New and recommended
£9.99
501 Minutes to Christ
Poe Ballantine’s vignettes of life as a drifter present an America of boarding houses, bus stations and diners, bruised and hopeful, downtrodden and resourceful, often heartbreakingly sad and just as often surprising and funny: ‘And anyway, no matter how you look at it, good or bad, magic or drab... See details
£20.00
The Bedside Book of Beasts
Graeme Gibson’s anthology of beastly writings combines myth, fable, poetry, extracts from novels and nature writing and his own recollections and observation with stunning works of art from across the centuries to provide a fascinating compendium of the many ways that wild animals have been depic... See details
£16.99
Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life
In 44 short pieces Michael Greenberg presents vignettes from the life of a native New Yorker. He writes in his preliminary ‘Note to the Reader’ ‘When I began writing these stories for the Times Literary Supplement, my editors instructions were simple and concise: each piece had to spill a ... See details
£20.00
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays
In a collection of essays covering books, films, travel and family reminiscences, Zadie Smith reveals herself to be as invigorating a writer of non-fiction as she is a novelist. ‘This is not the way critics are supposed to comport themselves’, wrote Peter Conrad in the Observer. ‘Smith’s e... See details
£12.99
Chopin, Prince of the Romantics
In the year of the composer’s bicentenary Zamoyski has revisited his 1979 biography of Chopin and entirely rewritten it in the light of new research. Chopin has been much mythologised, and Zamoyski’s aim is to cut through the “sugary blur of sentimentality and melodrama” to reveal the true Chopin... See details
£18.99
City Boy
Edmund White’s candid memoir of New York’s gay scene in the 60s and 70s is packed with frequently salacious anecdotes about the rich, the famous and the gifted. In the end though, it is the city itself that steals the show: crime-ridden, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, all but impossible to ... See details
£12.99
Cooking with Pomiane
One of the greatest food writers of the last century, Edouard de Pomiane was a biologist and physician by training, and used his scientific knowledge to explain, demystify and simplify the techniques of classic French cuisine. But he is no molecular gastronomist in the modern sense, and what make... See details
£16.99
The Defence of the Enlightenment
Although the Enlightenment and its core principles form, Todorov argues, the foundation stone of modern liberal democracy, those principles have been variously diluted, perverted and misapplied. In advocating a return to what he sees as the Enlightenment project, he is less sanguine, and more rea... See details
£7.99
Elsie and Mairi Go to War
Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm met in 1912 at a Bournemouth motorcycle club and took part together in many rallies and trials over the next few years. When war broke out, they immediately volunteered for service on the Western Front, where as ambulance drivers and nurses on the front line they ... See details
£15.00
First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process
Although none of his essays or books addresses the subject explicitly, writing was a central concern for Emerson, and his works are peppered with reflections and practical advice on the writing process. Drawing on his prodigious knowledge of the life and work of the Concord Sage, Robert Richardso... See details
£20.00 £18.00 save 10%
Footnotes in Gaza
Joe Sacco uses a unique combination of investigative journalism and comic book graphics to bring alive the events of 1956 in Gaza, when Israeli army massacres in Khan Younis and Rafah left hundreds of Palestinian refugees dead. Sacco believes, against the grain of much contemporary journalism, th... See details
£10.99
Hackney, that Rose-Red Empire
Hackney, That Rose-red Empire is a timely excavation of London’s East End. Once an Arcadian suburb of grand houses, orchards and conservatories, Hackney declined into a zone of asylums, hospitals and dirty industry: now, the Olympics seeks to complete the process – erasure disguised as ‘pr... See details
£8.99
Hopping: An East End Family at Work and Play
Hop cultivation probably began in Kent in the 15th century, introduced by Flemish weavers. When in the 18th century Londoners replaced their taste for gin with a taste for beer, hop production increased exponentially, and the tradition arose of ‘hopping’, the annual migration of thousands of East... See details
£16.99 £15.29 save 10%
How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer
‘Montaigne’ refers to a book as much as it does a man – to the Essais, among the most enduringly popular works of literature of all time, as much as to Michel Eyquem de Montaigne himself, the 16th-century nobleman from the South of France who wrote them. Sarah Bakewell provides a life of both Mon... See details