"This new biography explores the forces that shaped the interior life of one of the most beloved novelists in the English language....each chapter begins by evoking an object that conjures up a key moment or theme in Austen's life and work.... The woman who emerges is far tougher, more socially and politically aware, and altogether more modern that the conventional picture.... The book looks closely, too, at the biographical influences on her work,...

"George Eliot's extraordinary life, which produced some of the nineteenth-century's finest fiction, is explored in Kathryn Hughes' new biography. The daughter of a self-made businessman of impeccable respectability, the middle-aged Eliot was cast into social exile when she began a scandalous liaison with the married writer and scientist George Henry Lewes. Only her burgeoning literary success allowed her to overcome society's disapproval and eventually...

"'Jane Austen at Home' offers a fascinating look at Jane Austen's world through the lens of the homes in which she lived and worked throughout her life. The result is a refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity." - Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire. On the eve of the two hundredth anniversary of Jane Austen's death, take...

"Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was "just" an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? Her life is fascinating for its mysteries and its passions and, as Lucy Worsley says, "She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern." She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why--despite all the evidence to the...

Highlights the life and accomplishments of the English novelist notable for such works as "Oliver Twist" and "A Christmas Carol," including his rise from boyhood poverty, his literary career, and his personal life.

Frederick Forsyth has seen it all. And lived to tell the tale. 'We all make mistakes, but starting the Third World War would have been a rather large one. To this day, I still maintain it was not entirely my fault. But I'm getting ahead of myself. During the course of my life, I've barely escaped the wrath of an arms dealer in Hamburg, been strafed by a MiG during the Nigerian civil war, and landed during a bloody coup in Guinea-Bissau. The Stasi...

After a particularly bad streak of luck in Vegas, Charlie has retreated to Venice, having vowed to give up a life of crime to write crime fiction full time. But inspiration has yet to strike. And to make matters worse, Charlie's agent Victoria shows up at his door just as his prized first edition of The Maltese Falcon flies out the window with a femme fatale burglar. Blackmailed into committing a dastardly crime in order to get his book

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When Agatha Christie, the so-called 'Queen of Crime', disappeared from her home in Sunningdale in Berkshire for eleven days on 3 December 1927, the whole nation held its breath. This work explains, in the light of scientific knowledge, her behaviour during that troubled time.

"'People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.' Terry Pratchett, creator of the phenomenally bestselling Discworld series, knight of the realm, and holder of more honorary doctorates than he knew what to do with, was known and loved around the world for his wildly popular books, his brilliant satirical humour and for the humanity of his campaign work. But that's only part of the picture. At the time of his death...

For everyone who loves Jane Austen. The fourth engaging mystery in the series that recasts the well-loved author as a sleuth! In the waning days of summer, Jane Austen is off to the Canterbury Races, where the rich and fashionable gamble away their fortunes. It is an atmosphere ripe for scandal, but even Jane is unprepared for the shocking drama that unfolds. A flamboyant French beauty, known for her brazen behavior, is found gruesomely strangled...