Galveston, Texas, 1900. Reports of a storm in the Gulf of Mexico are relayed to Isaac Cline, chief observer of the new Weather Bureau. But storms stay out at sea and veer East to run parallel to the coast normally. This one didn’t …
This highly praised biography is the first to explore fully the way in which her painful early life and rejection by her brother Isaac in particular, shaped the insight and art which made her both Victorian England’s last great visionary and the first modern.
Captain Bligh’s Portable Nightmare is the account of an extraordinary journey, a great achievement in the history of European seafaring and a personal triumph for a man that has been misjudged by history – Captain William Bligh, the supposedly cruel and foul-mouthed commander of The Bounty.
The biography of a mathematical genius. Paul Erdos was the most prolific pure mathematician in history and, arguably, the strangest too.
The dual biography of the great British comedy double-act and the rise and fall of mass audience television by the respected biographer of Cary Grant .
A wonderful piece of literary detective work that charts the colliding lives of Russia’s greatest poet and the man who killed him in their duel – cultural history that reads like a thriller.
The true story of a journey into an on-line community, LambdaMOO, a virtual Eden, where race, gender and identity were infinitely malleable and whose visitors thought they had escaped from all usual cultural limits. Until a brutal rape and ideological warfare between high and low castes brought the virtual and real worlds into seismic collision.
The first full-length biography of George Eliot to explore the way in which her painful early life shaped the insight and art which would make her Victorian England’s last great visionary.
The definitive biography of one of the greatest performers of the century by one of her closest friends. Highly illustrated with many previously unseen photographs.
Patti Smith was a poet, a punk prophet, a feminist icon, a living work of art and the first woman rock-outsider to come from the New York underground and become a star.
Longitude, Dava Sobel’s no.1 bestseller, is the elegant biography of the lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his times.
Everybody used to watch The Morecambe and Wise Show. When the masses settled down to watch Eric and Ernie, the masses were, for once, massively entertained. Morecambe and Wise is the essential biography of a much-loved comedy duo and the history of one of British television’s best-loved shows from the acclaimed author of Cary Grant: A Class Apart.
Three years in the life of Homer ‘Sonny’ Hickam, from the moment he sees the Sputnik satellite overhead in West Virginia to his successful launch of a prizewinning rocket.
First biography of The Rat Pack – Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop et al – the original Swingers. Brilliant and beautifully written story of their rise and fall, and their connections with the Kennedys and the Mafia, which will appeal to fans of Swingers!, Goodfellas and Nick Tosches’ Dino.
A fascinating biography of the woman champion motorboat racer of the 1920s who in the ’30s bought and became ‘ruler’ of an island in the British West Indies.
A sparklingly intelligent and intimate biography of one of Britain’s best-loved writers by the highly praised biographer of Swift: ‘The best biography of Swift to date.’ Michael Foot, Observer.
