Literature Studies

This book's title, No Straight Road Takes You There, is an evocation and a declaration. 

Revised and updated for the twenty-first century, Steering the Craft is Ursula K. Le Guin’s carrier bag of the essentials of a writer’s craft, a generous gift from one of the great thinkers about how – and why – to write.

From cultural icon Margaret Atwood comes a brilliant collection of essays -- funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient -- which seek answers to a wide range of Burning Questions.

For the last three decades Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events and with the most significant personalities to impact the black diaspora: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Obama's victory. 

The book comprises an ensemble of articles and essays offering its readers engagement from an ethnological perspective with significant facets of the domain of Irish Studies. It attempts, both in its organisation and intellectual orientation to be a contribution to the instruction and formation of a variety of readerships.

From reflections on identity and nations to the importance of good marmalade, Allegorizings is the final despatch from one of the greatest chroniclers of the twentieth century.

America is at a crossroads.

And Other Thoughts On Modern Life

Among Gay's funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend's unabashed use of air quotes, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an aeroplane, the silent nod of acknowledgement between the only two black people in a room.

Wide-ranging, thoughtful and witty, How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? explores the anxieties and myths that consume our lives and the tools we use to muddle through. So sit back and take a breath. It's time to stop worrying about the answers - and start delighting in the questions.

'Utterly magnificent. Raw, thought-provoking and galvanising; this is a book every woman should read.' -Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing.

After the publication of Outline, Transit and Kudos - in which Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction - this writer of uncommon brilliance returns with a series of essays that offers new insights on the themes at the heart of her life's work.

Literary essays

We are living in the era of the self, in an era of malleable truth and widespread personal and political delusion.

Great literature is thrilling. It will feed your hungry mind and take your heart on a journey.

Tracing the complete story of reading from the age when symbol first became sign through to the electronic texts of the present day, Steven Roger Fischer's fascinating A History of Reading offers a sweeping view across time and geography of our evolving relationship with text.

The Cost of Living reveals a writer in radical flux, considering what it means to live with value and meaning and pleasure. This perfectly crafted snapshot of a woman in the process of transformation is as distinctive, wide-ranging and original as Levy's acclaimed novels, an essential read for every Deborah Levy fan.

Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf lived in Richmond-upon-Thames for ten years from the time of the First World War (1914-1924).

The authoritative exploration of the man behind Middle Earth. From Tolkien's Bletchley Park connection to the `publishing risk' of The Lord of the Rings, this latest addition to the Amazing & Extraordinary series explores J.R.R.Tolkien's inventiveness, the sources of his inspiration and the fellowship of his fan base.

Few authors have led lives as interesting as the French novelist and travel writer Pierre Loti (1850-1923) - nor have they worked harder to make it appear even more romantic than it already was.

Ireland is suffering a crisis of authority. Catholic Church scandals, political corruption, and economic collapse have shaken the Irish people's faith in their institutions.