music, sports, entertainment, literature, politics and so on 62 were selected to be broadcast by James Naughtie. Readers may not agree with the choices but they will have to admit that they are not only wide- ranging but extremely interesting. Here are cook Elizabeth David, film-maker Alfred Hitchcock, composer Benjamin Britten, comedian Tony Hancock, poet Philip Larkin, painter Francis Bacon, two Beatles, National Theatre director Peter Hall, dress designer Vivienne Westwood, politician Tony Blair and architect Norman Foster, as well as many other luminaries of our era. 353 pages.


£25 NOW £6.50


74137 ONLY WAY WAS ESSEX by Spike Mays Born in 1907, the author died in 2003 at the age of 95 and won the Best First Work award for this, his first book. It is a bittersweet memoir in which he recreates his village in a remote corner of rural Essex, its travelling parson, local poacher and even the resident drunkard. In the bustling backstairs world of the squire’s house where Spike served his apprenticeship, we see a more privileged side to life. These were the days when ploughs were drawn by heavy horses and children walked shoeless to school. Spike lived with his family in a two-up two-down cottage with no electricity, bathroom or running water and shared a privy in the backyard. Beset by poverty, this was an England in the aftermath of the Great War. His is a warm and nostalgic portrait of a very different Essex to today’s. 298pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £3.50


74140 THE BARONESS: The Search for Nica,


the Rebellious Rothschild by Hannah Rothschild Striking, spirited Pannonica, known as Nica, was born in 1913 to eccentric privilege, her family had in only five generations risen from Jews Lane in Frankfurt to great wealth across Europe. She seemed to have it all - children, a handsome husband and a trust fund. But in the early 1950s she heard Thelonious Monk playing ‘Round Midnight’ and the music overtook her. She abandoned her marriage to follow him to New York. Finding friendship among the musicians, her real love was reserved for Monk, whom she cared for until his death. Nica had the chance to hear Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington among others while living with her new husband Baron Jules de Koenigswarter in Paris. 307pp, paperback. Photos. £8.99 NOW £4.50


74053 CALL THE MIDWIFE by Jennifer Worth


A midwife is in the thick of it all, so why then does she remain a shadowy figure? Set in the heart of London Docklands covering the area of Poplar, Bow, Mile End, the Isle of Dogs and Whitechapel, family life was lived at close quarters and bombsites were the children’s adventure playgrounds. The work of the Midwives of St Raymund Nonnatus was based upon a foundation of religious discipline. Labouring tirelessly through epidemics of cholera, typhoid, polio and TB, they delivered babies in air raid shelters, dugouts, church crypts and underground stations. The brothels of Cable Street, the Kray twins and gang warfare, meths drinkers in the bombsites - this was the world that Jennifer Worth entered when she became a midwife at the age of 22. 340pp in illustrated paperback. £7.99 NOW £4


73575 SELECTED LETTERS OF REBECCA WEST edited, annotated and introduced by Bonnie Kime Scott


During her long life, Rebecca West wrote an estimated 10,000 letters - deliberately fashioning her own biography, challenging rival accounts of her groundbreaking professional career as author, critic and feminist journalist. This collection of her letters, the first ever published, follows the spirited writer from her campaign for women’s suffrage when she was still a teenager, right up to her reassessments of the 20th century, written in her 90th year, 1982. It includes correspondence with her famous lover H. G. Wells, with George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Emma Goldman, Noël Coward and many others. Here are fearless pronouncements on such contemporary authors as Norman Mailer, Nadine Gordimer and Arthur Schlesinger Jr as well as new insights into West’s battles against misogyny, Fascism and Communism. 497 pages with b/w archive photos, Family Tree, biographical sketches and chronology. £25 NOW £8.50


BIBLIOPHILE BOOKS UNIT 5 DATAPOINT, 6 SOUTH CRESCENT, LONDON E16 4TL TEL: 020 74 74 24 74 AUDIO - Books on CD 73071 THE RED QUEEN:


Audio Book Six CDs by Philippa Gregory Married to a man twice her age, and a mother at only 14, Margaret Beaufort is determined to turn her lonely life into a triumph. She sets


her heart on putting her son Henry on the throne of England, regardless of the cost. Feigning loyalty to the usurper King Richard III, she marries one of his faithful supporters and then masterminds one of the greatest rebellions of all time, all the while knowing that her son is growing to manhood, recruiting an army, his eyes on the greatest prize. Six CDs running time 7½ hours, abridged. ONLY £6


73038 WAINWRIGHT THE PODCASTS: Book


and CD introduced by Eric Robson Includes original Alfred Wainwright text and maps, practical information for families and a superb audio guide. Explore some of the Lakeland’s finest fells like Haystacks, Helm Crag, Nab Scar, Orrest Head and Place Fell. There are mapping systems on the CD Rom that allow walkers to pre-plan their routes into the hills and sample the views from the comfort of their own desktop computer. Then there are the podcasts, which would have astonished Alfred Wainwright, that will help the modern walker discover some of the many treasures still buried in the Lakeland hills. Spiral bound softback. £9.99 NOW £5


73072 KITE RUNNER: Audio Book by Khaled Hosseini


We are taken on a psychological and spiritual journey with the author reading his own abridged book on five CDs running time approximately six hours. We journey with Amir as he becomes a man forced to face the far- reaching tragic consequences of his disloyalty. As a young boy growing up in pre-Soviet Afghanistan, Amir befriends his servant’s son Hassan. Occupying polar ends of Kabul’s social hierarchy, the two boys nevertheless play together and defend each other against neighbourhood bullies. But during Kabul’s annual kite-fighting tournament in the winter of 1975, Amir takes advantage of Hassan’s guileless devotion and commits a terrible act of betrayal against him. £16.99 NOW £5.50


71771 RELISH: My Life on a Plate by Prue Leith


From the indispensable Leith’s Cookery Bible to the ever-popular Great British Menu, Prue Leith for the first time, tells her remarkable life story as restaurateur, businesswoman, novelist, trail blazer, lover, wife and mother. From growing up in a South Africa divided by apartheid, to discovering her passion for food by opening a gourmets’ oasis in London’s then gastronomic desert. Through the love affairs, Mthe longing for children, the birth of her son and adoption of a daughter, whether she is running her own businesses, sitting on the boards of public companies, founding charities or leading institutions, her down-to-earth attitude to triumph and disaster is an inspiration. 405 pages, colour photos. £16.99 NOW £6.50


72025 PRIVILEGE AND POVERTY: The Life and Times of Irish Painter and Naturalist


Alexander Williams RHA 1846 to 1930 by Gordon Ledbetter


Primarily a landscape painter, Alexander Williams was also an apprentice hatter, taxidermist, professional singer, and founder member of the Dublin Sketching Club, with a keen interest in ornithology, and a knowledge of 19th century firearms. His solo exhibitions in Dublin became annual fixtures, eagerly attended by crowds of a thousand and more. He was favoured by the Lord Lieutenant and the ‘Castle Set’, exhibited at the RHA for a record-breaking 61 years and also showed with many other leading painters of the day such as Jack Yeats, Percy French and Walter Osborne. 366 pages, colour and b/w illus.


£17.99 NOW £3.50


72143 ALL MADE UP by Janice Galloway When she entered secondary school, the author was still sharing a bed with her mother. Her awareness of the opposite sex was limited. She was more excited by Latin and the school orchestra than by make-up or boys. Using visceral descriptions of puberty, sex and schoolroom politics, she casts her piercing gaze on the morals and ambitions of one small town, seen through the stories of three generations of women. Under the wing of one exceptional teacher, music became her passion. 312 pages. £16.99 NOW £3


73564 MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE: A Biography by Gregory Wolfe


Malcolm Muggeridge was one of the most famous journalists of the 20th century. Many of his insights achieved a prophetic wisdom that continues to resonate now, from terrorism and the rise of radical Islam to cloning, and to the influence of the media on the way we learn, think, and participate in the political process. He was, for example a brilliant analyst of why people are drawn to, and corrupted by, political power, exposing the hypocrisies and decadence that parade under the banner of democracy. As a young man, he looked to Communism for salvation - only to be one of the first to uncover the genocidal policies of the Soviet Union. He was also an old hand at deconstructing the rhetoric of party politics. Muggeridge was deeply concerned about the influence of the mass media on politics and culture. On the subject of sex, he wrote from personal experience as a notorious womaniser, and was funny, poignant and compelling. He was the godfather of the British comedy revolution of the 1960s. A keenly observed, sensitive biography. 462 pages. £13.50 NOW £5


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