Biography

These fascinating, never-before-published early diaries of Count Harry Kessler--patron, museum director, publisher, cultural critic, soldier, secret agent, and diplomat--present a sweeping panorama of the arts and politics of Belle epoque Europe, a glittering world poised to be changed irrevocably by the Great War. Kessler's ... read more

Father Bob Maguire is a man of passion, creativity and humour; he is part Billy Connolly, part angry Old Testament prophet and part compassionate Mother Theresa (he would hate this categorisation). But he has a unique combination of traits and in each he is a risk taker. He is an elusive chameleon, a man of brilliant riddles.

If you assume an average life expectancy of 85 years, and deduct the hours we spend daily on sleeping, shopping, eating, working, tending to our relationships and on everything else that is obligatory, then how much time is left for the average person to enjoy those activities that are the sweetness of life? For Francoise Her... read more

At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America - from the Mojave Desert, through... read more

Bouillier presents a delightfully French memoir singled out by the "San Francisco Chronicle, Slate," and "New York Magazine" as a Best Book of the Year. This translation marks the English-language debut of an iconoclast who has attracted a passionate following in French literature.

In October 2010, Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds appeared in the Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern. In April 2011, he was arrested and held for over two months, in terrible conditions. The most famous living Chinese artist and activist, Weiwei is a figure of extraordinary talent, courage and integrity. From the beginning of his car... read more

A young girl who is abducted and abandoned in the Colombian jungle. She spends five years living with a family of monkeys before being found and sold in to slavery. 'It all happened so quickly. One minute I was squatting on the bare earth, preoccupied with popping pea pods, and the next I saw a flash of black hand and white... read more

'Most of the serious thinking I have done over the past twenty years has been done while running.' Mark Rowlands has run for most of his life. He has also been a professional philosopher. And for him the two - running and philosophising - are inextricably connected. In Running with the Pack he tells us about the most signi... read more

Ashley Dartnell's mother was a glamorous American, her father a dashing Englishman, each trying to slough off their past and upgrade to a more romantic and exotic present in Iran. As the story starts, Ashley is eight years old and living in Tehran in the 1960s: the Shah was in power, life for Westerners was rich and privilege... read more

He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court - but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game. Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure ... read more

This biography written for young adults explores the life and art of Yoko Ono, from her childhood haikus to her involvement in Fluxus and experimental music. The focus remains on why Yoko is an important artist, not just the wife of one of the world's most legendary performers. An incredibly inspiring and moving story for you... read more

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In this groundbreaking biography, based on more than 10,000 hitherto unavailable letters and diary entries, Niall Ferguson returns to his roots as a financial historian to tell the story of the extraordinary Siegmund Warburg. A refugee from Hitler's Germany, Warburg rose to become the dominant figure in the post-war City of L... read more

Deborah Devonshire is a natural writer with a knack for the telling phrase and for hitting the nail on the head. She tells the story of her upbringing, lovingly and wittily describing her parents (so memorably fictionalised by her sister Nancy); she talks candidly about her brother and sisters, and their politics (while not b... read more

Benjamin Law considers himself pretty lucky to live in Australia: he can hold his boyfriend's hand in public and lobby his politicians to recognise same-sex marriage. But as the child of migrants, he's also curious about how different life might have been had he grown up in Asia. So he sets off to meet his fellow Gaysians. La... read more

A PhD candidate in physics at Columbia University, Alex Stone is also part of the underground magic circuit, an exclusive community whose members convene regularly in pizza parlours and coffee shops to swap tips and develop new illusions. Determined to take his lifelong hobby to the professional level, Stone embarks on a pers... read more

The extraordinary story of a Palestinian doctor who, despite witnessing the death of three of his daughters in the Israeli incursion into Gaza in January 2009, continued his medical and humanitarian work aimed at bringing the people of the region together in peace.

Paris has long been a storied center of art and culture, and of romance, but in the 1920s its magnetism was especially irresistible. From around the world writers, artists, and composers steamed in, to visit or linger, some to reside. For travelers, Francophiles and the curious, this gossipy retrospective of expatriate life i... read more

One hundred years have passed since Robert Falcon Scott’s beleagured expeditionary team arrived at the South Pole, only to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. The most feted explorer of his generation, Amundsen counted the discovery of the Northwest Passage, in 1905, as well as the N... read more

Michael McIntyre is Britain's biggest comedy star. He has released two record-breaking DVDs, "Live and Laughing" and "Hello Wembley"; hosts his own BAFTA-nominated BBC1 series, Michael McIntyre's "Comedy Roadshow"; and, has picked up British Comedy Awards for Best Live Stand-Up and Best Male TV Comic. Last year he became the ... read more