Virginia Woolf, born in 1882, was the major novelist at the heart of the inter-war Bloomsbury Group. Her early novels include The Voyage Out, Night and Day and Jacob's Room. Between 1925 and 1931 she produced her finest masterpieces, including Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando and the experimental The Waves. Her later novels include The Years and Between the Acts, and she also maintained an astonishing output of literary criticism, journalism and biography, including the passionate feminist essay A Room of One's Own. Suffering from depression, she drowned herself in the River Ouse in 1941.

Virginia Woolf

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Sarah L. Kaufman

Verbs are the underrated stars of the English language. They hold it all together. A complete sentence cannot exist without one, yet a single verb can create complete meaning. (See?) In this glittering exploration of language, grammar, and style, Sarah L. Kaufman illuminates how all of us, professional writers and enthusiasts alike, can master the art of the verb. 
 
When she was the dance critic at The Washington Post, Kaufman was challenged to translate the dynamic language of movement into words. Verbs showed her the way. Good verbs power great storytelling; they leap off the page, fire our senses, and transform our perceptions. 
 
Verb Your Enthusiasm is a clarion call for all of us to get back to basics: to mean what we say and say what we mean. Kaufman proves how strong verbs can make your own writing ­– be it an email, a text, a report, or an ad – more efficient and effective, and she investigates theories of language that will change how you read and write. But this isn’t a grammar guide, and it surely isn’t a set of rules. Great writing comes from a mix of inspiration, passion, and intelligence—from your unique discernment and imagination. You’ll refine your voice in the company of literary greats, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf and George Orwell. In the end, your quest for the right verb might even reveal something true about yourself. All that in a word. So go. Write. Breathe life into your world.

Verb Your Enthusiasm

How to Master the Art of the Verb and Transform Your Writing

Diana Gabaldon

Bestselling author Diana Gabaldon divulges the writing secrets behind the sex scenes in her wildly popular Outlander novels. 
 
“Ask me to your bed,” he said. “I shall come to ye.” 
 
In this revealing compendium, acclaimed writer Diana Gabaldon shares her invaluable lessons for creating an immersive reading experience, from evoking a mood to using the power of emotions to communicate physical intimacy. You’ll learn the difference between gratuitous sex and genuine encounters that move the story forward, and how to handle less-than-savory acts that nevertheless serve a narrative purpose. 
 
Gabaldon also notes that sex can be conveyed instead of described. With such tips as “The Rule of Three” for involving the senses, handy lists of naughty euphemisms (with instructions for use), and Gabaldon’s own examples from the Outlander novels, “I Give You My Body . . .” is a master class in writing to draw readers in and keep them riveted to the page.

I Give You My Body

Nora Ephron

‘A woman for all seasons, tender and tough in just the right proportions’ 
The New York Times 
 
Two classic collections of uproarious essays from the late Nora Ephron, bestselling author of I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing. Here she tackles everything from feminism to the media, from politics to beauty products, with her inimitable charm and distinctive wit. 
 
From her Academy Award-nominated screenplays (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Julie &amp; Julia) to her bestselling fiction and essays, Nora Ephron illuminated her era with wicked honesty and insight. 
 
This collection brings together some of Ephron’s most famous writing on a generation of women (and men) who helped shape the way we live now, and on significant modern-day events. In these sharp, hilariously entertaining and vividly observed essays, from the famous ‘A Few Words About Breasts’ to important pieces on her time working for newspapers and magazines, this is Ephron at her very best.

Crazy Salad & Scribble Scribble (An Omnibus)

Will Brooker

Have you ever thought about what it takes to become a bestselling writer? 
 
If so, The Truth About Lisa Jewell is the book for you. It is the story of how a novel is written, from before the start to after the finish; it's an in-depth analysis of how that novel fits into a bestselling author like Lisa Jewell's career and her previous work, and what her style shares with authors from James Joyce to Martin Amis. 
 
But this is more than just a study of an author at the top of her game. Like Lisa Jewell's much-loved novels, it's also the story of a relationship - between the bestselling author and the professor of cultural studies who has made her his muse - evolving slowly as the world comes gradually out of Covid. It's the story of two very different writers getting to know each other gradually through words; two complete strangers becoming something more like friends. 
 
A must-have for fans of Lisa Jewell, for aspiring authors who are interested in the path to success - and a testament to the way books can bring us together.

The Truth About Lisa Jewell

Henrik Ibsen

With her assertion that she is 'first and foremost a human being', rather than a wife, mother or fragile doll, Nora Helmer sent shockwaves throughout Europe when she appeared in Ibsen's greatest and most famous play, A Doll's House. Ibsen's follow-up Ghosts was no less radical, with its unrelenting investigation into religious hypocrisy, family secrets and sexual double-dealing. These two masterpieces are accompanied here by The Pillars of the Community and An Enemy of the People, both exploring the tensions and dark compromises at the heart of society.

A Doll's House and Other Plays

Isabella Hammad

FROM THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION-SHORTLISTED AND RSL ENCORE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF ENTER GHOST 
 
Award-winning author of The Parisian and Enter Ghost Isabella Hammad delivered the Edward W. Said Lecture at Columbia University nine days before 7 October 2023. The text of Hammad’s seminal speech and her afterword written in the early weeks of 2024 together make up a searing appraisal of the war on Palestine during what feels like a turning point in the narrative of human history. 
 
Moving and erudite, Hammad writes from within the moment, shedding light on the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Recognising the Stranger is a brilliant melding of literary and cultural analysis by one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and a foremost writer of fiction in the world today. 
 
PRAISE FOR RECOGNISING THE STRANGER 
 
'Recognising the Stranger combines intellectual brilliance with moral clarity and profound resoluteness of purpose.' SALLY ROONEY 
 
'A pitch-perfect example of how the novelist can get to the heart of the matter better than a million argumentative articles. Hammad shows us how the Palestinian struggle is the story of humanity itself, and asks us not to look away but to see ourselves.' MAX PORTER 
 
‘Hammad’s writing burns with fierce intelligence, humane insight and righteous anger. For those at risk of despair, doubtful of the role literature has to play in times of crisis, it is a reminder of the radical potential of reading and the possibility of change.’ OLIVIA SUDJIC 
 
'Extraordinary and amazingly erudite. Hammad shows how art and especially literature can be much, much more revealing than political writing.' RASHID KHALIDI

Recognising the Stranger

On Palestine and Narrative

Zadie Smith

'Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. 
She plays many roles round here. And never 
Scared to tell the whole of her truth, whether 
Or not anyone wants to hear it. Wife 
Of Willesden: pissed enough to tell her life 
Story to whoever has ears and eyes...' 
 
Zadie Smith's first play is a joyous re-imagining of Chaucer's classic, The Wife of Bath's Tale. As the crowd in a small pub on the Kilburn High Road stand up to share their stories, the Wife of Willesden is not afraid to bare it all...

The Wife of Willesden

David Corbett

Former private investigator and New York Times notable author David Corbett offers a unique and indispensable toolkit for creating characters that come vividly to life on the page and linger in memory. Corbett provides an inventive, inspiring, and vastly entertaining blueprint to all the elements of characterization-from initial inspiration to realization-with special insights into the power of secrets and contradictions, the embodiment of roles, managing the "tyranny of motive," and mastering crucial techniques required for memorable dialogue and unforgettable scenes. This is a how-to guide for both aspiring and accomplished writers that renders all other books of its kind obsolete.

The Art of Character

Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV

Haruki Murakami

Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never stand apart from those principles. 
 
'You end this collection…vowing to never let life, or writing, get so complicated again' Guardian 
 
Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his beautifully surreal worlds will be fascinated by this highly personal look at the craft of writing. 
 
In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians. 
 
'Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers' New York Times Book Review 
 
'A fascinating glimpse of the peculiar writerly life' Sunday Times 
 
** A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES and NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR**

Novelist as a Vocation

Xiaolu Guo

The new memoir from prize-winning writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo - playful, provocative and original, it's her deeply personal take on striving for a life of her own 
 
'When it comes to spinning light and shadow on the complexities of living, loving and language, Xiaolu Guo is one of the most valuable writers in the world' DEBORAH LEVY 
 
The world can seem strange and lonely when you step away from your family and everything you have tried to call your own. Yet beauty may also appear. In the autumn of 2019 Xiaolu travelled to New York to take up her position as a visiting professor for a year, leaving her child and partner behind in London. The encounter with American culture and people threatens her sense of identity and throws her into a crisis - of meaning, desire, obligation and selfhood. 
 
This is a memoir about separation - by continents, by language, and from people. It's about being an outsider and the desperate longing to connect. Xiaolu uses her exploration of language (one of the meanings of the word 'radical' is the graphic component, or root, of Chinese characters), and her own life, to create this unique text. At once a memoir, a dictionary, and an ardent love letter, it is an expression of her fascination with Western culture and her nostalgia for Eastern landscapes, and an attempt to describe the space in between. An archive of an artist's search for creative freedom, it is above all else an intimate account of her efforts to carve out a life of her own. 
 
'Radical in angle of attack, smart and brave' IAIN SINCLAIR, author of The Gold Machine

Radical

A Life of My Own

Julia Cameron

'Lately, I am trying to provoke myself into art - into writing... I wasn't exactly in despair - I was in cynicism, which is despair's more torpid sister... Let me tell you how writing snuck back on me.' 
 
Whether you are starting from scratch or need a gentle nudge back in the right direction, The Sound of Paper is a wonderful creative companion. Through inspiring essays and practical tasks, it stimulates creativity so that the reader becomes more and more familiar with their own strengths. Including her own fascinating journey from writer's block back to productive work, which takes the reader across America from New York to New Mexico, this is a story of inspiration infused with brilliantly practical suggestions, the perfect combination for anyone on the path to creativity.

The Sound of Paper

Inspiration and Practical Guidance for Starting the Creative Process

Boswell James

In Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a biography to which we owe much of our knowledge of the man himself. Through a series of richly detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure, vigorously engaging and fencing with great contemporaries such as Garrick, Goldsmith, Burney and Burke, and of course with Boswell himself. Yet anxieties and obsessions also darkened Johnson's private hours, and Boswell's attentiveness to every facet of Johnson's character makes this biography as moving as it is entertaining. 
 
In this entirely new and unabridged edition, David Womersley's introduction examines the motives behind Boswell's work, and the differences between the two men that drew them to each other. It also contains chronologies of Boswell and Johnson, appendices and comprehensive indexes, including biographical details.

The Life of Samuel Johnson

Alan Connor

‘Alan knows everything, knows everyone, and writes beautifully too.’ 
RICHARD OSMAN 
 
‘The man with the contents of the Oxford English Dictionary stored just above his left eyebrow … and he’s quite funny too.’ 
RORY CELLAN-JONES 
 
'A gorgeous, funny tour of the British Isles as seen from the clouds.’ 
KONNIE HUQ 
 
 
For fans of THE ETYMOLOGICON and VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS, a delightfully damp tour of the British Isles. 
 
 
Mizzle. Dreich. Raining knives and forks. A real mugga-fisty. A spot of plother... 
 
We Brits love talking about the weather. So much so that our islands have hundreds of words and phrases for rain, some self-explanatory and others that really leave us scratching our heads. From a light smirr in Aberdeen to a "it's raining knives and forks!" in the Brecon Beacons, each type of rain tells a story about the people and places it falls on. 
 
In this delightfully damp tour of the British Isles, writer and puddle-splasher Alan Connor digs deep into the meaning and quirky histories of over one hundred words for precipitation. He gets caught in a plash in Northumberland, crashes a fox's wedding in Devon and ponders the phenomenon of Brits-who-picnic-in-the-car, in this charming and witty celebration of our very British obsession.

188 Words for Rain

A delightfully damp tour of the British Isles, led by natural forces (an official BBC Weather book)

Christopher Fowler

'A delight . . . a glorious, witty and life-affirming ragbag of autobiography, cultural commentary and hard-won wisdom.' ANDREW TAYLOR, author of The Shadows of London 
 
'Perceptive, wise and illuminating . . . an unmissable farewell.' Barry Forshaw, FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'The most hilarious, life-affirming book you&rsquo;ll read this year.' SAGA magazine 
 
'Wit and wisdom that make every page turn . . . what a fine talent the world has lost.' STARBURST 
 
This is the memoir Christopher Fowler always wanted to write about 'writing'. 
 
It's the story of how a young bookworm growing up in a house where there was nothing to read but knitting pamphlets and motorcycle manuals became a writer - a 'word monkey' - and pursued a sort of career in popular fiction. And it's a book full of brilliant insights into the pleasures and pitfalls of his profession, dos and don'ts for would-be writers, and astute observations on favourite (and not-so-favourite) novelists. 
 
But woven into this hugely entertaining and inspiring reflection on a literary life is an altogether darker thread. In Spring 2020, just as the world went into lockdown, Chris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And yet there is nothing of the misery memoir about Word Monkey. Past and present intermingle as, in prose as light as air, he relates with wry humour and remarkable honesty what he knows will be the final chapter in his story. 
 
Deeply moving, insightful and surprisingly funny, this is Christopher Fowler's life-affirming account of coming to terms with his own mortality. 
 
'A remarkable book by a remarkable writer: amazingly entertaining and informative and also, for obvious reasons, one of the most moving.' SIMON MASON, author of the DI Wilkins Mysteries 
 
'Wonderful . . . there is no bitterness here, but a hearty celebration of how art defines a life, with dark humour on the right occasions and the deliberate aim to leave a positive message . . . his enthusiasm is infectious and sobering when you are aware that he was dying as he wrote these pages.' Maxim Jacubowski, CRIME TIME

Word Monkey

Lydia Davis

'A writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert, and as epoch-making, in her own way, as Proust'(Ali Smith) 
 
Lydia Davis gathered a selection of her non-fiction writing for the first time in 2019 with Essays. Now, she continues the project with Essays Two, focusing on the art of translation, the learning of foreign languages through reading, and her experience of translating, amongst others, Flaubert and Proust, about whom she writes with an unmatched understanding of the nuances of their styles. 
 
Every essay in this book is a revelation.

Essays Two

John Cleese

Creativity is usually regarded as a mysterious, rare gift that only a few possess. John Cleese begs to differ, and in this short, immensely practical and often very amusing guide he shows it's a skill that anyone can acquire. Drawing on his lifelong experience as a writer, he shares his insights into the nature of the creative process, and offers advice on how to get your own inventive juices flowing. 
____________________________ 
 
'Humorous and practical . . . Whether you're hoping to write a novel or paint a masterpiece, you're sure to feel inspired' OK Magazine 
 
'His candor is endearing . . . An upbeat guide to the creative process' Kirkus 
 
'A jovial romp . . . Cleese fans will enjoy, and writers and other artists will breeze through, picking up a few nuggets of wisdom along the way' The Festival Review 
 
'Wise words on the serious business of being silly' Sunday Business Post

Creativity

A Short and Cheerful Guide

‘Nora Ephron can write about anything better than anybody else can write about anything’ 
New York Times 
 
A bitingly funny, provocative and revealing look at our foibles, passions and pastimes – from the much-missed, bestselling author of I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing. 
 
From her Academy Award-nominated screenplays (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Julie &amp; Julia) to her bestselling fiction and essays, Nora Ephron was one of the most gifted, prolific and versatile writers of our time. 
 
In this classic collection of magazine articles, Ephron does what she does best: embrace culture with love, cynicism and unmatched wit. 
 
From tracking down the beginnings of the self-help movement, to dressing down the fashion world’s most powerful publication, to capturing a glimpse of a legendary movie in the making, these timeless pieces tap into our enduring obsessions with celebrity, food, romance, clothes, entertainment and sex. Whether casting her ingenious eye on public figures or herself, Ephron deftly weaves her journalistic skill with the intimate style of an essayist and the incomparable talent of a great storyteller.

Wallflower at the Orgy

This is an all new version of the popular PARALLEL TEXT series, containing eight pieces of contemporary fiction in the original Italian and in English translation. Including stories by Calvino, Benni, Sciascia and Levi, this volume gives a fascinating insight into Italian culture and literature as well as providing an invaluable educational tool.

Short Stories in Italian

New Penguin Parallel Texts

Yomi Sode

In poems exploring family, survival, generational trauma and the complexities of belonging, Manorism is an examination of the lives of Black British men and boys. At the heart of the book is the ongoing pressure of code-switching - changing one's behaviour and language to suit radically different cultural contexts and environments. The violence of artists such as Caravaggio in seventeenth-century Rome and modern-day commentary by the likes of David Starkey and Piers Morgan provide a lens for considering differences of impunity afforded to white and Black people. Snippets of Yoruba interweave with English, and a moving final sequence - adapted for the Almeida stage in June 2021 to glowing reviews from the Guardian, Time Out and others - charts the dramatic reconciliations surrounding a death in the family. The result is a thrillingly original book that charts the vulnerabilities and rich nuances of Black masculinity in Britain.

Manorism

This second volume of short stories contains more diverse and lively writing from the Spanish-speaking world. Again much of it is from Latin America, Carlos Fuentes being Mexican, Norberto Fuentes Cuban, and the other writers having their roots in Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Colombia and the Argentine. Only Ana Maria Matute is a native of Spain. 
 
This highly entertaining selection of stories, together with a chapter from Mario Vargas Llosa&rsquo;s novel &lsquo;Conversation in the Cathedral&rsquo;, explores stylistic contrasts and gives an insight into the cultural and social milieu of the Spanish-speaking world. With notes on unusual Spanish words and phrases, it will be of great value to English students of the language as well as a helpful companion to Spanish-speaking students of English.

Spanish Short Stories

Howard Mittelmark

Sandra Newman

There are many ways prospective authors routinely sabotage their own work. But why leave it to guesswork? Misstep by misstep, How Not to Write a Novel shows how you can ensure that your manuscript never rises above the level of unpublishable drivel; that your characters are unpleasant, dimensionless versions of yourself; that your plot is digressive, tedious and unconvincing; and that your style is reliant on mangled clichés and sesquipedalian malapropisms. Alternatively, you can use it to identify the most common mistakes, avoid them and actually write a book that works. 
 
Guardian Award shortlisted novelist Sandra Newman and veteran editor Howard Mittelmark have distilled 30 years of teaching, editing, writing and reviewing fiction into a hilarious and liberating guide that is the perfect read for anyone who's ever laughed at a badly written piece of prose and for anyone who's ever penned one - and doesn't want to do it again.

How NOT to Write a Novel

200 Mistakes to avoid at All Costs if You Ever Want to Get Published

John Balcom

Here is the perfect introduction to contemporary fiction from the world's most spoken language. These eight short stories, with parallel translations, offer students at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature without having constantly to refer to a dictionary. Richly diverse in themes and styles, the stories are by both new and well-established writers and range from a story by Li Rui about the honest simplicity of a Shanxi farmer to a story by Ma Yuan exposing the seamy underside of contemporary urban society. Complete with notes, these selections make excellent reading in either language.

Short Stories in Chinese

New Penguin Parallel Text

Samantha Ellis

'An optimistic and wryly funny book... rich with insights' OBSERVER 
'I couldn’t put it down’ RUKMINI IYER 
‘I loved this book so much... Think: The Body Keeps the Score in practice not theory’ ELLA RISBRIDGER 
 
Samantha’s mother tongue is dying out. An urgent need to find out more becomes an expansive investigation into how to keep hold of her culture – and when to let it go 
 
The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, Samantha grew up surrounded by the noisy, vivid, hot sounds of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. A language that’s now on the verge of extinction. 
 
The realisation that she won’t be able to tell her son he’s ‘living in the days of the aubergines’ or ‘chopping onions on my heart’ opens the floodgates. The questions keep coming. How can she pass on the stories without passing on the trauma of displacement? Will her son ever love mango pickle? 
 
In her search for answers Samantha encounters demon bowls, the perils of kohl and the unexpected joys of fusion food. Her journey transports us from the clamour of Noah’s Ark to the calm of the British Museum, from the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages to the banks of the River Tigris. As Samantha considers what we lose and keep, she also asks what we might need to let go of to preserve our culture and ourselves. 
 
This is a life-affirming memoir about resilience and repair, and the healing power of dancing to our ancestors’ music, cooking up their recipes and sharing their stories. 
 
‘A moving and resonant lament for the past but also a thought-provoking siren call for the future' ANNE SEBBA 
'Urgent, alive, propulsive. I adored it' MARINA BENJAMIN

Chopping Onions on My Heart

On Losing and Preserving Culture

Ronald Carter

John McRae

This second edition of The Penguin Guide to Literature in English: Britain and Ireland provides an illustrated introduction to the work of the most important writers and their historical background from the year 600 to the end of the twentieth century. It covers the works of novelists, dramatists and poets from Chaucer to Shakespeare, Austen to Dickens, James Joyce to Seamus Heaney, right through to modern-day authors such as Jeanette Winterson, Roddy Doyle and Irvine Welsh.

The Penguin Guide to Literature in English

Britain And Ireland

Cory Arcangel

What does it feel like to try and create something new? How is it possible to find a space for the demands of writing a novel in a world of instant communication? 
 
Working on My Novel is about the act of creation and the gap between the different ways we express ourselves today. Exploring the extremes of making art, from satisfaction and even euphoria to those days or nights when nothing will come, it's the story of what it means to be a creative person, and why we keep on trying.

Working On My Novel

Filled with empathy and wisdom, personal experiences and creative inspiration, this is a vital collection of essays on the power of literature and the craft of writing from an international array of writers of colour. 
 
'Electric essays that speak to the experience of writing from the periphery . . . a guide, a comfort, and a call all at once' Laila Lalami, author of Conditional Citizens 
 
'A whip-smart collection' Kamila Shamsie, author of Best of Friends 
 
What if we reconsidered our assumptions about how fiction should be written? And can we then apply our discoveries to both what we read and how we read? This book explores these questions and encourages us into a more inclusive conversation about storytelling, featuring: 
 
• Taymour Soomro on resisting rigid stories about who you are 
• Madeleine Thien on how writing builds the room in which it can exist 
• Amitava Kumar on why authenticity isn't a license we carry in our wallets 
• Tahmima Anam on giving herself permission to be funny 
• Ingrid Rojas Contreras on the bodily challenge of writing about trauma 
• Zeyn Joukhadar on queering English and the power of refusing to translate ourselves 
• Kiese Laymon on hearing that no one wants to read the story that you want to write 
• Deepa Anappara on writing even through conditions that impede the creation of art 
 
Plus essays from Tiphanie Yanique, Xiaolu Guo, Jamil Jan Kochai, Vida Cruz-Borja, Femi Kayode, Nadifa Mohamed in conversation with Leila Aboulela, Myriam Gurba, Mohammed Hanif and Sharlene Teo. 
 
'This book is essential' Nikesh Shukla 
 
'Bracing and moving . . . No one interested in how we read and should read fiction can afford to miss this' Pankaj Mishra, author of Run And Hide

Letters to a Writer of Colour

This is an all new version of the popular PARALLEL TEXT series, containing eight pieces of contemporary fiction in the original Spanish and in English translation. Including stories by Fuentes, Molinas, Marquez and Cortazar, this volume gives a fascinating insight into Spanish and Latin American culture and literature as well as providing an invaluable educational tool.

Short Stories in Spanish

Dante Alighieri

A totally unique poetic treatise, La Vita Nuova is an elaborately and symbolically patterned selection of Dante's early poems, interspersed with his own incisive prose commentary. 
 
The poems themselves tell the story of his undying love for Beatrice, from their first meeting at a May Day party, through Dante's sufferings and his attempts to conceal the true object of his devotion, to his overwhelming grief at her death, and ending with the transformative vision of her in heaven. These are some of the richest love poems in literature and the movement from self-pitying lament to praise for his beloved's beauty and virtue illustrate the elevating power of love. 
 
This lucid new translation, based on the latest authoritative Italian edition and featuring the Italian on facing pages, captures the ineffable quality of a work that has inspired the likes of Charles Baudelaire, T. S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges and Louise Glück.

Vita Nuova

A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text

Anthony Anaxagorou

_________________________ 
How to Write It: Tell Your Story 
 
This book is a masterclass in the craft of writing and poetry from one of Britain's most celebrated poets and educators, T.S. Eliot Prize nominee Anthony Anaxagorou. 
 
Taking readers on a personal journey through his early life and school years, through to his relationship with literature, education poetry and writing, this book is filled with tips, anecdotes and publishing advice for anyone interested in getting their work seen. From Anthony's first slam win to the evolving British poetry scene, this book will provoke readers into thinking about their writing more carefully - be it a poem, short story or novel - and help them finally get their book out into the world. 
 
This book is essential reading for taking your work to the next level, and is introduced with an inspirational foreword by Sunday Times bestselling author, Candice Carty-Williams. 
_________________________ 
 
'This brilliant little book [...] a guide to writing practical and theoretical' Radio 4, 'Start The Week' 
_________________________ 
Designed to inspire and encourage readers to unlock their potential and provoke change, the How To series offers a new model in publishing, helping to break down knowledge barriers and uplift the next generation. 
 
Creatively presented and packed with clear, step-by-step, practical advice, this series is essential reading for anyone seeking guidance to thrive in the modern world. Curate your bookshelf with these collectable titles.

How To Write It

Work With Words

Jean Findlay

C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s celebrated translation of Proust’s A La Recherche du Temps Perdu was first published in 1922 and was a work which would exhaust and consume the translator, leading to his early death at the age of just forty. Joseph Conrad told him, ‘I was more interested and fascinated by your rendering than by Proust’s creation’: some literary figures even felt it was an improvement on the original. 
 
From the outside an enigma, Scott Moncrieff left a trail of writings that describe a man expert at living a paradoxical life: fervent Catholic convert and homosexual, gregarious party-goer and deeply lonely, interwar spy in Mussolini’s Italy and public man of letters – a man for whom honour was the most abiding principle. He was a decorated war hero, and his letters home are an unusually light take on day-to-day life on the front. Described as ‘offensively brave’, he was severely injured in 1917 and, convalescing in London, became a lynchpin of literary society – friends with Robert Graves and Noel Coward, enemies with Siegfried Sassoon and in love with Wilfred Owen. 
 
Written by Scott Moncrieff’s great-great-niece, Jean Findlay, with exclusive access to the family archive, Chasing Lost Time is a portrait of a man hurled into war, through an era when the world was changing fast and forever, who brought us the greatest epic of time and memory that has ever been written.

Chasing Lost Time

The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy and Translator

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Where to start reading Virginia Woolf

The History of Hogarth Press

A gif of Virginia Woolf next to an image of a table laden with food

12 times Virginia Woolf understood the millennial condition

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Virginia Woolf’s (not so) secret lesbian relationship – in her own words

Lifestyle shot of Love Letters: Vita and Virginia, standing on a white marble base against a pale pink wall. A green fabric ribbon is draped across the front of the shot, and a mug and pink flowers stand to the left of the book.

14 romantic quotes from the love letters of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West

Weekly Penguin quiz: How well do you know Watership Down?

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Weekly quiz: Are you a Virginia Woolf expert?

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Jeanette Winterson on the books that changed her life

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9 brilliant pieces of gender bending fiction

Six Vintage Books Every Aspiring Writer Should Read

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In defence of the exclamation mark!

Defending The Well of Loneliness

The humble picnic has proved a memorable literary backdrop

The best picnic scenes in literature

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