Social anxiety about poverty surfaces with startling frequency in American literature. Yet, as Gavin Jones argues, poverty has been denied its due as a critical and ideological framework in its own right, despite recent interest in representations of the lower classes and the marginalized. These insights lay the groundwork for American Hungers, in which Jones uncovers a complex and controversial discourse on the poor that stretches from the antebellum era through the Depression.

John Steinbeck is a towering figure in twentieth-century American literature; yet he remains one of our least understood writers. This major reevaluation of Steinbeck by Gavin Jones uncovers a timely thinker who confronted the fate of humanity as a species facing climate change, environmental crisis, and a growing divide between the powerful and the marginalized. Driven by insatiable curiosity, Steinbeck's work crossed a variety of borders – between the United States and the Global South, ...

If America worships success, then why has the nation's literature dwelled obsessively on failure? This book explores encounters with failure by nineteenth-century writers - ranging from Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville to Mark Twain and Sarah Orne Jewett - whose celebrated works more often struck readers as profoundly messy, flawed and even perverse. Reading textual inconsistency against the backdrop of a turbulent nineteenth century, Gavin Jones describes how the difficulties these wri...

Maternity services and choices for labour and birth are fast evolving. Hypnobirth involves preparation for childbirth using tried and tested hypnotherapy techniques in harmony with midwifery best practices and increasing numbers of women are turning to the technique.Written by two experienced practitioners, this is the first evidence-based practice book for medical professionals on this subject. Chapters include coverage of:What hypnosis is and the history of hypn...

A road trip through Steinbeck’s America—revisited, reimagined, and reinterpreted.Steinbeck’s Uneasy America is the first collection of critical scholarship devoted to Travels with Charley in Search of America, John Steinbeck’s best-selling, late-career travel memoir. In 1960, Steinbeck was a renowned man of American letters. Many considered him America’s troubadour of ordinary people, the conscience of the country. But weakened by two sma...

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, PICKED FOR THE ZOE BALL TV BOOK CLUB'Ruth Jones is excellent on human nature and why we make the mistakes we do. I felt for every character. Unputdownable.' Jojo MoyesThe past has a habit of tracking us down. And tripping us up.When Kate was twenty-two, she had an intense and passionate affair with a married man, Callum, which ended in heartbreak. Kate thought she'd n...

For the first time, go behind the scenes of the beloved TV show Gavin and Stacey with this must-read memoir from the BAFTA award-winning writers Ruth Jones and James Corden.THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWhen Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between is the story of how Ruth and James turned their little show about ordinary life into a full-on cultural phenomenon.As they recount the highs and lows the...

***THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER***Get ready to fall in love with the funny, feel-good novel and instant Sunday Times bestseller from the author of Richard and Judy Book Club pick Love Untold and co-creator of Gavin & Stacey.'A touching celebration of the beauty and endurance of female friendship.’ DAWN FRENCH‘Heart-warming, entertaining

The essential resource on military and political strategy and the making of the modern worldThe New Makers of Modern Strategy is the next generation of the definitive work on strategy and the key figures who have shaped the theory and practice of war and statecraft throughout the centuries. Featuring entirely new entries by a who’s who of world-class scholars, this new edition provides global, comparative perspectives on strategic thought from antiquity to...

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERTHE RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICKWATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR'Love, mess, secrets; this story of four generations of women is shot through with Ruth Jones's warmth and wisdom.' JOJO MOYES**'**A hug in a book'Prima'Her best book yet' Woman & Home'Compas...

The funny, moving, and uplifting new novel from Ruth Jones, co-creator of Gavin & Stacey and author of Never Greener and Us Three.Grace is about to turn ninety. She doesn't want parties or presents or fuss. She just wants to heal the family rift that's been breaking her heart for decades.But to do that she must find her daughter Alys—the only person who can help to put things right.And when she finds her—if she does—she ri...

The past has a habit of tracking us down. And tripping us up.When Kate was twenty-two, she had an intense and passionate affair with a married man, Callum, which ended in heartbreak. Kate thought she’d never get over it.Seventeen years later, life has moved on—Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kid...