Biographers, like historians, rely on sources to build a picture of their subject. Take Margaret Thatcher as an example. A biographer setting out on the task would have an excellent range of rich sources – television interviews, House of Commons speeches, memories of Thatcher’s family, friends and acquaintances, Parliamentary papers, Civil Service documents, newspaper and […]
Set in post-war Barcelona (1945), The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Carlos Ruiz Zafon – About | Carlos Ruiz Zafón Author – Official UK site) is a gothic mystery that follows Daniel Sempere, the son of an antiquarian bookseller. After losing his mother, Daniel is initiated into the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a secret labyrinthine library where he ‘adopts’ a
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John Donne (1571-1631) (John Donne | The Poetry Foundation) was born into a Catholic family at a time of persecution; family members were imprisoned and tortured. He moved between success and penury, with a stint in law, an unsuccessful foray as an adventurer in Spain, and a period at court that ended when he secretly
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Claire Keegan (Claire Keegan | Author | Books, Video, Quotes, Articles | Faber) is an Irish writer known for her short stories, which have been published in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Granta and The Paris Review. Two of her novellas have been brought to the screen. This novella is set in the
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The scope of modern science is so vast and complex that no one person can have a deep understanding of all topics. Should you wish for the best available summary between two covers, reach for The Frontiers of Knowledge by Anthony Grayling (A.C. Grayling). In very recent times humanity has learnt a great deal about
In 1 Corinthians 15:14 , Paul writes “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (King James Version) Tom Wright (N.T. Wright) (NTWrightPage – and Professor N. T. Wright | Faculty of Theology and Religion), is one of the world’s foremost New Testament scholars and an Anglican bishop. He
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Neal Shusterman (About | Neal Shusterman) is an American writer of young adult fiction. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for his book Challenger Deep. To sample Shusterman’s large body of work try Unwind (2007). The summary is as follows: The story takes place in a future version of the United
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William Gerald Golding (William Golding | Official website) was an English novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the
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Martha Batalha (batalha-martha | RCW Literary Agency) is a Brazilian born writer and journalist. She has written for the newspapers O Dia, O Globo and Extra. In 2013, Batalha founded the publishing house Desiderata, which was sold to Ediouro publishing group in 2008. The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão was published in 2017 and the
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