Secondhand Literary Biography Books

John Lahr, New Yorker critic, novelist, and biographer reconstructs both the life and death of Joe Orton, an extraordinary and anarchic playwright, whose plays scandalised and delighted the public, and...

Novelist, culture critic, essayist, historian, comic satirist, image maker, actor, homosexual, bisexual, controversial, confrontational - finding words to describe Gore Vidal is never difficult. And yet, an accurate picture of...

Based on fact, but told with the imagination of a novelist, Strangers is the story of the author's family, the Tennants. Margot Asquith and Pamela Tennant (nee Wyndham), warring sisters-in-law;...

'A consistently enthralling work.' Spectator'Absorption in a male ethos and unease about feminine dominion, whether amatory or domestic, give Miller's plays their special colour, force and intensity. Martin Gottfried's enthralling...

Autobiographical and idiosyncratic, this is a collection of Alan Bennett's prose writings, assembled by Bennett himself from over a quarter of a century of diaries, reminiscences, broadcasting and reviews. It...

'Let's start, and end, with this: Patricia Cornwell's autobiography, TRUE CRIME, could be the best book she's ever written. And I've read them all!' JAMES PATTERSON'Patricia Cornwell's memoir is a...

Louis MacNeice is increasingly recognised as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, and his work has been a defining influence upon a generation of Irish poets that...

Therese Humbert's salon captivated fin-de-siecle Paris. Her dazzling wealth, as the illegitimate daughter of an American billionaire, was fabled. But it was all a hoax. La Grande Therese looks at...

Compulsive writer and exquisite dandy Raymond Roussel was one of the most extraordinary literary figures of all time. He was born in 1877 and died in mysterious circumstances in 1933;...

This unique and celebrated biography describes how a largely self-educated boy from a small village in Scotland entered the world of scholarship and became the first editor of the Oxford...

'Through the years, a man peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, tools, stars, horses and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers...

Dr Nokes presents a portrait of Swift in his multifarious roles as satirist, politician, churchman, and friend. In particular, he seeks to re-establish a proper balance between Swift's public and...

The real fascination of the career of Giacomo Casanova is often overlooked by those who know of him only for his sexual exploits. Great lover he was, perhaps; but he...

This biography illuminates and explores the complexities and contradictions of Burns's character and personality, untangling the myth from the legend. Based on new evidence from 700 letters Burns wrote during...

More than a hundred years have passed since the creation of Sherlock Holmes, perhaps the most famous fictional character of all time. But while the legendary detective lives on in...

J. D. Salinger was one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was also one of its most elusive. After making his mark on the American literary scene with the...

Leo Tolstoy(1828-1910) was born into one of the grand old families of Imperial Russia. The loss of both of his parents during childhood was the prelude to a series of...

This biography of Byron (by Byron's own publisher John Murray) attempts to reinterpret Byron's life and poetry for a new generation. Fiona MacCarthy has had access to the full John...

With an introduction by Virginia NicholsonSaturday 2 February 1918. The first walk we've had for ever so long. Damp, mild vaporous day. Funeral bells tolling as we went out, &...