Showing titles in Authors

In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol through the work and lives of six of America's finest writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver. All six of these men were alcoholics, and the subject of drinking surfaces in some of their finest work, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to A Moveable Feast.

His books have sold millions and include classics like Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Yet C. S. Lewis was not always a literary giant of Christian faith. How did he evolve from staunch atheism to become one of the most beloved and renowned Christian authors of our time?

This is perhaps one of the best-loved of all journals. William Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, began it in May 1800 and resolved to keep it for a short time. She continued it for nearly three years. In it, she brought the Dove Cottage years to vivid and intimate life. She noted the walks and weather, the friends, country neighbours, and travellers on the roads. She set down accounts of the garden, of Wordsworth's marriage, their concern for Coleridge, and the composition of Wordsworth's poetry.

After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killed—or killing someone else—or to beatings-for-pay as a boxer.

The groundbreaking biography of Booker Prize-winning novelist and art historian Anita Brookner, from one of our leading literary biographers. Hermione Lee reveals the full story of a brilliant, idiosyncratic and complex woman and goes deep into Anita Brookner’s marvellous work in all its...

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick “I had been so engaged by Ann Patchett’s multifaceted story, so lured in by her confiding voice, that I forgot I was on the job. […] As the best personal essays often do, Patchett’s is a two-way mirror, reflecting both the author and her readers.” —...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FOYLES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 AUDIBLE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 WINNER OF THE GOOGLE PLAY BEST OF 2025 AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS...

Generations of children have fallen in love with the pioneer saga of the Ingalls family, of Pa and Ma, Laura and her sisters, and their loyal dog. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have taught millions of Americans about frontier life, giving inspiration to many and in the process becoming icons of our national identity. Yet few realize that this best-selling series wandered far from the actual history of the Ingalls family and from what Laura herself understood to be central truths about pioneer life.

Drawing together a fascinating body of writing from over 14 years of work, Figures in a Landscape ranges from profiles of cultural icons (Oliver Sacks, Elizabeth Taylor, Robin Williams) to intimate personal remembrances; from thrilling adventures in Africa to literary writings from Theroux's...

Bonnie St John is a world renowned keynote speaker, consultant, and leadership trainer, who is perhaps best known for being the first African-American ever to win Olympic Medals in ski racing- despite having her right leg amputated when she was five years old. She joins Robin Morgan in the Audible Studios to discuss her new book, Microresilience, which is written in collaboration with Allen P. Haines.

We all carry people inside our heads - actors, leaders, writers, people out of history or fiction, met or unmet, who sometimes seem closer to us than people we know. In The Man Within My Head, Pico Iyer sets out to unravel the mysterious closeness he has always felt with the English writer Graham Greene; he examines Greene’s obsessions, his elusiveness, his penchant for mystery.

Another Sort of Freedom is a funny, moving and honest memoir of a man's struggle to break free from expectations. Gurcharan Das was born in Lyallpur, Punjab, during World War II, when Hitler, Churchill and Hirohito were bashing everyone around. His mother noted in her diary, 'This is a restless...

On July 19, 2001, Jeffrey Archer—politician and international best-selling author—was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury. He became Prisoner FF8282 and spent the first three weeks of his sentence in a high-security prison that housed some of Britain's most violent criminals. He was moved to the Lifer's wing—because of the security it provided—where he became a trusted confidant to fellow convicts. Prisoners and guards alike asked for his autograph and sought his advice—though one cellmate sold a story about Archer to the British tabloids. 

'Some smuggle cigarettes, others alcohol - or weapons. Our contraband, being invisible, is more dangerous. Our contraband is undetectable by scanners. What we carry as concealed excess baggage is stories.' In this exquisite literary gem, Georgi Gospodinov, winner of the International Booker...

‘Glorious’ Guardian 'Vigorous, rigorous and eminently readable’ SPECTATOR In his soaring new book, Niall Kishtainy draws us into the imaginative worlds of Thomas More, the Diggers, William Morris and Extinction Rebellion protestors. He introduces us to thinkers like Thomas Spence who threw...

Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman is the biography of a remarkable, complicated, troubled, passionate woman, an important figure in German romanticism, the person who in a sense founded the Goethe cult that would become central to German cultural life in the 19th century, as well as someone who confronted with unusual determination and bore the burden of being both a woman in a man's world and an assimilated Jew in Germany.

Known for his deadpan humour and sarcasm, Jack Dee is a regular on our screens and airwaves. After his first ever stand-up, Jack Dee was encouraged to tour the circuit, and after winning the Best Stage Newcomer awards in 1991, Dee began to grace our screens with The Jack Dee Show. Since then, Dee has performed sell-out stand-up shows, written and starred in sitcoms such as Lead Balloon and hosted shows such as I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Have I Got News for You.

Coetzee grew up in a new development north of Cape Town, tormented by guilt and fear. With a father he despised, and a mother he both adored and resented, he led a double life - the brilliant and well-behaved student at school, the princely despot at home, always terrified of losing his mother's love. His first encounters with literature, the awakenings of sexual desire, and a growing awareness of apartheid left him with baffling questions, and only in his love of the high veld ('farms are places of freedom, of life') could he find a sense of belonging.

Joining us at Audible Studios is James Windust, writer, public speaker and model. Windust graduated from UCA Epsom with a degree in fashion management and marketing and within six months of their graduation was named as one of London's 1,000 most influential people by The Evening Standard. Windust is a freelance writer and has written pieces for British GQ, Gay Times, The Independent and many more. As well as being a writer, Windust is also a public speaker and has spoken at events for Tommy Hilfiger and TEDxLondonWomen.

Joining us at Audible Studios is award winning comedian, presenter, actor and author Russell Kane, who has just released his book, The Son of a Silverback. Kane was born in London and was brought up in Essex. He initially worked as an advertising copywriter but went on to pursue a career in comedy and in 2004 won the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year. In August 2006 Kane performed his debut comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe, entitled The Theory of Pretension. He has hosted Big Brother's Big Mouth as well as a show on Q Radio.