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From the bestselling author of JFK: Reckless Youth, this authoritative one-volume edition--the heart of his three-volume 'monumental' biography--was published on the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

A biography of English poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West examines her complex nature, her marriage to Harold Nicolson, and her love affairs with other women, including Virginia Woolf.

Peter Ackroyd's 1984 biography of T. S. Eliot won the Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award for nonfiction and the Whitbread Award for biography. Ackroyd's biography is considered remarkably thorough despite the fact that he was denied permission to quote from Eliot's letters and unpublished works.

This biography of Tolstoy by the award-winning English biographer A. N. Wilson puts Tolstoy's life into the context of his times--the rich, chaotic world of 19th-century Russia.

Philip Larkin was one of the greatest and most popular English poets of the twentieth century, and also one of the most private. Living in towns "where only salesmen and relations come", refusing to read or lecture before an audience, he was by the end of his life affectionately known as "the hermit of Hull". At sixty he promised that as soon as he saw "the Grim Reaper coming up the path" he would burn all his personal papers. Instead, be left behind him an archival treasure trove, a cache of letters, journals, and papers that reveal a man who, from very early on, made art, especially poetry, his aspiration and believed himself destined for fame. Larkin's friend and fellow poet Andrew Motion has drawn deeply from this rich lode of previously unknown and unpublished material and from conversations with those who knew Larkin best, to give us an intimate and detailed portrait - the first, and undoubtedly the definitive, biography of this great poet. Even before he was twenty, Larkin formed close friendships with other aspiring writers, painters, and musicians. He found family life constraining and repressive, and much of his adult life was a seesaw between his strong sensual appetite and need for affection and the fear of entrapment and encroachment on his writing life that love and marriage represented. Over and over in the course of his life, Larkin would find himself holding lovers - sometimes, to his dismay or bemusement, more than one at a time - at arm's length, retreating into an intermittent misogyny in his struggle to focus his emotional life in his work. Though shy and to some forbidding, this lifelong librarian had a strong talent for friendship and a sharp, ribald wit. AndrewMotion's engrossing portrait shows us a complex and contradictory man of genius, warts and all, in the throes of creating poetry of greatness.

Drawing on nearly 2,000 previously unpublished letters, Brenda Maddox presents a rich and startlingly new portrait of D. H. Lawrence: a hilarious mimic, a lover of nature, an inspired teacher, a brilliant journalist, an ecological visionary, and, above all, a married man. This award-winning work examines Lawrence's perplexing, restless life through the greatest contradiction in it-his marriage-taking it not just as another aspect of Lawrence but as the encompassing whole. His marriage to Frieda von Richthofen Weekley was a mismatch made in heaven, and yet it lasted until the tubercular Lawrence lost his heroic struggle for life, a struggle in which, he told Frieda, "nothing mattered but you." Or so she claimed.

A family mystery is solved when Laura Perryman dies and her diary is passed on to her great-nephew. The diary reveals not only the answer to a question the boy has had since childhood, but also a new side of his great-aunt.

Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, was the archbishop of Canterbury who guided England through the early Reformation--and Henry VIII through the minefields of divorce. This is the first major biography of him for more than three decades, and the first for a century to exploit rich new manuscript sources in Britain and elsewhere.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, one of the foremost scholars of the English Reformation, traces Cranmer from his east-Midland roots through his twenty-year career as a conventionally conservative Cambridge don. He shows how Cranmer was recruited to the coterie around Henry VIII that was trying to annul the royal marriage to Catherine, and how new connections led him to embrace the evangelical faith of the European Reformation and, ultimately, to become archbishop of Canterbury. By then a major English statesman, living the life of a medieval prince-bishop, Cranmer guided the church through the king's vacillations and finalized two successive versions of the English prayer book.
MacCulloch skillfully reconstructs the crises Cranmer negotiated, from his compromising association with three of Henry's divorces, the plot by religious conservatives to oust him, and his role in the attempt to establish Lady Jane Grey as queen to the vengeance of the Catholic Mary Tudor. In jail after Mary's accession, Cranmer nearly repudiated his achievements, but he found the courage to turn the day of his death into a dramatic demonstration of his Protestant faith.
From this vivid account Cranmer emerges a more sharply focused figure than before, more conservative early in his career than admirers have allowed, more evangelical than Anglicanism would later find comfortable. A hesitant hero with a tangled life story, his imperishable legacy is his contribution in the prayer book to the shape and structure of English speech and through this to the molding of an international language and the theology it expressed.

An authoritative account of the colorful and turbulent life of France's most beloved novelist and poet, Victor Hugo (1802-1885).

This biography of Georgiana Cavendish reveals the important role she played in the social and political circle of Whigs in 17th-century England. It shows her to be a woman of high influence but also one caught up in scandalous behavior in her household.

The experiences of Robert Selkirk, who was a castaway on an island off the coast of South America at the beginning of the 18th century, are said to have been the model on which Daniel Defoe built his own, very different, tale of a castaway--ROBINSON CRUSOE.

The author of this memoir, paralyzed and mute since birth, had to strap a stick to his head to peck at a computer keyboard in order to write it. Published when the author was a young man, it recalls the childhood of someone forced to live by a different set of rules than the rest of the world. This book won the Whitbread Prize in England when it was originally published there.

Portrays the life and career of the successful playwright who was never able to shake the public's idea that he only wrote for children.

In 1881, fifteen-year-old Tad, an orphan, helps a girl attempting to get a mighty Indian elephant to friends in Nebraska, all the while pursued by two unscrupulous villains who claim that the elephant is theirs.

Kate Atkinson, winner of the Ian St. James award for her short stories, has written a first novel about the life of Ruby Lennox, a Yorkshirewoman, and her eccentric family. This novel won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 1995.

An ancient Amerindian myth is embodied in an English author who travels to Guyana to write a book about Evelyn Waugh. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.

This sequence of poems, written over the course of the 35 years since her suicide, elucidate Ted Hughes's relationship with his wife, the poet Sylvia Plath. Addressed directly to her, they form a chronological narrative that attempts to understand Plath's life and tragic death. The Los Angeles Times chose this as one of the best books of poetry of 1998. After Hughes's death, it was awarded the 1999 Whitbread Book of the Year award. A New York Times Notable Book for 1998.

The final entry in the His Dark Materials trilogy (which was inspired by John Milton's PARADISE LOST), THE AMBER SPYGLASS weaves together a number of story strands as the final battle between good and evil approaches. Will, with the help of a pair of Gallivespian agents, searches for Lyra who has been hidden away by the devious Mrs. Coulter. Scientist and ex-nun Mary Malone, trapped in an alternate world, must develop a device to track the progress of Dust lest the world's inhabitants, the mulefa, perish forever. And, all the while, a priest/assassin searches painstakingly through the worlds to prevent Lyra from fulfilling her ultimate destiny. The trilogy also includes THE GOLDEN COMPASS and THE SUBTLE KNIFE.

This biography of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), the diarist and man-about-town in Restoration Era London, emphasizes his public and private lives, in particular his relationships (of all kinds) with women.

An evocative history of two English families whose lives become closely intertwined. The Batemans are well-to-do Londoners who rent a house in the Yorkshire countryside each year from the Teesdales, who have farmed the region all their lives. The families become close friends of each other, and the Bateman and Teasdale children grow up together.

A tribe of field mice, living precariously in a trash dump at the old Pentecost Farm, make a hazardous journey to find a new home.

Left an orphan at age 7, the hero of this story is sent to live with his Norwegian grandmother. After mistakenly wondering into the annual convention of the Witches of England, the boy overhears the witches horrible plot to turn all the children of England into mice. Now he and his grandmother, an expert in all things witchy, must stop the witches from carrying out their dastardly deed. Illustrated with b&w drawings.

English teenager Bill Coward finds himself losing control of his life when the mill where his father works is shut down and a mysterious beast begins making savage attacks on local livestock.

Paul Kagomi is a child warrior. Living in a country torn by war, Paul can remember neither his parents nor his village; his only companion is his gun, his AK. When peace seems to come, Paul buries his AK and goes to school, but the peace is only temporary. As war erupts again, Paul goes to find his gun and back to the only life he knows--that of a proud warrior.

For Michael and his family, things seem to have gone from bad to worse--they've just moved into a new house, but it needs a lot of work, and Michael's little sister is very, very ill. As he tries to cope with his family's problems, Michael begins exploring the neighborhood in an effort to take his mind off of things. One day, he decides to check out the creepy and crumbling garage in the backyard, and discovers something truly amazing and out-of-this-world--a creature who calls himself Skellig. Michael can't figure out what the creature is--man, animal, or alien--but soon the two begin to rely on one another. Micheal eventually tells his best friend, Mina, about Skellig's presence, relieving him of the giant secret he's been trying to keep to himself. Michael's family problems worsen, but something magical happens--could it be Skellig? A Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 1999.

In spite of his weakness for women and alcohol, Morgan Leafy perseveres in his position as representative of the crown in the tropical African country of Kinjanja, until the corruption he encounters requires more than the usual bribery for him to emerge unscathed.

A chronicle of the odd and compelling lives of a pair of elderly, inseparable identical twins, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, who are sheep-farmers in rural Wales.

Upon his return home from Palestine, Adam Murray feels alienated from British society, but another trip to Palestine convinces him the two societies are much alike.

In Winterson's autobiographical debut novel, an orphan named Jeanette is raised in a devout Evangelical household in the English Midlands. When she becomes aware of her lesbian orientation, she devotes herself not to Jesus but to finding a way out of the repressive world that is the only one she knows.

A novel about rustic life from the acclaimed British writer. Winner of the Whitbread First Novel Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize.

Winner of the Whitbread Prize.

Inhabiting the twilight world of the catatonic, Peter--as revealed through interior monologues--prefers not to participate in life, although his intelligence and sensitivity are clearly demonstrated in his honest and unself-pitying attitude.

Nearing the end of his career, Sir Edward Elgar, the British composer, impulsively decides to travel to Brazil, where he encounters a woman from his past.

A love story for at least two generstions, a high-spirited comedy of sexual manners and social turmoil, The Buddha of Suburbia is one of the most enchanting, provocative, and original books to appear in years. "A wickedly funny novel that's at once a traditional comedy of manners and a scathing satire on race relations in Britain".--The New York Times.

In a novel that tampers with reality, Alma Cogan, one of Britain's most celebrated pop stars from the 1950s, is resurrected and teamed up with mass murderer Myra Hindley. A first novel. Winner of the 1991 Whitbread Award.

A week in the life of Thomas Clay, a young husband and expectant father and aspiring novelist. Clay lives in a rundown section of Glasgow that is undergoing a typical 1960s-style "urban renewal," collecting welfare as he tries to complete--and start--his first novel. His wife is about to give birth and presses Clay to give up writing and find a steady job. Meanwhile, a strange man is going through Glasgow passing himself off as Clay and making ominous inquiries.

This comic coming-of-age novel about a naive young London woman who falls for the wrong man won the Whitbread Prize in 1993.

In 1810, a rebellious young slave is in love with a white woman who feeds his hunger for learning. Attempting to flee a Virginia plantation, he is mistakenly betrayed by his father.

A novel about Idi Amin's Uganda in the early 1970s, told from the point of view of a young Scottish doctor who is the dictator's personal physician. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.

A group of characters in a Trinidad community is ruled by a tyrannical eccentric named Egbert Ramsaran, a man who is incapable of love and whose greatest pleasure is to control the lives of others.

Murdoch tells the story of the effect on two families of Blaise Gavender, who inhabits two households, one that of his "legitimate" family--his wife and son--and the other that of his mistress and their son. These shifting relationships are hauntingly observed by a widowed and jaded novelist named Montague Small.

As Maude Coffin Pratt prepares her photographs for a retrospective exhibition of her long career as a photographer, she becomes lost in memories, many of which would certainly surprise her admirers and the curator of her show.

Spanning 60 years, William Trevor's story of love and revenge, set against the background of the Irish Troubles, has at its center a dark and violent act that spills over into the mutilated lives of generations to come.

Masuji Ono was once a painter of the Ukiyo, the traditional pleasure-seeking "floating world" of geishas, cherry blossoms, and teahouses. But he also worked as an enthusiastic propagandist, creating posters in support of the imperialist Japanese government during World War II--a war in which his wife and son were killed. Now, defeated and humiliated, Japan is becoming increasingly Westernized and alien, and Masuji finds himself an outcast, even to his grown daughters, who have no respect for him. When one of them becomes engaged and her fiancé's family seeks information about the Ono family background, Masuji's unfortunate past as a cog in the wheel that led his country to disaster is inescapable. The pathos of Masuji's situation (much like that of the English butler in Ishiguro's later novel THE REMAINS OF THE DAY) leads to questions about the motives of art and the reach of personal responsibility. Kazuo Ishiguro won the Whitbread Prize in 1986 for AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD, his second novel.

THE CHILD IN TIME begins on a Saturday morning when Stephen Lewis and his 3-year-old daughter, Kate, go to the supermarket. As they wait in line, she is kidnapped -suddenly, inexplicably, without warning. The novel explores the effects of this harrowing event on Stephen and his wife, Julie. The novel's title comes from Stephen's awareness of time as it affects his missing child--hopelessly, as time goes by, he imagines her getting older--and himself, as he ranges backward into his own troubled childhood and forward to the devastating present trying to come to terms with his loss. THE CHILD IN TIME is one of the novels McEwan calls a story of "crisis and transformation, rites of passage of great intensity for characters." It won a 1987 Whitbread Prize.

Set between the wars, this is the story of Max, an English scientist and philosopher, and Eleanor, a German Jew who grows up in a radical political circle in Berlin. They meet, fall in love, are separated, and then come together again in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War. The story takes them from Berlin to Cambridge, to Russia, to the Sahara--and finally to Los Alamos and the making of the atomic bomb. They meet some of this centuries' most significant figures of good and evil--Hitler, Wittgenstein, Rosa Luxembourg, and Einstein. A vast and ambitious work that encapsulates many of great conflicts and passions of this centuries. 1990 Whitbread Book of the Year in Britain

This winner of the 1991 Whitbread Best Novel of the Year Award traces the descent of Eliza Peabody into madness. Eliza's emotional breakdown occurs during a period of unbearable loneliness, during which she writes to her neighbor Joan to berate her for leaving her husband and children to travel the world. As more letters are presented, one realizes that Eliza's version of events is not always accurate. Despite the intimacy of the letters, she barely knows Joan, and we learn that many letters are never sent: they are really the record of Eliza's breakdown.

A send-up of Victorian notions in a novel that twists on the Frankenstein concept when a Scottish doctor brings the corpse of a young woman back to life. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year and winner of Britain's Whitbread Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize.

A novel based on the author's grandfather's experiences in the Civil War, as a white man sold into slavery.

Felicia, an Irish girl in her late teens, falls for Johnny Lysaght. Pregnant, she searches for him in the factory towns north of Birmingham, but has only his lies about himself to guide her. Instead, she encounters Mr. Hilditch, a fat, sweaty catering manager at a local factory, who allows her to stay with him and arranges for her to have an abortion. His stories about five previous relationships arouse Felicia's suspicions as she struggles to exchange her innocence for freedom.

Beryl Bainbridge's first novel in five years is an account of the classic tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The protagonist, a young Harvard grad with a rags-to-riches background, finds in the wreck a chance to prove himself as a man. A 1996 Booker Prize nominee.

This thoroughly researched historical novel is a fictional retelling of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. Portrayed as a somewhat confused young man, Jesus is not the only one fasting in that harsh environment; he encounters a varied and eccentric cast of characters, including the lecherous, domineering merchant Musa, who tries to take advantage of the group--and who meets his match in Jesus. Winner of Britain's Whitbread Prize. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.

Alice Valentine is dying in her English country home, where she is dependent in her last days on an oxygen tank. Her two sons, bringing their complicated lives along, converge at her deathbed. In a related plot line, a playwright named Laszlo Lazar, in Paris with his lover, seeks to redeem past guilts by performing a daring mission during the war in Bosnia. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

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