"An ideal 'first book' on Beethoven" from one of the world's most eminent classical music aficionados ( Booklist).Beethoven scholar and classical radio host John Suchet has had a lifelong, ardent interest in the man and his music. Here, in his first full-length biography, Suchet illuminates the composer's difficult childhood, his struggle to maintain friendships and romances, his ungovernable temper, his obsessive efforts to control his nephew's life, and ...

**The Sunday Times bestseller, revised and updated for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth.As heard throughout 2020 on Classic FM**You know the music... but do you know the man?Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the world's best loved and most influential composers. His life - its dramas, conflicts, loves and losses - is played out in his music.In this special edition to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth - with a new section featuri...

Giuseppe Verdi remains the greatest operatic composer that Italy, the home of opera, has ever produced. Yet throughout his lifetime he claimed to detest composing and repeatedly rejected it. He was a landowner, a farmer, a politician and symbol of Italian independence; but his music tells a different story.An obsessive perfectionist, Verdi drove collaborators to despair but his works were rightly lauded from the start as dazzling feats of composition and characterisation. From ...

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is one of the most successful composers that Russia has ever produced, but his path to success was not an easy one.A shy, emotional child, intended for the civil service by his father, Tchaikovsky came late to composing as a career, and despite his success he was a troubled character. Doubting himself at every turn, he was keenly wounded by criticism, while the death of his mother haunted him all his life, and his incessant attempts to supp...

The Sunday Times bestsellerThe tale of two Waltz Kings: how the Strauss family took Europe by storm during the nineteenth century.The Strauss family name is forever intertwined with Vienna - as is their music. Two generations of this remarkable family transformed and popularised the waltz, delighting all of Viennese society with their prolific compositions. But behind the melody lay a darker discord, as the Strausses tore themselves apart while Vie...

DISCOVER THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WORLD'S MOST-LOVED COMPOSERMusical history is full of tormented geniuses, tortured despite – or because of – their enormous talent. Yet perhaps the greatest musical virtuoso the world has ever known cannot be counted among them. Though he faced great hardships, Mozart was surely the happiest composer who ever lived.In Mozart: The Man Revealed, John Suchet breathes new life into the story of the 'boy genius', revealing a...

A reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless fairytale,Wild Swans weaves spoken word and music into a spellbinding journey of courage, sacrifice, and transformation.When a young princess learns her eleven brothers have been cursed and turned into swans, she undertakes a perilous quest to save them. Bound by a vow of silence, guided only by her heart, and tested by the cruelty of those who fear what they cannot understand.Read by John Suchet OBE, acclaimed jo...

Agatha Christie’s Complete Secret Notebooks brings together for the first time Secret Notebooks and Murder in the Making, two volumes that explore the fascinating contents of her 73 notebooks. This includes illustrations, deleted extracts, unused ideas, two unpublished Poirot stories and a lost Miss Marple.When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the world's most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she h...

From the bestselling author of Beethoven: The Man Revealed, In Search of Beethoven is John Suchet’s latest and most personal book dedicated to the life of this extraordinary composer. Part biography, part memoir, part travelogue, Suchet draws on his own life and career as a foreign correspondent and news anchor to show how Beethoven’s music has accompanied him through the best and worst of times. It was with him as a music-loving and adventurous teenager,...

A PRESTO BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024'From palaces to warzones, John Suchet goes on a Beethoven odyssey' The Daily Telegraph'This personal account of his life-long passion has an appealing light touch' Financial Times Best Books of the Year'This is a wonderful tale of self-realisation, of what we can gain from turning to genius in life's many crises.' Norman Lebrecht, author of Why Beethoven

All 51 Hercule Poirot short stories presented in chonological order in a single volume – plus a bonus story not seen for more than 70 years.‘My name is Hercule Poirot and I am probably the greatest detective in the world.’The dapper, moustache-twirling little Belgian with the egg-shaped head, curious mannerisms and inordinate respect for his own ‘little grey cells’ has solved some of the most puzzling crimes of the century. Appearing in Agatha Christie’s very first novel in...

An omnibus of 55 short stories, presented for the first time in chronological order.Described by her friend Dolly Bantry as ‘ the typical old maid of fiction’, Miss Marple has lived almost her entire life in the sleepy hamlet of St Mary Mead. Yet, by observing village life she has gained an unparalleled insight into human nature – and used it to devasting effect. As her friend Sir Henry Clithering, the ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard has been heard to say: ‘She’s just the finest d...