Search Results for: true story

Dis//Integration, a previously unpublished work by William Melvin Kelley, author of A Different Drummer, is a notable and welcome addition to African American literature.

The linked “2 novelas, 3 stories, and a little play” that make up DIS//INTEGRATION follow the life journeys of Charles “Chig” Dunford from his Nanny Eva sermonizing from her front porch, when he is only seventeen, to his peripatetic studies in Reupeo (an anagram of Europe) as a college student, to his unsettled bachelorhood as an English professor at a small Vermont college, where he continues to struggle to finish his life-long study of the
Reupeonese author Dupukshamin and find true love.

Along the way, as Chig’s sentimental education unfolds, we meet an array of memorable characters: John Hoenir, the Hemingway-esque expatriate novelist who takes Chig under his wing; Wendy Whitman, an actress passing for white, who breaks Chig’s heart; Merry, his troubled teen-age niece who Chig, in middle-age, agrees to look after; Raymond Winograd, the villainous department chair; Renka Bravo, the alluring dancer who might just make Chig an honest man; and one hundred Africans mysteriously chained together in the lower decks of Chig’s homeward-bound transatlantic liner.

DIS//INTEGRATION is an an odyssey through time in which past and future combine and re-combine to give the arc of a full life.

‘A lot of those old sayings, ‘Red sky at night…’ and so on, are based on real knowledge. Not that red sky at night really does mean shepherd’s delight – the only thing that’s ever going to delight a shepherd is changing their job and not having to work with sheep any more.’

Kaleb Cooper – star of hit TV show Clarkson’s Farm and Sunday Times bestselling author – has been catapulted into the limelight and his new book, Life According to Kaleb, he shares the highs, lows and unexpected adventures of life at Diddly Squat from wrestling with temperamental tractors to dodging the wrath of cantankerous cows and after all that why he still believes he has the best job in the world.

Kaleb reveals his true, loveable, funny and down-to-earth self, with deadpan gags and unique observations that will have you crying with laughter. Utterly hilarious, this is Kaleb as you know and love him, telling the story of how he has become one of the biggest names in farming today.

‘I’m always wary of llamas. They’re mischievous and smart. I get a sense, when I approach them, that they are conferring . . . as if to say, ‘That’s that bloke off the telly.’

Bill Bailey has always had dogs in his life, including a Lakeland Terrier called Rocky who would travel with him in the van to his first shows and occasionally join him on stage. Fast forward a few decades and Bill shares his home with a variety of birds, dogs, frogs, chameleons, and an armadillo called Tommy. ‘We even had a giant chicken at the house for a while, a huge Malay cockerel, Kid Creole. After a few stand-offs he took against me. He had to go in the end, I was being stalked in my own back garden.’

That chicken apart, animals have always been at the heart of an extraordinary life as one of the nation’s favourite comedians, actors, musicians and (thanks to Strictly) dancers: from terriers to the orangutans of Sumatra and the parrots that share his breakfast every morning in west London.

As anyone who has ever had a pet knows, animals are a constant source of joy, but they also connect us to the world and to each other, touching on a deeper, older human need for companionship. Full of the leftfield humour, wit and wisdom that has made Bill Bailey such a beloved performer around the world, My Animals, and Other Animals is the story of Bill’s life, but more than that, it’s the story of how all of our lives are enriched by the animals who accompany us on that journey.

The true story of how a middle-class Black girl from Minneapolis became one of the single biggest threats to the United States banking system.

Tanya Smith fancied herself a folk hero, a kind of Robin Hood, using her powers of persuasion to buck the system and help the poor and needy.

It started innocently enough, with calls to celebrities’ houses with her teenage twin sister. Soon, Tanya realised she could convince utility companies to amend the balances of her friends, relatives and neighbours, clearing their overdue electricity bills with a single phone call. Eventually, as she tested the limits and realized she could get past any gatekeeper, she started to want the actual money herself.

By the time she was 18, Tanya had ‘confiscated’ some $40 million in cash and commodities from US banks, using hacked wire transfers. It didn’t take long before the FBI was on her tail. But when interviewing her, they made clear that they were using her to get to the person actually running things – clearly, she wasn’t smart enough to do this on her own (Black people she was told, rob people, they don’t hack computers).

Thus began a cat and mouse game with the authorities that would drive her to unthinkable limits, breaking the hearts of her parents, putting Tanya’s life in jeopardy, and costing her custody of two children before finally sending her to Federal prison (where she escaped twice) with the longest sentence ever given for a white-collar crime.

In the spirit of true crime narratives like Catch Me If You Can, Molly’s Game, and Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House, Never Saw Me Coming is a gripping caper, but it’s also the deeply personal journey of a young Black woman finding her way in a world that underestimated her brilliance. For fans of movies like Hustlers and The Bling Ring, Never Saw Me Coming is a high-stakes, gritty tale of wild financial misdeeds.

‘An absolute joy to read, with messy, realistic, and deeply lovable characters. . . Obuobi’s perfect balance of humor and wisdom made this one a true standout’ EMILY HENRY

‘THIS BOOK IS SPECTACULAR! It is deft and voicy, sexy and emotionally brilliant. I am honestly obsessed’ CHRISTINA LAUREN

Talia Hibbert meets Carley Fortune in this swoon-worthy story of love and friendship in the age of social media – where what you see might not be all you get.

Dr Jojo has it all figured out. Or so it seems to her Instagram followers, who love her no-nonsense advice about men, self-love, dating and sex.

But behind the camera, it’s a different story – she’s in love with her best friend, Ezra, and he doesn’t feel the same way.

Committed to moving on, Jo soon finds the perfect distraction – sweet, shy and sexy writer Malcolm. As the pair begin to date, sparks fly, and Jo’s hard exterior begins to soften.

But when she discovers her feelings for Ezra aren’t as unrequited as she thought, Jo finds herself with a tough decision to make. Will she seize the opportunity for romance with her best friend, or is new love the path to her happily ever after?

Praise for Shirlene Obuobi

‘You’re going to love this one‘ Beth O’Leary, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Wake-Up Call

‘On Rotation is a brilliant debut rom-com . . . It’s relatable and LOL funny’ Cosmopolitan

‘I couldn’t put down On Rotation‘ Meg Cabot, New York Times bestselling author

‘On Rotation is an original romance novel bursting with charm, humour and the most loveable characters‘ Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, author of Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?

One of the most remarkable stories in the history of Special Forces’ operations – Daily Express

In the bleak moments after defeat on mainland Europe in winter 1939, wartime leader Winston Churchill knew that Britain had to strike back hard.

He recruited a band of eccentric free-thinking warriors to become the first ‘deniable’ secret operatives behind enemy lines, offering these volunteers nothing but the potential for glory and all-but-certain death.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare tells of the daring victories for this small force of ‘freelance pirates’ in their many missions against the Nazis, often dressed in enemy uniforms and breaking all previously held rules of warfare.

Master storyteller and military historian Damien Lewis brings the true adventures of the secret unit to life, from their earliest missions to the death of the group’s leader just weeks before the end of World War Two.

Charly Gaul is a forgotten cycling legend. Once a household name across Europe, the diminutive Luxembourger won the 1958 Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia twice. A unique rider, Gaul was supremely gifted at climbing and resilient even in the foulest weather. His pedalling style was smooth and swift, and he could set an unmatchable metronome rhythm on a mountain climb. ‘Mozart on two wheels,’ was how one contemporary writer described him; another dubbed him ‘The Angel of the Mountains’.

At the end of his cycling career Gaul disappeared, becoming a hermit living in a forest in Luxembourg. What drove Charly Gaul into a recluse’s life? In Angel of the Mountains, Paul Maunder seeks to uncover the truth about Gaul, his psychology and the circumstances of his withdrawal from society. In rediscovering Gaul’s enigmatic life, we find not only an unlikely hero but also a larger truth about the nature of sporting success.

‘A perfect, sunny read’ – B magazine

‘Great fun from start to finish’ – Sunday Express

‘Makeup, sunshine, fabulous locations, a holiday romance . . . what more could you want in a summer read?’ – Novelicious

Ever wished you could make-over your life?

Make-up artist Stella is an expert at helping other people change their images, but when it comes to transforming herself, she doesn’t even know where to start.

So when her new friend, glamorous Hollywood actress Marina Ray, summons her a movie set in California, Stella can’t resist the chance to start afresh – it is the land of sunshine and opportunity after all!

But are they really friends or does Marina have an ulterior motive? What is the secret that both women are hiding about the nautical (but nice) men in their lives? And what will it take to really make both of their California dreams come true?

In a Pacific Coast journey that takes in Los Angeles, the world’s most romantic ranch and California’s very own castle in the sky – this story of friendship, long-distance love, kissing (and making up) is the perfect escapist read.

Readers love California Dreamers:
‘A great read set in stunning locations’ – 5* reader review
‘If you like make up, romance and twists this book is for you. Literally read it in a few days’- 5* reader review
‘Could not put it down. Loved it!’ – 5* reader review

Across the UK, into Europe and further afield, these are the training rides, races and journeys closest to his heart. From one-day classics in the Peak District and Snowdonia to the rolling roads of Tuscany and the wide-open vistas of New Zealand’s South Island, these are the routes you’ll want to ride alongside Britain’s favourite cycling superstar.

We ride out with him from his winter home in the south of France, and around his old Tuscan training base as a GB Olympic hopeful at the very start of his career. We take in the valley roads of the Tour de Suisse (overall winner, 2022), and the sinuous coastal roads of Milan – San Remo.

We go long in Mallorca and bounce along the short cobbled secteurs of Belgium; we take in the vineyards around Adelaide and the bright blue skies of southern California.

And we have guest rides too: from world champion Remco Evenepoel and his favourite winter training ride in Calpe, Spain; around Yorkshire, with Olympic mountain bike champion, world cyclo-cross champion and newly crowned winner of Strade Bianche, Tom Pidcock; in the wilds of western Ireland from champion sprinter Sam Bennett.

Twenty rides, twenty adventures you’ll never forget. All of this in a small-size hardback that can slide just as easily into your hand luggage as the back pocket of your jersey.

In the summer of 1943, the largest invasion fleet ever assembled sailed for fortress Europe, aiming to bulldoze its way onto Nazi shores. At its vanguard went a few hundred elite forces soldiers, the Royal Navy warship carrying them bearing the iconic winged dagger emblem on its prow, plus the motto ‘Who Dares Wins’. Led by the legendary SAS commander Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne, these war-bitten, piratical raiders were tasked to do the impossible – to bludgeon their way through the most heavily defended enemy shoreline, so enabling the ensuing forces to follow on.

If they succeeded, it would mark the turning point in the war. If they failed, the consequences were unthinkable. Against all odds, outnumbered some fifty-to-one, and facing a ferocious series of cliffside defences, they would have to dare all as never before. So begins the incredible true story of the SAS’s mission to liberate Europe. Replete with surprise, shock, action, heroic endeavour and glory, not to mention subterfuge, treachery and dismay, this is a classic combination of combat writing and breath-taking narrative non-fiction.

A Financial Times Book of the Year 2023
A Daily Express Book of the Year 2023

‘Magnificent, moving, often funny and deeply researched account . . . Is this just a book for those who know football? Far from it: this is a story of glory and the impermanence of fame’ Sunday Times (Book of the Week)

‘Like Alf Ramsey’s 1966 team, this book has depth, it has riches and it’s a winner – the finest piece of sports writing I have read in ages and a superb piece of contemporary history’ Peter Hennessy

England. 1966. The World Cup.

Duncan Hamilton watched England beat West Germany as an eight-year-old boy in the company of his father and grandfather. He recalls ‘Wembley, spread out in the sun; the waving flags; the delirious, joy-of-all-joys moment of the final whistle; the trophy sparkling in the late afternoon light’.

But, seeing the whole game again during the misery of the first Covid lockdown, finally made him realise what Alf Ramsey and his players had no inkling of, which was what came next for them. How, for many of those boys of summer, almost everything after that shimmering moment amounted to an anti-climax or a setback. How ’66 was not a beginning, a guaranteed path towards more success, but a slow decline and fall, and also a disproportionate number of disappointments. And how the triumph of ’66 was dulled through constant repetition, the same images always flashed before us.

Hamilton recognised, too, how many myths and misconceptions had grown around the match.
He decided to revisit ’66, tracing the very roots of a story – as well as the hidden figures within it – that really began during the era of post-War austerity.

Answered Prayers provides, at last, a full account of English football’s greatest achievement and the failures that followed it. We see the institutional inability to appreciate Ramsey and his players, who were taken for granted; the political machinations of the blazered fools who ran the Football Association; the short-sighted blunderers of the Football League.

With his matchless insight and descriptive power, Hamilton tells history afresh and shows us, for the first time, the scale of what was won and what was lost.

PRAISE FOR DUNCAN HAMILTON

‘Hamilton has a perceptively humane understanding of men for whom football was never just a game’ Guardian
‘A marriage of prose and detail so fine and fastidious that it takes the breath away’ Independent
‘Justifiably prize-winning’ Mail on Sunday

An inspirational can-do book from the star of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins.

In Hero Living Rudy Reyes introduces his philosophy to life – part Homer, part Bruce Lee and part Spider-Man.
He outlines various stages towards revealing your inner hero: recognising the hero’s call, following the hero’s path and returning from life’s battlefield with the hero’s hard-earned wisdom.

Rudy draws on his own heroic story of how he triumphed over harrowing childhood experiences of poverty and abandonment.

Rather than giving up hope, he lived up to his full potential. First as a martial-arts champion, then as an elite warrior in the mountains of Afghanistan and on the sands of Iraq, and finally in his post-Marines life as a personal trainer, actor, motivational speaker and TV star.

Find your inner hero through Rudy’s tried and tested method.

A revelatory memoir from Liverpool legend and global football star Bobby Firmino.

Master of the no-look goal and Anfield favourite, Roberto ‘Bobby’ Firmino, signed for Liverpool in July 2015. Over the next eight years – and seven winners’ medals – he established himself as one of the club’s most important players in recent years for his audacious skill, impressive goal scoring, and beaming smile.

Jürgen Klopp saw Firmino as the on-pitch ‘engine’ that drove the club’s counter-pressing strategy and together with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, Firmino formed a formidable attacking trio. The Kop rewarded Roberto with the ultimate accolade – his own song: ‘Sí, Señor, give the ball to Bobby and he will score.’

Sí, Señor celebrates Firmino’s cherished years in a red shirt and will remind fans why they fell in love with him in the first place.

“Do love stories often end this way?” “Why do you think it’s over?”

Shesheshen has made a fatal mistake for a monster: she’s fallen in love.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who usually resides as an amorphous lump in the swamp of a ruined manor, unless impolite monster hunters invade intent on murdering her. Through a chance encounter, she meets a different kind of human, warm-hearted Homily, who mistakes Shesheshen for a human in turn.

Shesheshen is loath to deceive, but just as she’s about to confess her true identity, Homily reveals she’s hunting the shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give them both a chance at happiness, she must figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with the woman she loves.

A glorious, funny, occasionally slightly violent love story which asks us to examine – and re-examine – the meaning of legacy, family and love.

Readers love John Wiswell:

‘Like a warm hug’ – Goodreads reviewer on “Open House on Haunted Hill”

‘So very sweet . . . a perfect little story’ – Goodreads reviewer on ‘Open House on Haunted Hill’

‘Heart-aching . . . you shouldn’t miss this one’ – Goodreads reviewer on ‘Open House on Haunted Hill’

‘Cozy and charming and made my heart grow three sizes which cannot be healthy’ – Goodreads reviewer on “Open House on Haunted Hill”

‘Has such a unique view and voice in his writing that his work is literally incomparable. And I can’t wait for what comes next’ – Goodreads reviewer on ‘Open House on Haunted Hill’

‘A truly page-turning, compulsive and also profoundly moving narrative. Superb.’ JAMES HOLLAND

‘Gripping, urgent, superbly reported and brilliantly written’ DAN JONES

‘A gripping and pacey book that reads like a thriller. I found it shocking in a world where I didn’t think I could be shocked any more. Henry Hemming wears his extensive research very lightly and manages to shape a great narrative from a complex and dark episode from our recent history. An important and skilfully crafted book.’ JOHN O’FARRELL

HOW THE DEATH OF A SPY IN THE IRA LED TO ONE OF THE BIGGEST MURDER INVESTIGATIONS IN BRITISH HISTORY.

On 26th May 1986, the body of an undercover British agent was found by the side of a muddy lane, with a rope
tied around its wrists and tape over each eye. Years later, it was reported that this murder might have been carried out by another undercover British agent, known as ‘Stakeknife’. In 2016, a detective began to investigate this case, and would soon find himself running the largest murder investigation in British history.

In a compulsive blend of investigative journalism and true crime thriller, Henry Hemming exposes the parallel worlds of the IRA and British intelligence through the lives of those inextricably bound up in both. He reveals the bravery of those who were crucial in ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the bloodiest and longest-running conflict in recent British history, and the determination of one detective in his dogged search for justice and the truth.

‘a compelling story’ – The Times

‘[a] gripping and consistently surprising true-life thriller’ – Observer

‘Revelatory and illuminating’ New Yorker

The true, unvarnished history of the town at the heart of Silicon Valley.

Palo Alto is nice. The weather is temperate, the people are educated, rich, healthy, enterprising. Remnants of a hippie counterculture have synthesized with high technology and big finance to produce the spiritually and materially ambitious heart of Silicon Valley, whose products are changing how we do everything from driving around to eating food. It is also a haunted toxic waste dump built on stolen Indian burial grounds, and an integral part of the capitalist world system.

In Palo Alto, the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the “tragedy of the commons,” racial genetics, and “broken windows” theory. The Internet and computers, too. It’s a story about how a small American suburb became a powerful engine for economic growth and war, and how it came to lead the world into a surprisingly disastrous 21st century.

Palo Alto is an urgent and visionary history of the way we live now, one that ends with a clear-eyed, radical proposition for how we might begin to change course.

The dramatic, globe-spanning and meticulously-researched story of two scientific rivals and their race to survey all life.

In the 18th century, two men dedicated their lives to the same daunting task: identifying and describing all life on Earth. Their approaches could not have been more different. Carl Linnaeus, a pious Swedish doctor with a huckster’s flair, believed that life belonged in tidy, static categories. Georges-Louis de Buffon, an aristocratic polymath and keeper of France’s royal garden, viewed life as a dynamic, ever-changing swirl of complexities. Both began believing their work to be difficult, but not impossible–how could the planet possibly hold more than a few thousand species? Stunned by life’s diversity, both fell far short of their goal. But in the process they articulated starkly divergent views on nature, on humanity’s role in shaping the fate of our planet, and on humanity itself.

The rivalry between these two unique, driven individuals created reverberations that still echo today. Linnaeus, with the help of acolyte explorers he called “apostles” (only half of whom returned alive), gave the world such concepts as mammal, primate and homo sapiens–but he also denied species change and promulgated racist pseudo-science. Buffon coined the term reproduction, formulated early prototypes of evolution and genetics, and argued passionately against prejudice. It was a clash that, during their lifetimes, Buffon seemed to be winning. But their posthumous fates would take a very different turn.

With elegant, propulsive prose grounded in more than a decade of research, bestselling author Jason Roberts tells an unforgettable true-life tale of intertwined lives and enduring legacies, tracing an arc of insight and discovery that extends across three centuries into the present day.

‘Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller’ Lee Child

In the summer of 2007 the British Army’s 662 Squadron deployed its most potent weapons system in combat for the very first time – the iconic Apache attack helicopter. This is the definitive story of the aircraft and of the crew who fly her, and of their baptism of fire in the battle for Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Under the call-sign Ugly, four of the Army Air Corps’ finest pilots flew a relentless series of missions during their 100-day deployment, stretching the aircraft, and themselves, to the limit. Apache Dawn recounts these operations from the perspective of the aircrew, plus the soldiers on the ground who owe their lives to the Apaches’ intervention during the white-hot heat of battle. Bestselling author Damien Lewis has been given unprecedented access to the pilots of the Apache Attack Squadrons – an elite band of warriors operating at the very limits of modern warfare. Apache Dawn is their story, and it is one of untold bravery and resilience against all odds.

‘As good as any thriller I have ever read’ Freddie Forsyth

‘Reveals a true story of British courage and daring’ The Sunday Times

‘Riveting’ Richard & Judy Show

‘The most dramatic story of a secret wartime mission ever’ News of the World

‘Ultimately, my experiences as a mental health nurse have taught me that we should judge less and open our hearts more.’

Belinda Black was just seventeen years old when she began working as a nursing assistant at the large and foreboding ‘madhouse’, as it was then known to the villagers of her hometown in the north of England. Following in the footsteps of her mother, she went on to spend a decade caring for patients with widely varying mental health problems, all locked up together and out of view of society. Some had suffered unimaginable trauma, several had violent and volatile tendencies, but amongst this Belinda found moments of joy and even friendship with her patients.

But A Place for Lost Souls is also about the other psychiatric nurses there, from those like Sister Kane who suffered from depression and found treating others a welcome distraction, to others like Belinda’s friend Sally, who always had a sense of humour however dark the situation.

Together, against a backdrop of rattling keys, clanging iron doors, and wards that smelled of disinfectant and stale smoke, these people came together to get through another day. Until the hospital, along with many others, had its doors closed in 1991 – the biggest change to mental healthcare in NHS history.

The result is a moving, shocking but ultimately life-affirming account of a unique and noble profession, told from the frontlines. Amongst so much sadness and distress, and despite witnessing some of the darkest corners of human suffering, Belinda finds hope: in the camaraderie of her colleagues, in the patients she cares for, and in her unwavering belief that even people who have committed violent crimes are fundamentally good.

‘Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller’ Lee Child

SAS Great Escapes Two recounts the hitherto untold stories of six of the most dramatic and daring escapes executed by the world’s most famous fighting force during WWII. From the very earliest SAS missions to the push into Nazi-occupied Europe, they cover some of the key figures in the Regiment, including its founder, David Stirling, plus other lesser-known heroes.

With each story comes an edge-of-the-seat, rollercoaster ride in classic Damien Lewis fashion, as readers are plunged into the escapees’ experiences – sharing their most terrifying yet inspiring moments. These stunning accounts of survival beggar belief, revealing nerve-racking bluff and deception, knife-edge encounters with enemy hunter forces hellbent on wreaking vengeance and murder, but also incredible acts of mercy and kindness from those who risk all to help the escapees on their way.

Each tale of breath-taking derring-do reveals how necessity really is the mother of all invention, as with every step and at every juncture these fugitives defied fate, snatching survival and freedom from the jaws of the enemy, and all the horrors that would have followed capture.

Damien Lewis has worked closely with the families of those portrayed, accessing wartime diaries, letters, mission reports, interrogation transcripts and more, to relate how the men of the SAS crossed blazing deserts, evaded enemy hunter forces and escaped through hostile lands, battling against seemingly insurmountable odds. But most of all, these uplifting tales of endurance beyond measure showcase the triumph of the human spirit and the will to survive.

‘Damien Lewis paints a uniquely vivid picture of the wartime SAS. Packed with detail, this fresh and dynamic book brings us as close to its remarkable members as we are ever likely to get.’ Joshua Levine, author of
Dunkirk

‘In these days when we are told to be scared of everything it is a relief to read of steely nerves and cold courage. Damien Lewis has collected examples of exactly these qualities from World War II and they are all thrillers, to be read with pleasure – and a bit of nostalgia!’ Frederick Forsyth

‘The fund of SAS escapes turns out to be too big for one book, and in Damien Lewis there is a writer of rare narrative gifts able to bring alive these epic stories for us today’ Mark Urban

‘An astonishing book: a collection of truly riveting stories of bravery, all brilliantly told. In terms of sheer drama and audacity, SAS: Great Escapes Two goes where no fiction writer would dare venture’ Alex Gerlis, author of Agent in the Shadows

An essential introduction to the most significant poems and their works since 1900

Reproduced within this collection are some of the greatest poems of the 20th century, featuring works from major writers such as T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath to Langston Hughes and W.B. Yeats. For each, Michael Schmidt provides an insight into their themes and the background to their work, opening for the reader a deeper understanding and enjoyment of these extraordinary poems.

Poets include:
W.B. Yeats
Robert Frost
Edward Thomas
Philip Larkin
T.S. Eliot
Ted Hughes
Langston Hughes
Sylvia Plath
C.S Sisson
Derek Walcott
Ezra Pound
& many more!

WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY 2023
A Times Best Literary Non-Fiction Book of the Year

Critic and writer Darryl Pinckney recalls his friendship and apprenticeship with Elizabeth Hardwick and Barbara Epstein and the introduction they offered him to the New York literary world.

At the start of the 1970s, Darryl Pinckney arrived in New York City and at Columbia University and enrolled in Elizabeth Hardwick’s writing class at Barnard. After he graduated, he was welcomed into her home as a friend and mentee, and he became close with Hardwick and her best friend, neighbor, and fellow founder of The New York Review of Books, Barbara Epstein. Pinckney found himself at the heart of the New York literary world. He was surrounded by the great writers of the time, like Susan Sontag, Robert Lowell, and Mary McCarthy, as well as the overlapping cultural revolutions and communities that swept New York: the New Wave in film, rock, and writing; the art of Felice Rosser, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucy Sante, Howard Brookner, and Nan Goldin; the influence of feminism on American culture and literature; the black arts movement confronted by black feminism; and New Negro veterans experiencing the return of their youth as history. Pinckney filtered the avant-garde life he was exposed to downtown and the radical intellectual tradition of The Review through the moral values he inherited and adapted from abolitionist and Reconstruction black culture.

In Come Back in September, Pinckney recalls his introduction to New York and the writing life. The critic and novelist intimately captures this revolutionary, brilliant, and troubled period in American letters. Elizabeth Hardwick was not only the link to the intellectual heart of New York, but also a source of continual support and inspiration-the way she worked, her artistry, and the beauty of her voice. Through his memories of the city and of Hardwick, we see the emergence and evolution of Pinckney himself: as a young man, as a New Yorker, and as one of the essential intellectuals of our time.

In the summer of 1944, the SAS were charged with the most crucial D-Day missions, taking on the might of the Nazi Reich deep behind enemy lines. Facing Hitler’s armoured legions – his fearsome Panzer divisions – with little more than raw courage and their nimble Willys jeeps, it would take maverick thinking and unconventional warfare in the extreme to survive and overcome. Hunted at every turn, theirs would become a bitter struggle to topple the dark power wielded from Berlin.

Increasingly, the war to seize The Fatherland would descend into a bitter and bloody struggle waged between the Nazi Fuhrer, and those he believed hunted him and his most senior commanders – Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne’s SAS. No greater courage can be written, nor unconventional soldiering envisaged, than that evidenced by these renegade warriors as they dared all to bring the war to its final blood-soaked close.