Collection: Adult Non Fiction - Languages and Literature

First published in 1979, The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to def...

Told through a series triptychs-each with a poem, a work of essayistic prose and a photographic image-White Clouds Blue Rain captures discrete moments of life with precise yet unpredictable detail. Taking cues from artists, writers and architects, Driscoll gently binds the everyday to the abstrac...

"How did a loner destined for a niche domestic audience become one of the most famous writers alive? A rare look inside the making of the "Murakami Industry"-and a thought-provoking exploration of the role of translators and editors in the creation of global literary culture. Thirty years ago, wh...

Jenny Diski was a fearless writer, for whom no subject was too difficult, even her own diagnosis with cancer. Her columns in the London Review of Books -- selected here by her editor and friend Mary-Kay Wilmers, ranged from subjects as various as happiness, social psychology, self-absorption and ...

"Delving into the origins of our alphabet and writing system, grammatical rules and conventions, the sound structure of language, and how our brains and bodies interpret and communicate language itself, Why Is This a Question? is a fascinating and enlightening exploration of the inner workings of...

From one of the most unusual and distinctive writers working today, dubbed 'the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation' by the Guardian, Will Self's Why Read is a cornucopia of thoughtful and brilliantly witty essays on writing and literature. Self takes us with him: from the foibl...

Explains how precious fiction is to contemporary British fiction readers, and how they draw on it to tell the stories of their lives. Draws on over 500 interviews with and questionnaires from women readers and writers.

Why write? Why write when it sometimes feels that so few people really read--read as if their lives might be changed by what they're reading? Why write, when the world wants to be informed, not enlightened; to be entertained, not inspired? Writing is backbreaking, mind breaking, lonely work. So w...