In A Girl's Story, Annie Ernaux revisits the summer of 1958, her first away from home, and recounts the first night she spent with a man.

A History of English Autobiography explores the genealogy of autobiographical writing in England from the medieval period to the digital era. Written by a host of leading scholars, this History is the definitive, single-volume collection on English autobiography and will serve as an invaluable reference for specialists and students alike.

An outstanding collection of some of the best pieces that Christopher Hitchens wrote for the London Review of Books.

<b>Fifteen novels. Fifteen poisons. Just because it's fiction doesn t mean its all made-up . . .</b>"

She writes beyond the time we live in.' Colum McCann Struggling to cope with urban life - and with life in general - Frankie, a twenty-something artist, retreats to the rural bungalow on 'turbine hill' that has been vacant since her grandmother's death three years earlier.

From Boccaccio and Machiavelli through to Moravia and Tabucchi, from the Stil Novo to Divisionism, across centuries of history and intellectual movements, these essays will give English readers, and lovers of the Bel Paese and its culture, the lay of the literary land of Italy.

Important figures in British life talk about what Europe means to them

Barely educated and valued since childhood strictly for his labour, Ernaux's father had grown into a hard, practical man who showed his family little affection. Narrating his slow ascent towards material comfort, Ernaux's cold observation in A Man's Place reveals the shame that haunted her father throughout his life.

The magnificent final book from the bestselling author of the Wolf Hall Trilogy

First ever critical study of Tolkien's little-known essay, which reveals how language invention shaped the creation of Middle-earth and beyond, to George R R Martin's Game of Thrones.

The sixth volume of Maya Angelou's bestselling autobiography is reissued in a new look to coincide with its induction to the Virago Modern Classics list.

The School of Life has put together an ideal library that can speak helpfully to our individual needs and longings. Ranging across history and drawing on world literature, offering the same essential thing: true friends through the complex places of life with kindness and wisdom.

The current UK Poet Laureate's popular series of lectures examining what poetry is and who it might be for.

Long considered one of Simone de Beauvoir's masterpieces, a profoundly moving recounting of her mother's death.

The first essay collection from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time. 'This trenchant, unrepentant collection reminds you that she's a brilliant writer... Order a copy in case she's cancelled by Christmas' THE TIMES (Book of the Year)

This edited collection explores the afterlife of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in theatre and film, radio, literature and graphics novels, making a substantial contribution to the field of adaptation studies. -- .

The story of Diana Athill's relationship with Didi - a gifted writer and an Egyptian in exile - and a remarkably honest, poignant look at love and grief.

The flexibility of critical realism is illustrated in the range of topics discussed - ranging from quantum mechanics to cyberspace, to literary theory, nature, smoking, the future of Marx, the unconscious and, of course, postmodernism and the future of theory itself.