Showing titles in Art & Literature

The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone, here, for the first time, is Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography, in its entirety, exactly as he left it. This major literary event offers the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain’s authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave, as he intended.

Published in 1913, My Childhood is the first in an autobiographical trilogy by the Russian writer and five-time Nobel Prize-nominee Maxim Gorky. Painfully moving in places, the book tells of the experiences of a young boy who goes to live with his grandparents following the death of his father. Gorky’s depiction of 19th-century Russia through the eyes of his younger self is remarkable. As he recalls memories of his youth, contrasting themes and emotions are revealed, from barbaric joy to dark gloom, genuine cruelty and saint-like forbearance.

Who was the real George Eliot? In Love with George Eliot is a glorious debut novel which tells the compelling story of England’s greatest woman novelist as you’ve never heard it before.

Winner of The James Tait Black Memorial Prize Winner of the Book of the Year, the Irish Book Awards Winner of the Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year Nominated for the Rathbones Folio Prize, Desmond Elliot Prize and Republic of Consciousness Prize A true original, this stunning prose debut by...

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” Jane Austen at her witty, observant, intelligent, and sympathetic best, in this collection of her letters written to family and friends. Compiled by her niece Fanny Knight’s son Edward...

In his memoir Waypoints, Heughan digs into his Scottish heritage by hiking the West Highland Way, and along the journey he recounts the life and career events that have shaped him and his personal values. We spoke to Sam Heughan about the joys and trials of West Highland Way, his journey towards processing the absence of his dad, and how the creation of his Outlander family came at just the point he needed in his career.

Making his west end debut in 1985, Ball has been a constant in musical theatre, performing many parts in Les Misérables around the country over the years, appearing in The Phantom of the Opera, Hairspray and Sweeny Todd. Ball is no stranger to the charts either: after representing the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, he has regularly released albums. Michael has now taken to writing and we will be talking about his debut novel, The Empire.

A familiar face to many, playing Mr Brown in the Paddington films, and Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey, Hugh Bonneville has been on our screens and stages since the late '80s. His love of acting came from the National Youth Theatre, where his hobby turned into a career path. Ranging from Shakespeare to Mr Stink, Bonneville has playing an incredible range of characters. Looking back at his life so far, Hugh has written his memoir, Playing Under the Piano, giving us an insight into one of Britain’s best-loved actor’s life behind the scenes.

Living with a powerfully ambitious writer who is consumed by his work, and trying to find a place for her own spirit to thrive, she rails against the confines. At the same time, she is desperate to find the truth in their relationship—and the truth of her own self.

In this deeply etched and haunting memoir, Vivian Gornick tells the story of her lifelong battle with her mother for independence. Gornick's groundbreaking book confronts what Edna O'Brien has called "the principal crux of female despair": the unacknowledged Oedipal nature of the mother-daughter bond. Born and raised in the Bronx, the daughter of "urban peasants," Gornick grows up in a household dominated by her intelligent but uneducated mother's romantic depression over the early death of her husband. 

A group of notable writers - including UK poet laureate Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, Margaret MacMillan, and Jenny Uglow - celebrate our fascination with the houses of famous literary figures, artists, composers, and politicians of the past.

Brought to you by Penguin. Sleep. Sleep. Like money, you only think about it when you have too little. Then you think about it all the time, and the less you have the more you think about it. It becomes the prism through which you see the world and nothing can exist except in relation to it...

One half of duo Everything but the Girl as well as a solo artist, Tracey Thorn is a singer, a writer, a mother, a wife, a feminist, and so much more. In Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia, we are given an insight into life before music...and when the music begins to arrive. In this interview, Tracey spoke to us about the intrigue of her 'hilariously dull' teenage diary entries, buying her first guitar, and tells us the lyrics of an early song she wrote - an ode to music journalist Julie Burchill.

Perhaps all of Jonathan Ames' problems, and the genesis of this hilarious audiobook, can be traced back to the late onset of his puberty. After all, it can't be easy to be 16 with a hairless penis "undistinguishable from that of a five-year-old's".

In this self-portrait by an American genius, Kurt Vonnegut writes with beguiling wit and poignant wisdom about his favorite comedians, country music, a dead friend, a dead marriage, and various cockamamie aspects of his all-too-human journey through life. This is a work that resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice: the magic sound of a born storyteller mesmerizing us with truth.

Joining us in the Audible Studios to discuss their new book together, New Power: How It’s Changing the 21st Century - and Why You Need to Know, are Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms. Their new book, New Power, follows on from their seminal Harvard Business Review article on leadership in 2014 and Heimans’ TED talk on the same subject. Here, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms chat to us about what new power is, why it’s a force for both bad and good and how we can use it to our advantage.

Doctor, journalist and author Rachel Clarke joins Audible Studios to discuss her semiautobiographical audiobook, Your Life in My Hands. A poignant and honest depiction of the daily challenges faced by junior doctors on the NHS front line, the audiobook has been praised and applauded by the likes of Jon Snow, Alastair Campbell and Professor Neena Modi. In this interview, Rachel addresses the difficult working conditions she’s had to endure as an NHS doctor, the overcrowding and underfunding of the institution she dedicates her life to and her hopes for a future in which the National Health Service stands strong once again.

Both George Orwell and Winston Churchill came close to death in the mid-1930s - Orwell shot in the neck in the Spanish Civil War and Churchill struck by a car in New York City. If they'd died then, history would scarcely remember them. At the time Churchill was a politician on the outs, his loyalty to his class and party suspect. Orwell was a mildly successful novelist, to put it generously. No one would have predicted that by the end of the 20th century, they would be considered two of the most important people in British history....

Tom Rachman is a man of many talents - he is not just an international selling author but previous editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris and a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press in Rome. Rachman's works have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Slate and New Statesman. He visits the Audible Studios to tell us about his new book, Basket of Deplorables.

Best-selling crime writer Erin Kelly joins Elise Italiaander in the Audible Studios to discuss her latest release.