"An erudite, elegant, and quietly impassioned plea" exploring historical and literary aspects of the Bible is "an easy, pleasurable read" ( The Guardian).In The Book of the People, acclaimed author A. N. Wilson explores how readers and thinkers have approached the Bible, and how it might be read today. Charting his own relationship with the Bible over a lifetime of writing, Wilson argues that it remains relevant even in a largely secular society, a...

Winner, Plutarch Award for Best Biography: A "marvelous exploration" of Dickens's life and how it shaped his extraordinarily popular novels ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review).An exceedingly rare talent and great orator, slight of build with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Charles Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died—an occasion marked by a crowded funeral at Westminster Abbey, despite his waking wishes for a small affair...

“[A] shimmering and rather wonderful biography.” —The GuardianWhen Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years. She was the mother of nine and grandmother of forty-two and the matriarch of royal Europe through her children’s marriages. To many, Queen Victoria is a ruler shrouded in myth and mystique, an aging, stiff widow paraded as the figurehead to an all-male imperial enterprise. But in truth, Britain’s longest-reigning monarc...

The French Revolution comes to vivid life in Charles Dickens's famous novel about the best of times and the worst of times...The storming of the Bastille…the death carts with their doomed human cargo…the swift drop of the guillotine blade—this is the French Revolution that Charles Dickens vividly captures in his famous work A Tale of Two Cities. With dramatic eloquence, he brings to life a time of terror and treason, a starving people rising in frenzy and ...

When this book begins, in the reign of Edward VII, Great Britain commands the mightiest empire the world has ever seen. By the time it ends, with the Coronation of Elizabeth II, Britain has emerged victorious from a world war, but ruined as a world power. How did Britain's power and influence decline? This is one of the questions which A. N. Wilson seeks to answer in his masterly follow-up to The Victorians.

A deeply textured and ambitious portrait of the life of Queen Victoria's husband and his influence on Great Britain, by the author of Victoria ."An engrossing biography that continues the author's long engagement with the Victorian age. . . . [Wilson's] most striking contribution, though, is a psychologically astute approach to Victoria and Albert, one that results in a persuasive and humane account of their marri...

In this unusual and vibrant examination of the life and times of Britain's most iconic living figure, A. N. Wilson considers the history of the monarchy, drawing a line that stretches from Queen Victoria to the bloody history of Europe in the 20th century, examining how and why the Royal Family has survived. He paints a vivid portrait of "Lilibet" the woman, and of her reign, throughout which she has remained stalwart, unmoving, a trait some regard as dullness, but which Wilson argues is t...

A radical reappraisal of Charles Darwin from the bestselling author of Victoria: A Life.With the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin—hailed as the man who "discovered evolution"—was propelled into the pantheon of great scientific thinkers, alongside Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton. Eminent writer A. N. Wilson challenges this long-held assumption. Contextualizing Darwin and his ideas, he offers a groundbreaking critical look at ...

This book is designed to explore key questions surrounding faith, philosophy, science, culture and social progress by celebrating the life and thought of cultural leaders from Rugby School (estd. 1567).Some of the most distinguished historians, philosophers, social commentators and religious commentators are alumni of Rugby School. In this collection of essays, contributors explore the most important values that guide and challenge us today, by reflecting on the achievements of the...

Known for his journalism, biographies and novels, A. N. Wilson turns a merciless searchlight on his own early life, his experience of sexual abuse, his catastrophic mistakes in love (sacred and profane) and his life in Grub Street – as a prolific writer.Before he came to London, as one of the “Best of Young British” novelists, and Literary Editor of the Spectator, we meet another A. N. Wilson. We meet his father, the Managing Director of Wedgwood, the grot...

This acclaimed biography charts the progress of the brilliant, prolific writer, C. S. Lewis.C. S. Lewis was a deeply complex man, capable of inspiring both great devotion and great hostility. This acclaimed biography charts the progress of the clever child from the ‘Little End Room’ of his Ulster childhood and adult life, exploring Lewis’s unwilling conversion to Christianity, the genesis of his writing, and the web of his relationships.

1909: in a villa in South Ascot, an extraordinary secret is about to be shared. Princess Sophia Duleep Singh – suffragette, firebrand, daughter of the last Maharajah of the Punjab – arrives with a burden that could threaten the foundations of the British Monarchy. At the heart of her visit is the Koh-i-Noor: the 'Mountain of Light', the ultimate symbol of Imperial seizure. Tracing a trail of colonial plunder from the Treasury at Lahore to the drawing rooms of the Edwardian elite, Immortal ...