Michael D. Higgins is one of Ireland's leading public intellectuals. As well as having made a significant contribution to public life, he is a prolific poet, whose work ranges from the personal to the political, and geographically from the west of Ireland to Nicaragua and the Middle East. Here, he has gathered together the very best of his poetic output over the years. In these poems, he casts a wry, compassionate eye on human weakness and resilience, and the centrality of love to all huma...

**Now a major motion picture starring Rooney MaraAn epic story of family, love, and unavoidable tragedy from the two-time Booker Prize finalist and author of Old God's Time**Sebastian Barry's novels have been hugely admired by readers and critics, and in 2005 his novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In The Secret Scripture, Barry revisits County Sligo, Ireland, the setting for his previous three books, to tell the unforg...

A hilarious collection of the many articles written by Stephen Fry for magazines, newspapers and radio. It includes selected wireless essays of Donald Trefusis, the ageing professor of philology brought to life in Fry's novel The Liar, and the best of Fry's weekly column for the Daily Telegraph.Perfect to dip into but just as enjoyable to read cover to cover, this book, perhaps more than any other, shows the breadth of Fry's interests and the depth of his insight....

The prize-winning memoir: "an enlightening walk through a life that encompasses West Africa…rent strikes, the divided self and the question of grace" ( Scotland on Sunday, UK).An international bestseller and winner of the PEN/Ackerley Prize, Ricard Holloway's candid memoir "is many things. It is a compelling account of a journey through life, told with great frankness; it is a subtle reflection on what it means to live in an imperfect and puzzling world; an...

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) remains England's best-loved poet - a writer matchlessly capable of evoking his native land and of touching all readers from the most sophisticated intellectual to the proverbial common reader. The late John Betjeman observed that 'this tenderly observant poet writes clearly, rhythmically, and thoughtfully about what all of us can understand'. Behind this modest description lies a poet who made greatness look, in Milton's prescription, 'simple, sensuous and passio...

The British literary sensation—"the most startling, discomforting, complicated, ungovernable, hilarious and heart-rending of memoirs " ( The Telegraph)—the story of a celebrated writer's sudden descent into blindness, and of the redemptive journey into the past that her loss of sight sets in motion. Candia McWilliam, whose novels A Case of Knives, A Little Stranger, and Debatable Land made her a reader favorite throughout the United Kingdom and around th...

Musings from a truly original thinker on eveything under the sun and many things over the moon.There are few aspects of existence to which Michael Leunig has not turned his renaissance mind, as a bemused and committed member of the human plight. From his cartoonist's sensibilities comes a peculiar journalism made of parable, memoir and soliloquy, on subjects ranging from the sublime to the subhuman.From the fragile ecosystem of the spirit to the brutalisation of th...

Every day we pepper our speech with hundreds of phrases, place names and expressions, but rarely do we think about their origins. If we did, we'd be in for a treat, because the stories behind our sayings are often fascinating, amusing and intriguing. Following on from the bestselling March Hares and Monkeys' Uncles, once again Harry Oliver has delved deep into the history behind hundreds of terms in our endlessly rich language, and produced a tome packed with answers to the questions you m...

From Willingdon to Lyttelton, a memoir about love, learning and the journey to thirtyJoe Bennett is the author of countless columns, over twenty books, and now, at long last, a memoir. From There to Here describes a childhood of fishing, cricket, friends, a dog, some mild molestation and a few deaths. There's the long-haired gloom and vehemence of adolescence. There's love and heartache, an urge to write and a fruitless struggle against teaching for a living. Superbly written, of c...

Foreigner Adrian Gill (a Scot) goes in search of the essence of England and the EnglishThe English are naturally, congenitally, collectively and singularly, livid much of the time. In between the incoherent bellowing of the terraces and the pursed, rigid eye-rolling of the commuter carriage, they reach the end of their tethers and the thin end of their wedges. They're incensed, incandescent, splenetic, prickly, touchy and fractious. They sit apart on their half of ...

Think of England, and anger hardly springs to mind as its primary national characteristic. Yet in The Angry Island, A. A. Gill argues that, in fact, it is plain old fury that is the wellspring for England's accomplishments.The default setting of England is anger. The English are naturally, congenitally, collectively and singularly livid much of the time. They're incensed, incandescent, splenetic, prickly, touchy, and fractious. They can be mildly annoyed, ...

When Philip Larkin's High Windows first appeared, Kingsley Amis spoke for a large and loyal readership when he wrote: 'Larkin's admirers need only be told that he is as good as ever here, if not slightly better.'Like Betjeman and Hardy, Larkin is a poet who can move a large audience - without betraying the highest artistic standards.The poems in High Windows illustrate Larkin's unrivalled ability to bring lyrical expression to ordinary, urb...