Eight new stories from eight literary writers at the height of their powers, all inspired by myth and legend. Stories by Sarah Hall, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Adam Thorpe, Edward Carey, Sarah Moss, Alison Macleod, Paul Kingsnorth and Fiona Mozley.

Shot through with Stoppard's voice, and illuminating all his plays, Lee's gripping narrative draws on unprecedented access to archive material, interviews and long conversations with Stoppard himself.

The warm and winning story of opening a modern bookstore where there were none, Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller recounts Nadia Wassef's troubles and triumphs as a founder and manager of Cairo-based Diwan

Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography 2014 Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was a great English writer, who would never have described herself in such grand terms.

A journey through the life and thought of George Orwell, from public school satirist and imperial policeman to Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four.

The authorized biography shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year, the National Book Awards and the Costa Biography Award

Abandoning Heidegger's pious references to Holderlin and the Greeks, Harman develops a new philosophical mythology centered in such Lovecraftian figures as Cthulhu, Wilbur Whately, and the rat-like monstrosity Brown Jenkin.

Jan Morris is one of the great British writers of the post-war era. For many readers she is best known for her candid memoir Conundrum, which described the gender reassignment operation she underwent in 1972. In this book, the author demonstrates that this is just one of the many remarkable facts about her life.

A beautiful fugitive. A secret treaty. A decadent age. And the lost papers of the greatest diarist that ever lived. Tying together historical fiction, espionage and crime, Camille is a historical adventure to mirror a glorious age.

A beautiful new edition of Edward Said's classic which argues that a beginning is different from (and preferable to) an origin, because a beginning can be chosen and an origin can only be acknowledged

This Companion is the first place to look for information on authors, illustrators, printers, publishers, and others involved in children's literature, and on the stories and characters at their centre. Written both to entertain and to instruct, it is a reference work that no-one interested in the world of children's books should be without

Nordic Noir: The Pocket Essential Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction, Film and TV by Britain's leading expert on crime fiction, Barry Forshaw, is a compact and authoritative guide to the phenomenally popular genre. The information-packed study examines and celebrates books, films and TV adaptations, from Sjoewall & Wahloeoe's...

The extraordinary, posthumously published memoir in letters of a Colombian artist whose writing was championed by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

What happens within us when we read a novel? And how does a novel create its unique effects, so distinct from those of a painting, a film, or a poem? In this book, Turkey's Nobel Prize winner explores the art of writing, and takes us into the worlds of the reader and the writer, revealing their intimate connections.

Raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors, watching five beloved siblings sicken and die, haunted by unrequited love: Charlotte Bronte's life has all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired. This book presents an illuminating account of one of our best-loved novelists.

Was Charles Dickens the secret lover of young actress Nelly Ternan? How would a man of his renown have hidden such an affair? This book offers a complete account of the scandal that threatened to ruin Dickens - now dramatised as The Invisible Woman, a 2014 BBC film starring Ralph Fiennes.

Contemporary short stories enacting giddy, witty revenge on the documents that define and dominate our lives.

Includes George Puttenham's "Art of English Poesy", Samuel Daniel's "Defense of Rhyme", and passages by writers such as Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and George Gascoigne.

The story of a man's obsession with whales, which takes him on a personal, historical and biographical journey - from his childhood to his fascination with Moby-Dick and his excursions whale-watching.

The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend offers a comprehensive survey of the Arthurian legends in all their manifestations, from the earliest medieval texts to their appearances in contemporary culture. Essential reading for Arthurian scholars, medievalists, and for those interested in myth and legend.