Beowulf & Other Stories was first conceived in the belief that the study of Old English - and its close cousins, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman - can be a genuine delight, covering a period as replete with wonder, creativity and magic as any other in literature.

What does it mean to be a mother?; Twenty writers speak out in this searingly honest, diverse and powerful collection.

A study of metafiction - fiction in which an important theme is its own fictional status - in Soviet literature. It questions previous treatments of metafiction and suggests a framework for new approaches to Soviet literary history.

A guide that explains and celebrates various parallel poetry projects. It examines the range of contemporary tendencies - from the baroque swagger of the Dandies to the restrained elegance of the Oxford Elegists; from the layered, haunting verse of Mythopoesis to the inventive explorations of the New Formalists.

In this warm and witty celebration of the written word, the popular comedian and presenter takes the reader on a journey across Britain as he explores his lifelong love of books and bookshops.

In this warm and witty celebration of the written word, the popular comedian and presenter takes the reader on a journey across Britain as he explores his lifelong love of books and bookshops.

An exploration of children's literature - from J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan to Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe - and the lessons these stories teach about the world around them.

Everywhere he looks he finds fragments and gaps: disconnected typescripts, bones and husks, boxes of marbles, collections of photographs. Like a shaman flying across the globe, his mind tracks the journeys of his subjects to the deserts of Africa and the maelstroms of the Arctic, where the shapes of myth meet the patterns of science.

Thalia Field's third book with New Directions is a tour de force of blending literary genres (poetry, prose, essay, and drama) and examining our control of the natural world.

Tells the story of a metaphor that continues to matter to literature, culture, aesthetics, and politics

A travel literature classic. Introduced by Geoff Dyer: 'As a book about Yugoslavia it's a kind of metaphysical Lonely Planet that never requires updating'

Postpartum depression affects millions of new mothers every year. This is an epic poem to women everywhere.

A wide-ranging collection of essays from a celebrated master of the form.

A protean meter, blank verse lends itself to lyric, dramatic, narrative, and meditative modes; to epigram as well as to epic. This book offers a study of the meter's technical features and its history, as well as its many uses. It also includes advice for poets of our own day who may wish to attempt the form or enhance their mastery of it.

This Sourcebook examines Dickens' novel within its literary and cultural contexts providing an ideal orientation in the novel, its reception history and the critical material which surrounds it.

Angelou's autobiographical modern masterpiece receives the "Bloom's Notes" treatment, as the noted critic examines its place in 20th century literature. "Cliff Notes" they are not", says "Booklist".

Shortly before his death, S. P. Rosenbaum began work on the history of the Bloomsbury Group's 'Memoir Club'. With original archival material and valuable insights on leading Bloomsbury figures such as Woolf, Keynes and Forster, this illuminating book offers a new perspective on our understanding of twentieth-century autobiography and life writing.

Describing his childhood, Anglo-Catholic education and painful apprenticeship to the trade of dramatist, the author sets the progress of his own life against the history of a time in which faith in hierarchy, deference, religion, the empire and finally politics all withered away.

Takes you through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way famous blue figures, including Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday, Yves Klein, Leonard Cohen, and Andy Warhol. In this book, the narrator sets out to construct a sort of 'pillow book' about her lifelong obsession with the colour blue.

A dazzling dictionary of book blurbs, filled with writing tips, literary folklore and publishing secrets

A dazzling dictionary of book blurbs, filled with writing tips, literary folklore and publishing secrets

For over 150 years, the garrets, pubs and clubs of Soho have been, according to Jeffrey Bernard, 'a lifeboat of sorts for the deserters from convention'. This book celebrates those whose style, irregular work patterns, love of intoxicants and unconventional sexual mores shaped the city, and the world, we know today.

Why do women join book clubs? What do the women discuss when they meet? to answer questions like these, Long spent years observing and participating in women's book clubs in the Houston area. She discovered that members find reading a crucial way for them to reflect on their lives.