Biographical fiction
Showing 1–16 of 23 results
-
A child’s Christmas in Wales & other stories and poems
£10.99A child’s Christmas in Wales & other stories and poems
A selection of the very best poems and stories by Dylan Thomas, one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century.
£10.99 -
A good deliverance
£18.99A good deliverance
Warwick, 1468. One drowsy summer afternoon, Sir Thomas Malory – politician, courtier, outlaw, renowned author of Le Morte D’Arthur – is seized from his garden and dragged to Newgate Prison for reasons unknown. Shivering in his foul-smelling, filthy old cell, Malory mourns his misspent life as he awaits the execution bell. But when the locking bar lifts, he is greeted by a boy of about twelve winters: the gaoler’s son. Giddy with relief, Malory seizes the opportunity to recount his deeds to an audience. So begins a prison confession of a perilously exciting life full of sieges, battles and court intrigue.
£18.99 -
Bring Up the Bodies
£10.99Bring Up the Bodies
Now a major TV series
Winner of the Man Booker Prize
The second book in Hilary Mantel’s award-winning Wolf Hall trilogy, with a stunning new cover design to celebrate the publication of the much anticipated The Mirror and the Light
£10.99 -
Burma Sahib
£10.99Burma Sahib
Before George Orwell was Orwell – the pen name he took on becoming a writer – he was Eric Blair, an unlikely policeman in Burma. 19 years old, unusually tall, highly intelligent, a diffident loner fresh from Eton, Blair stood out amongst his fellow trainees in 1920s Mandalay. It was here, over five years in the narrow colonial world of the Raj – a decaying system steeped in overt racism and petty class-conflict – that Eric Blair became the George Orwell we know: an anti-imperialist, a socialist and a writer of rare commitment. The inner journey he made in these years is remarkable, but in the absence of letters or diaries from the period, this richly complex transformation can only be told in fiction, as it is here by Paul Theroux, in one of his most striking and accomplished novels.
£10.99 -
Daisy Jones & the Six
£9.99Daisy Jones & the Six
Daisy Jones & the Six rose from the 1970s LA music scene to become one of the biggest bands in the world. They sold out arenas from coast to coast. Their music defined an era and every girl in America idolised Daisy. But, in 1979, on the night of the final concert of their tour, they split. Nobody ever knew why. Until now. This is the whole story, right from the beginning: the sun-bleached streets, the grimy bars on the Sunset Strip, knowing Daisy’s moment was coming. Relive the euphoria of success and experience the terror that nothing will ever be as good again.
£9.99 -
Diva
£9.99Diva
In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas is known simply as la divina: the divine one. With her glorious voice, instinctive flair for the dramatic and striking beauty, she’s the toast of the grandest opera houses in the world. Yet her fame has been hard won: raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her, Maria learned early in life how to protect herself. When she meets the fabulously rich shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, her isolation melts away. For the first time in her life, she believes she’s found a man who sees the woman rather than the legendary soprano. Desperately in love, Onassis introduces her to a life of unbelievable luxury, mixing with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. And then, suddenly, it’s over.
£9.99 -
Kim Jiyoung, born 1982
£8.99Kim Jiyoung, born 1982
Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own. Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night. Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships. Kim Jiyoung is a model employee but gets overlooked for promotion. Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity. Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely. Kim Jiyoung is depressed. Kim Jiyoung is mad. Kim Jiyoung is her own woman. Kim Jiyoung is every woman.
£8.99 -
Learned by heart
£9.99Learned by heart
The sensational historical novel from the bestselling author of The Pull of the Stars and The Wonder.
£9.99 -
Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen
£9.99Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen
Alice, a student with green spiky hair, is an aspiring novelist. A child of the modern age, she recoils at the idea of reading Jane Austen. In a sequence of letters, Weldon examines the rewards of such study.
£9.99 -
Madame Matisse
£18.99Madame Matisse
This is the story of three women – one an orphan and refugee who finds a place in the studio of a famous French artist, the other a wife and mother who has stood by her husband for nearly forty years. The third is his daughter, caught in the crossfire between her mother and a father she adores. Amelie is first drawn to Henri Matisse as a way of escaping the conventional life expected of her. A free spirit, she sees in this budding young artist a glorious future for them both. Ambitious and driven, she gives everything for her husband’s art, ploughing her own desires, her time, her money into sustaining them both, even through years of struggle and disappointment. Lydia Delectorskaya is a young Russian emigree, who fled her homeland following the death of her mother. After a fractured childhood, she is trying to make a place for herself on France’s golden Riviera, amid the artists, film stars and dazzling elite.
£18.99 -
Oranges are not the only fruit
£9.99Oranges are not the only fruit
This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God’s elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts. At 16, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family for the young woman she loves.
£9.99 -
Portrait of the artist as a young dog and other fiction
£8.99Portrait of the artist as a young dog and other fiction
Set in the author’s native Swansea in South Wales, the ten autobiographical stories in this much-loved collection chart his journey from boyhood – movingly and at times comically evoked in tales such as ‘The Peaches’ and ‘A Visit to Grandpa’s’ – to early adulthood. Along the way, in ‘Extraordinary Little Cough’, among others, the vicissitudes of adolescence and a burgeoning sexuality are explored with characteristic tenderness and candour, while ‘Where Tawe Flows’ and ‘One Warm Saturday’ affectionately document the evolution of the young writer’s literary sensibility.
£8.99 -
Restless Dolly Maunder
£9.99Restless Dolly Maunder
Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the 19th century, when society’s long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life doggedly pushing at those doors. A husband and two children do not deter her from searching for love and independence. ‘Restless Dolly Maunder’ is a subversive, triumphant tale of a pioneering woman working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, who is able – despite the cost – to make a life she could call her own.
£9.99 -
Sleeping children
£14.99Sleeping children
The acclaimed French debut, now translated into a dozen languages, about the impact of AIDS on one working-class family and on French society. For readers of Ãdouard Louis, Didier Eribon and Douglas Stuart.
£14.99 -
Swan Song
£9.99Swan Song
They told him everything. He told everyone else. Over countless martini-soaked Manhattan lunches, they shared their deepest secrets and greatest fears. On exclusive yachts sailing the Mediterranean, on private jets streaming towards Jamaica, on Yucatán beaches in secluded bays, they gossiped about sex, power, money, love and fame. They never imagined he would betray them so absolutely.
£9.99 -
The bookshop woman
£16.99The bookshop woman
Nanako Hanada’s life is in crisis. Recently separated from her husband, living in youth hostels and internet cafes, her work is going no better. Book sales at the eccentric Village Vanguard bookstore in Tokyo, which Nanako manages, are dwindling. Fallen out of love in all aspects of her life, Nanako realises how narrow her life has become, with no friends outside of her colleagues, and no hobbies apart from reading and arranging books. That’s when Nanako, in a bid to inject some excitement into her life, joins a meet-up site where people meet for 30-minute bursts to find romance, build a network, or just share ideas. She describes herself as a sexy bookseller who will give you a personalised book recommendation. In the year that follows, Nanako meets an eclectic range of strangers, some of whom wanted more than just a book, others she became real friends with.
£16.99