Moon Tiger

THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING, GOLDEN BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED CLASSIC, NOW WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ELIF SHAFAK 
 
Claudia Hampton - beautiful, famous, independent, dying. 
 
But she remains defiant to the last, telling her nurses that she will write a 'history of the world . . . and in the process, my own'. And it is her story from a childhood just after the First World War through the Second and beyond. But Claudia's life is entwined with others and she must allow those who knew her, loved her, the chance to speak, to put across their point of view. There is Gordon, brother and adversary; Jasper, her untrustworthy lover and father of Lisa, her cool conventional daughter; and then there is Tom, her one great love, found and lost in wartime Egypt. 
 
The masterpiece of one of the century's finest novelists, Moon Tiger is a haunting, evocative and dazzlingly original story of loss and desire. 
 
'Leaves its traces in the air long after you've put it away' Anne Tyler 
 
'A complex tapestry of great subtlety. Lively writes so well, savouring the words as she goes' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Fascinating ... Way ahead of her time and yet absolutely of her time' Lemn Sissay

Leaves its traces in the air long after you've put it away

A complex tapestry of great subtlety. Lively writes so well, savouring the words as she goes

Very clever: evocative, thought-provoking and hangs on the mind long after it is finished

Lively's ability to bring her character and the world she inhabits into full technicolour is beautiful. This is a unique book about a fascinating unpredictable woman way ahead of her time and yet absolutely of her time

One of Britain's most celebrated novelists. Moon Tiger's multiple, shifting viewpoints weaves an eloquent disquisition on memory, identity, age, love and regret

Atmospheric, inventive. Few books I've read recently have given me so much pleasure

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.

Claudia Hampton - beautiful, famous, independent, dying. 
 
But she remains defiant to the last, telling her nurses that she will write a 'history of the world . . . and in the process, my own'. And it is her story from a childhood just after the First World War through the Second and beyond. But Claudia's life is entwined with others and she must allow those who knew her, loved her, the chance to speak, to put across their point of view. There is Gordon, brother and adversary; Jasper, her untrustworthy lover and father of Lisa, her cool conventional daughter; and then there is Tom, her one great love, found and lost in wartime Egypt. 
 
The masterpiece of one of the century's finest novelists, Moon Tiger is a haunting, evocative and dazzlingly original story of loss and desire - now with a new introduction by Elif Shafak.

Selected Stories

Metamorphosis

Including new and never-before-published stories and forgotten treasures: the definitive selection of short stories from one of our greatest living writers, curated by the author herself 
 
Wry, compassionate and glittering with wit, Penelope Lively's stories get beneath the everyday to the beating heart of human experience. 
 
In intimate tales of growing up and growing old, chance encounters and life-long relationships, Lively explores with keen insight the ways that individuals can become tangled in history, and small acts ripple through the generations. 
 
From new and never-before-published stories to forgotten treasures, Metamorphosis showcases the very best from a literary master. 
 
'Lively has the gift, rare and wonderful, of being able to peel back the layers one by one and set them before us, translucent and gleaming' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'Superb...The writing is as good as it gets' The Times 
 
'Lively has guts and style. You are in the hands of a master' Daily Mail

Thoughtful, intelligent and light of touch. Lively has the gift, rare and wonderful, of being able to peel back the layers one by one and set them before us, translucent and gleaming

A sublime storyteller . . . she has us riveted with curiosity as to what will happen next, yet also keeps us consistently aware of the nature of the illusion

Each story encapsulates a vividly imagined universe... covering a broad range of styles with ease and elegance, it is a witty and grounding collection

Superb, unmissable ...The writing is as good as it gets

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.

Wry, compassionate, and glittering with wit, Penelope Lively's stories get beneath the everyday to the beating heart of human experience. In intimate stories of growing up and growing old, chance encounters and life-long relationships, Lively explores with keen insight the ways that individuals can become tangled in history, and small acts ripple through the generations. From new and never-before-published stories to forgotten treasures, Metamorphosis showcases the very best from a literary master.

The Photograph

A gorgeous novel by the Booker-winning author, now a Penguin Essential

'DO NOT OPEN - DESTROY.' 
 
The words on the envelope he has found are written in Kath's hand, but Glyn ignores his wife's instruction and breaks the seal. His life unwinds. For he finds a photograph showing Kath holding hands with another man. Unable to forget this long-ago act of betrayal he recklessly excavates the past, seeking out who knew what, tearing apart other lives as he tries to dig up the roots of his wife's infidelity. But what is the truth about Kath? What is the truth about their love? And can it survive this? 
 
'Remarkable' Sunday Telegraph

Penelope Lively has written many prize-winning novels for adults and children.  They include The Road to Lichfield, According To Mark. Moon Tiger (which won the 1987 Booker Prize), Heatwave and Spiderweb.  Penelope Lively lives in London N1.

Searching through a little-used cupboard at home, Glyn Peters chances upon a photograph he has never seen before. Taken in high summer, many years earlier, it shows his wife, Kath, holding hands with another man. 
 
Glyn's work as a historian should have inured him to unexpected findings and reversals, but he is ill-prepared for this radical shift in perception. His mind fills with questions. Who was the man? Who took the photograph? Where was it taken? When? Had Kath planned for him to find out all along? 
 
As Glyn begins to search for answers, he, and those around him, find the certainties of the past and present slip away, and the picture of the beautiful woman they all thought they knew distort.

Life in the Garden

'Wonderful. A manifesto of horticultural delight' Literary Review 
 
 'Beautiful. Perfect for literary garden lovers' Good Housekeeping 
 
'Rich and unusual, a book to treasure. Few recent gardening books come anywhere close to its style, intelligence and depth' Observer 
 
'The two central activities in my life - alongside writing - have been reading and gardening.' 
 
Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own, and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today. It is also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland, and of writers and their gardens, from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin. 
 
 'Exquisite and original' Daily Telegraph 
 
 'A gentle survey of the garden's place in Western culture, which morphs into a personal meditation on time, memory and a life well lived' i 
 
 'Scholarly bedtime reading' The Times, Books of the Year

Rich and unusual, this is a book to treasure. Few recent gardening books come anywhere close to its style, intelligence and depth. Moves between Lively's own horticultural life and a broad history of gardening

A gentle, scholarly progress through the lives and works of Penelope Lively's favoured authors - from Jane Austen to Beatrix Potter, Philip Larkin to Tom Stoppard

Enchanting. Reading this book is like walking with a wise, humorous guide through a series of garden rooms . . . and finding that vistas suddenly open out, on to history, fashion, politics, reflections on time and the taming of nature

Lively finds memories of her own gardens scrambling like roses through insights into the history of gardening and the artists - including Woolf, Monet and PG Wodehouse - who have been inspired by their gardens

Elegant, entertaining and inspirational

The perfect book for dedicated garden lovers

Penelope Lively was born in Cairo, Egypt and spent her childhood there. She came to England at the age of twelve, in 1945, and went to boarding school in Sussex. She went on to read Modern History at St Anne's College, Oxford. In 1957 she married Jack Lively (who died in 1998). They had two children, Josephine and Adam. Jack Lively's academic career took the family from Swansea to Sussex and Oxford, and eventually to Warwick University, where he was Professor of Politics. Penelope Lively now has six grandchildren and lives in London.

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own, and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today. It is also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland, and of writers and their gardens, from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin.

The Road To Lichfield

The Road to Lichfield is the Booker Prize shortlisted first novel by Penelope Lively, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time on the 40th anniversary of its publication. 
 
Ann Linton leaves her family in Berkshire and sets up camp in her father's house when he is taken into a nursing home in distant Lichfield. As she shares his last weeks she meets David Fielding, and the love they share brings her feelings into sharp focus. Deeply felt, beautifully controlled, The Road to Lichfield is a subtle exploration of memory and identity, of chance and consequence, of the intricate weave of generations across a past never fully known, and a future never fully anticipated. 
 
'A searing study of the peculiar state of being in love . . . there are few contemporary novelists to match her on this subject' Sunday Telegraph

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On, which was shortlisted for the 1989 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. 
 
She has also written radio and television scripts and has acted as presenter for a BBC Radio 4 programme on children's literature. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012.

Ann Linton leaves her family in Berkshire and sets up camp in her father's house when he is taken into a nursing home in distant Lichfield. As she shares his last weeks she meets David Fielding, and the love they share brings her feelings into sharp focus. Deeply felt, beautifully controlled, The Road to Lichfield is a subtle exploration of memory and identity, of chance and consequence, of the intricate weave of generations across a past never fully known, and a future never fully anticipated.

The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories

'Lively remains a sublime storyteller' Guardian on How It All Began 
 
'More stylish than many writers half her age . . . Lively knows a thing of two about storytelling.' The Times on How It All Began 
 
A dream house that is hiding something sinister; two women having lunch who share a husband; an old woman doing her weekly supermarket shop with a secret past that no one could guess; a couple who don't know each other at all even after fifteen years together; and, in the story from which this collection takes its name, a bird and a servant girl in ancient Pompeii who cannot converse, but share a perfect understanding. 
 
In this new and varied collection of short stories, Penelope Lively shows that she remains a master of her craft, and one of our finest English writers.

Carefully thought-out stories. . . Patterns of interaction between past and present are sounded out to good effect.

Lively has guts and style. . . You are in the hands of a master

Her new collection of short stories is perfect. It is a very wide range of short stories and each one has an unexpected twist in the tale.

Thoughtful, intelligent and light of touch . . . Lively has the gift, rare and wonderful, of being able to peel back the layers one by one and set them before us, translucent and gleaming.

Spry and world-wise, The Purple Swamp Hen is an enchanting story that sets the tone for the rest of this stellar collection.

More stylish than many writers half her age . . . Lively knows a thing or two about storytelling.

Lively is now nearly 80 but, as How It All Began shows, there is no diminution of her skills . . . Lively is a writer of craft and sagacity and such old fashioned virtues trump the chic but meretricious every time.

Penelope Lively at her best, sharp-eyed but sympathetic, deftly steering the reader from one point of view to another. This novel should delight her regular readers and ensnare new ones.

Lively skilfully mingles past and present, as she peels away the layers to uncover a family secret of which no one speaks...Lively's astute skewering of family relations reverberates in the mind long afterwards.

David Vann on Family Album, Guardian Books of the Year

Sensuous and beautiful prose...proof that the best novelists change and grow.

Neatly constructed, lucidly written and full of admirable sentiments.

Masterful. Transforms the every day into something rich.

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.

A dream house that is hiding something sinister; two women having lunch who share a husband;  an old woman doing her weekly supermarket shop with a secret past that no one could guess; a couple who don't know each other at all even after fifteen years together; and, in the story from which this collection takes its name, a bird and a servant girl in ancient Pompeii who cannot converse, but share a perfect understanding. In this new and varied collection of short stories, Penelope Lively shows that she remains a master of her craft, and one of our finest English writers.

Penelope Lively

Fascinating, lucid . . . Authority, yes; and wit, thoughtfulness, a tender attention to the natural world, an incisive but deeply humane imagination: Ammonites and Leaping Fish is full of all of these

Like old age itself this book is not for sissies. Luckily for us Lively is one of our most gifted writers . . . This is Lively at her best

A fascinating portrait not only of the author but of the times through which she has lived . . . sharp, unsentimental and ruefully funny

Lively's memoir about age and the pleasures and pains of seniority is informative, instructive, unexpected and beautifully observed

An elegant and thoughtful dissection of a subject few writers dare dwell on

Rich in observations and recollections. It should be read slowly because there is much to invite reflection

Other brilliant women writers (Joyce Carol Oates, Joan Didion . . .) have written whole volumes on widowhood, but Penelope Lively's description of that condition is all the more affecting by being sparse . . . Will delight all those who love Lively's novels . . . It's all enthralling: autobiography in miniature

A superb study of memory and of her own voyage into the ninth decade of her life . . . Lively is a compelling, vitally interested witness to time pas

Ammonites & Leaping Fish is powerfully consoling. Lively is certainly sagacious, her words careful and freighted. But there is girlishness here, too. Things still catch her eye, her attention. New books. Old stories. Another day for the taking

A Life in Time

'The twentieth century shook the world: it sobers me to have been one of those to see it through' 
 
In this powerful and compelling 'view from old age', Penelope Lively, at eighty, reports back on what she finds. There are meditations on what it is like to be old as well as on how memory shapes us. There are intriguing examinations of the key personal as well as historical moments she has lived through and her thoughts on her own bookishness - both as reader and writer. Lastly, she turns to six treasured possessions to speak eloquently about who she is and where she's been - fragments of memories from a life well lived. 
 
Ten years on, Lively returns to the same questions in a new chapter, On Being Ninety, included in this new edition.

Ammonites and Leaping Fish

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Praise for Ammonites and Leaping Fish

Fascinating, lucid . . . Authority, yes; and wit, thoughtfulness, a tender attention to the natural world, an incisive but deeply humane imagination: Ammonites and Leaping Fish is full of all of these

Like old age itself this book is not for sissies. Luckily for us Lively is one of our most gifted writers . . . This is Lively at her best

A fascinating portrait not only of the author but of the times through which she has lived . . . sharp, unsentimental and ruefully funny

Fascinating, lucid . . . Authority, yes; and wit, thoughtfulness, a tender attention to the natural world, an incisive but deeply humane imagination: Ammonites and Leaping Fish is full of all of these

Like old age itself this book is not for sissies. Luckily for us Lively is one of our most gifted writers . . . This is Lively at her best

A fascinating portrait not only of the author but of the times through which she has lived . . . sharp, unsentimental and ruefully funny

Fascinating, lucid . . . Authority, yes; and wit, thoughtfulness, a tender attention to the natural world, an incisive but deeply humane imagination: Ammonites and Leaping Fish is full of all of these

Like old age itself this book is not for sissies. Luckily for us Lively is one of our most gifted writers . . . This is Lively at her best

A fascinating portrait not only of the author but of the times through which she has lived . . . sharp, unsentimental and ruefully funny

Books by Penelope Lively

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