A BBC History Magazine Book of the YearA writer, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer, Sir Walter Ralegh lived more lives than most in his own time, in any time. The fifth son of a Devonshire gentleman, he rose to become Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, only to be charged with treason by her successor.Less than a year after the death of his Queen, Ralegh was in the Tower, watching as the scene was set for his own execution.Patrio...

Margery Kempe. Aemilia Lanyer. Aphra Behn. Lady Mary. Jane Austen.Warned not to write – and certainly not to bite – these women put pen to paper anyway and wrote themselves into history.‘Smart, funny and highly readable... a tour de force.’ A.L. KennedyEver since Sappho first put stylus to papyrus, women who write have been labelled mad, undisciplined and dangerous. Funny and provocative, Eve Bites Back offers an al...

John Milton (1608-1674) is best known as the author of the masterful epic retelling of fall of man, Paradise Lost. But he was more than just the 17th century voice of Satan. Wise and witty scholar Anna Beer traces his literary roots to a youthful passion for ancient verse, especially Ovid. She also rounds out parts of his life that have been, until now, little studied. Milton was deeply involved in the political and religious controversies of his time, writing a series of...

A quest for a valuable manuscript turns into a hunt for its author’s killer. Meet Oxford’s Eve Brook, literary detective, as she tackles her first mystery.David Morrow, Oxford don and controversial media pundit, is found dead in his college rooms. Eve Brook is recruited to complete his latest book, a dazzling takedown of "woke" history. But the manuscript is missing, and everyone Eve meets seems to have something to hide—and a reason to want Morrow dead.Set against the back...

The Life of the Author: William Shakespeare delivers a fresh and exciting new take on the life of William Shakespeare, offering listeners a biography that brings to the foreground his working life as a poet, playwright, and actor. It also explores the nature of his relationships with his friends, colleagues, and family, and asks important questions about the stories we tell about Shakespeare based on the evidence we actually have about the man himself.The book is written u...

Discover an invigorating new perspective on the life and work of William ShakespeareThe Life of the Author: William Shakespeare delivers a fresh and exciting new take on the life of William Shakespeare, offering readers a biography that brings to the foreground his working life as a poet, playwright, and actor. It also explores the nature of his relationships with his friends, colleagues, and family, and asks important questions about the stories ...

Sir Walter Ralegh’s life is romantic, irresistible, and of central importance to our island story. His death is a convoluted and contested tale of bargaining, failure and betrayal. Through the Elizabethan golden age and Ralegh’s famous adventures to the final act, Anna Beer presents his stranger-than-fiction life in all its richness.How could a man once the Queen’s favorite find himself consigned to the Tower by her successor? Should his legacy be fame or infamy? Who was the real S...

The hidden history of the women who dared to write music in a man’s world.‘Lucid, engaging and exuberant... [Sounds and Sweet Airs] is terrifically enjoyable and accessible, and leaves one hankering for a second volume.’ The Sunday TimesFrancesca Caccini. Barbara Strozzi. Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. Marianna Martines. Fanny Hensel. Clara Schumann. Lili Boulanger. Elizabeth Maconchy.Since the birth of c...

Anna Beer investigates the lives and achievements of eight women writers, uncovering a startling and unconventional history of literatureWarned not to write—and certainly not to bite—these women put pen to paper anyway and wrote themselves into history.From the fourteenth century through to the present day, women who write have been understood as mad, undisciplined, or dangerous. Female writers have always had to find ways to overcome or ch...

'rapidly becoming one of my favourite detectives' - Elly Griffiths (Sunday Times bestselling author)Old papers hide dangerous secrets. Old houses hide even more.Eve Brook, literary consultant and newly minted sleuth, expects a peaceful autumn: a hunt for ‘Hobbit gold’ in the papers of a forgotten contemporary of Tolkien and Lewis.Instead, in a crumbling Victorian villa in Oxford’s Norham Manor, she uncovers unsettling truths about her city’...

This book deals with literary representations of the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. The focus is a transnational, polyphonic writing project entitled ‘Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire’ (Rwanda: Writing by Duty of Memory), undertaken in 1998 by a group of nine African authors. This work emphasizes the Afropolitan cultural frame in which the texts were conceived and written. Instead of using Western and Eurocentric tropes, this volume looks at a so-called ‘minority trauma’: an African...

Beneath that hat is a very bad cat, her name is Moggie McFlea:The maddest, baddest, mischief-making cat in history. . . .When Magic Magda takes in villainous Moggie McFlea, things do not go well as Moggie tinkers with Magda’s every spell, resulting in cream in every fountain and a tabby on TV. Mags is in despair! But even Moggie McFlea doesn’t want to make poor Magda cry, so will they find a way to get the most out of being both naughty and nice?