Literature & Poetry

From the gothic fantasies of Walpole's Otranto to post-modern takes on the country house by Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan, Phyllis Richardson guides us on a tour through buildings real and imagined to examine how authors' personal experiences helped to shape the homes that have become icons of English ...

Edgar, the brooding young master of Ravenswood, retains none of his ancestral estates but a crumbling castle. Embittered by the lawsuits that have stripped him of his patrimony and shortened his despairing father's life, he determines to confront Sir William Ashton, the lawyer whose machinations led ...

Shakespeare: increasingly irrelevant or lone literary genius of the Western canon?

As he was turning forty, Walt Whitman wrote twelve poems in a small handmade book he entitled "Live Oak, With Moss." The poems were intensely private reflections on his attraction to and affection for other men. They were also Whitman's most adventurous explorations of the theme of same-sex love, composed ...

From the Booker-shortlisted author of Umbrella, a world-girdling collection of writings inspired by a life lived in and for literature From one of the most unusual and distinctive writers working today, dubbed "the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation" by the Guardian, Will Self's Why ...

The poets of classical India regarded love as the first and deepest of passions. Translator and scholar Andrew Schelling perfectly encapsulates the history and passion of eighth-century India in this collection. “A single stanza of the poet Amaru,” declared a ninth-century poetry critic, “may provide ...

The lives and achievements of eight women writers - a startling and unconventional history of literature

Simon Winchester turns his unrivaled talents to revealing the significance of the intriguing photograph whose subject inspired Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

A boldly illustrated celebration of literary history's most revolutionary, talented women writers

Women have written some of our most extraordinary literary works while living in societies and cultures that tried to silence them. These women dared to put pen to paper to express the multifaceted female ...

From the UK Poet Laureate and bestselling translator of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a complete verse translation of a spirited and humorous medieval English poem The Owl and the Nightingale, one of the earliest literary works in Middle English, is a lively, anonymous comic poem about two birds who ...

The only truly global collection of love poetry, bringing together the most stunning and inspiring poems from all around the world

A Graphic Guide that takes readers on a tour through the world of William Shakespeare.

The lives and achievements of eight women writers - a startling and unconventional history of literature

This volume grew out of a special issue of Salmagundi magazine, also entitled Contemporary Poetry in America.

The works of Wilde's annus mirabilis of 1891 in one volume, with an introduction by renowned British playwright.

Der lebensfrohe Viktor muß, bevor er seine erste Arbeitsstelle antreten darf, seinen Onkel auf dessen einsamer Insel besuchen. Der verbitterte Hagestolz macht seinem Neffen den Aufenthalt so unangenehm wie möglich. Er versucht, ihn zu seiner eigenen menschenfeindlichen Haltung zu "bekehren". Zwischen ...

Unique anthology celebrating British women writers from a Muslim heritage. Writers include literary heavyweights such as Adhaf Soueif, Leila Aboulela and Kamila Shamsie, as well as young emerging artists leading the way on the UK's spoken word scene. Extensive PR campaign planned for publication.

From the author of the definitive biography of George Orwell, a captivating account of the origin and enduring power of his landmark dystopian novel

Since its publication nearly 70 years ago, George Orwell's 1984 has been regarded as one of the most influential novels of the modern age. Politicians ...

Stunning debut collection, bringing the ghettoised working class into contemporary Irish poetry. Noisy, dark, but shot through with humour, Gub heralds a wholly new voice out of Belfast.

A unique Pocket Poets anthology of a hundred years of poetic tributes to the silver screen, from the silent film era to the present.
The variety of subjects is dazzling, from movie stars to bit players, from B-movies to Bollywood, from Clark Gable to Jean Cocteau. More than a hundred poets riff on their ...