The literary critic examines the love lives and career ambitions of some of the twentieth century's greatest female authors—from Sylvia Plath to Anaïs Nin.Why did a gifted writer like Sylvia Plath stumble into a marriage that drove her to suicide? Why did Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) want to marry Ezra Pound when she was far more attracted to women? Why did Simone de Beauvoir pimp for Jean-Paul Sartre?In Between the Sheets, author and feminist scholar Le...

"Monstrously good." - Louise Welsh. London, 1823. Mary Shelley's real-life friend Isabella Baxter Booth is 'disturbed in her reason' - seeing ghosts and dependent on narcoti to escape a hellish life with an increasingly violent, deranged husband. Fearful of her own murderous impulses towards him, Isabella flees for her childhood home in Scotland, where she meets an ambitious young doctor, Alexander Balfour. He will stop at nothing to establish a reputation as a genius in the emerging scien...

**The spellbinding, bold new retelling of the story of Lord Byron and the Shelleys, from the perspective of Claire Clairmont, the incredible woman that history tried to forget.**'Beautifully written, Clairmont tells the sensuous hidden story of an influential historic woman.' Sara Sheridan, author of The Fair Botanists Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year'An absorbing, intoxicating page-turner about a woman who de...

'A fascinating, forensic deep-dive' DENISE MINA'Beautifully written, richly evoked and utterly gripping' EVA DOLAN'A seductive tale of sex and death' SARA SHERIDAN***1857, Glasgow.Madeleine Smith, a young socialite, is on trial for murdering her lover. The scandal shocks the world, with intimate letters published in newspapers. The jury can't decide - delivering a rar...

'A fascinating, forensic deep-dive' DENISE MINA'Beautifully written, richly evoked and utterly gripping' EVA DOLAN'A seductive tale of sex and death' SARA SHERIDAN***1857, Glasgow.A young socialite named Madeleine Smith stands accused of murdering her lover. Thousands wait outside the court to hear the result. The scandalous nature of the affair, detailed explicitly ...

**The spellbinding, bold new retelling of the story of Lord Byron and the Shelleys, from the perspective of Claire Clairmont, the incredible woman that history tried to forget.**'Beautifully written, Clairmont tells the sensuous hidden story of an influential historic woman.' Sara Sheridan, author of The Fair Botanists Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year'An absorbing, intoxicating page-turner about a woman who de...

In the tradition of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, James Wood's How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction--an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power.Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of our time looks into the machinery of storytelling to ask some fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we "know" a fictional c...

“Make [your] characters want something right away—even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.” —Kurt Vonnegut“‘The cat sat on the mat’ is not the beginning of a story, but ‘the cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is.” —John Le CarréNothing is more inspiring for a beginning writer than listening to masters of the craft talk about the writing life. But if yo...

An illuminating study of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel with special attention to its film versions. From its first publication in 1955 Nabokov's Lolita has been denounced as immoral filth, hailed as a moral masterpiece, and both praised and damned for stylistic excess. In this fresh appraisal John Lennard provides convenient overviews of Nabokov's life and of the novel (including both Kubrick's and Lyne's film-adaptations), before considering Lolita as pornography, as lepidoptery,...

New in the Short History of Asia series edited by Milton Osborne this is a concise and readable history of Cambodia from its rich and powerful past through the era of French protection the Vietnamese conflict the Pol Pot regime and to its present day incarnation as a constitutional monarchy and popular tourist destination. Temples and killing fields mighty rivers and impenetrable forests a past filled with glory and decline Cambodia is a land of contrasts. A millennia ago it was an empire ...

Lucy Kerbel's 100 Great Plays for Women is an inspiring guide to a hundred plays that put female performers centre stage, dispelling the myth that 'There just aren't any good plays for women'. With a foreword by Kate Mosse.Women buy the majority of theatre tickets, make up half the acting profession, and are often the largest cohort of any youth theatre or drama club. And yet they have traditionally been underrepresented on stage. 100 Great Plays for Women seeks t...

What's in a name?In our "look at me" era, everyone's a brand. Privacy now seems a quaint relic, and self-effacement is a thing of the past. Yet, as Nom de Plume reminds us, this was not always the case. Exploring the fascinating stories of more than a dozen authorial impostors across several centuries and cultures, Carmela Ciuraru plumbs the creative process and the darker, often crippling aspects of fame.Biographies have chronicled the lives of pseudonymous authors such as...