Collection: Adult Non Fiction - Languages and Literature

Written in history celebrates the great letters of world history, creative culture and personal life. Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore selects over one hundred letters from ancient times to the twenty-first century: some are noble and inspiring, some despicable and unsettling; some are ...

The Written World tells the riveting story of the development of literature, where stories intersect with writing technologies like clay, stone, parchment, paper, printing presses and computers. Central to the development of religions, political movements and even nations, texts spread useful tru...

Anne Carson is probably our most celebrated living poet, winner of countless awards and routinely tipped for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Famously reticent, asking that her books be published without cover copy, she has agreed to say this: 'Wrong Norma is a collection of writings about differen...

Have you ever bunged it on? Behaved like a drongo? Added mayo to a story? Lost your Reg Grundies? Join bestselling storyteller William McInnes as he offers his own take on our colourful and colloquial way with words. From the simpler times of childhood to today's testing (and unprecedented!) time...

John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their daughter fall ill. At first they thought it was flu, then she was placed on life support. Days later, the Dunnes were sitting down to dinner when John suffered a massive and fatal coronary. This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the we...

Enjoy the magic of reading aloud and switch off from the distractions of life through the contemplation of poetry. Reciting poetry is a tradition as old as time. Ancient Greeks used it for awakening the mind and shaping character. Memorising poetry exercises the brain and gives it strength to lea...

"A mosquito finds him, gives him an ang pow kiss to mark the going and the coming of the year of the wasp.' In 2012 Joel Deane suffered a stroke. Suddenly he was a poet without language. Year of the Wasp tracks Deane's battle to rediscover his poetic voice. From these deeply personal origins Dean...

Yes! No! But Wait! is the most straightforward book on writing a novel ever published. It is also the most practical, honest and useful. Tim Lott admits he cant teach someone how to write a novel (thats one of the myths propagated by the novel-writing industry). But he can help anyone construct a...