Literature

"Other Colours" is a collection of immediate relevance and timeless value, ranging from lyrical autobiography to criticism of literature and culture, from humour to political analysis, from delicate evocations of his friendship with his daughter Ruya to provocative discussions of Eastern and Western art. It also covers Pamuk's recent, high profile, court case. "My Father's Suitcase", Pamuk's 2006 Nobel Lecture, a brilliant illumination of what it means to be a writer, completes the selection from a man who is now without doubt one ... read more

For two hundred years after Shakespeare's death, no one thought to argue that somebody else had written his plays. Since then dozens of rival candidates - including Sir Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford - have been proposed as their true author. "Contested Will" unravels the mystery of when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays (among them such leading writers and artists as Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, and Sir Derek Jacobi). Shakespeare scholar James ... read more

This witty, clever, mind-expanding and original book is destined to become a classic.
A professor for over 40 years, Jim Flynn found fewer and fewer of his students were in love with reading. However, they were willing to try if he gave them lists. This inspired him to create the definitive list: books so wonderful to read, and so revealing about times and places, that they make learning enjoyable and effortless. The title is in honour of the author's 'uneducated' Irish-American family, who made him love reading - includi... read more

A large number of people each year make their reading decisions on the basis of prizes like the Booker and Orange Guide to Fiction. This new title in the successful Must-Read series provides an overview of prize-winning fiction over the decades. With 100 titles fully featured and over 500 read-on recommendations, this unique survey of literature incorporates some of the finest contemporary fiction ever produced including Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (Booker), Jonathan Coe's What a Carve Up (John Llewellyn Rhys), Andrea... read more

From our earliest years we have heard proverbs, and many of them are repeated without much thought. Yes, 'birds of a feather flock together' and 'absence makes the heart grow fonder', but these sayings are so familiar that we are scarcely aware they are proverbs. It has been so for thousands of years, in every culture. It is only when someone like Max Cryer takes the time to look at them that we can see how these 'pearls of wisdom' have played such a key role in the moral guidance of every society. Sometimes the wisdom is distinctl... read more

'I want my books to have their own shelves,' you said, and that's how I knew it would be okay to live together. A nameless couple meet, fall in love, move in together, and then the hard work of loving each begins. Told as a series of dictionary entries, The Lover's Dictionary is an intimate portrait of a relationship in all its guises; a compelling, deeply romantic story of two people loving each other: passionately, imperfectly. Through these short entries, Levithan opens an intimate window into the couple's space, giving a name t... read more

From Zora Neale Hurston to Colette, Laura Ingalls Wilder to Charlotte Bronte, Harper Lee to Alice Walker, this title presents the stories of our beloved heroines and the writers who created them. It explores how the pluck and dignity of literary characters such as Jane Eyre and Lizzy Bennet can encourage women.

Exercise Book collects over fifty creative writing exercise used by Bill Manhire and his colleagues, not only at Victoria but throughout New Zealand and around the world. The celebrated writer/teachers who have contributed include Elanor Catton, Curtis Sittenfeld, Emily Perkins, David Vann, Elizabeth and Sara Knox, Dora Malech and Kirsty Gunn. This book will be an indispensible resource for teachers and students, and excellent stimulation and entertainment for anyone wanting to give writing a go.
Exercises give your body a wo... read more

To celebrate Austen's extraordinary career, this book brings together everything that makes Austen's work some of the best loved in history. In addition to detailed appraisals of each of the novels it includes sections on Austen's family, homes, life and character, and a look into just why we find Austen so appealing in a modern world.

Selected and presented by one of Wilde's biggest fans, the book includes a foreword from Stephen Fry, as well as introductions to the stories themselves, explaining why they mean so much to him and why they should mean a lot to you too. llustrated by Nicole Stewart, stunning artwork accompanies each story to give shape to the reader's imagination. Whether you know it or not, the stories in this book are familiar. Like old friends whose charm and warmth never fade, Oscar Wilde's short stories have enchanted generations of readers, ... read more

A fascinating, lively account of the making of the King James Bible. James VI of Scotland -- now James I of England -- came into his new kingdom in 1603. Trained almost from birth to manage rival political factions, he was determined not only to hold his throne, but to avoid the strife caused by religious groups that was bedevilling most European countries. He would hold his God-appointed position and unify his kingdom. Out of these circumstances, and involving the very people who were engaged in the bitterest controversies, a boo... read more

The punctuation workout for sticklers and rookies alike. The punctuation panda is back! Armed with a permanent marker, a smidgen of confidence, and a copy of 'Can You Eat, Shoot and Leave?', everyone now has the chance to become a member of the punctuation elite. Established punctuation sticklers: Fine-tune existing skills, taking guilty pleasure from testing your (already somewhat unsettling) seventh sense. Confused novices: Never again inflict flawed and perplexing punctuation on your innocent readers. The only official work... read more

"Big things are happening secretly all around," says Jack London's prescient hero Ernest Everhard in the 1908 novel The Iron Heel, excerpted in this timely anthology of London's writings about war and revolution. Besides illuminating his surprising literary range, The Radical Jack London establishes the iconic American author as both a product of his own era and a significant voice for ours. The book features works by London that have been unavailable for decades. In his insightful introduction, editor Jonah Raskin lays out the soc... read more

A former word pun champion's funny, erudite, and provocative exploration of puns, the people who make them, and this derided wordplay's remarkable impact on history. The pun is commonly dismissed as the lowest form of wit, and punsters are often unpopular for their obsessive wordplay. But such attitudes are relatively recent developments. In "The Pun Also Rises," John Pollack-a former World Pun Champion and presidential speechwriter for Bill Clinton-explains why such wordplay is significant: It both revolutionized language and play... read more

This title includes more than five hundred full colour illustrations by Sir John Gilbert. It features the Complete Works, reset using the famous Shakespeare Head text. All of Shakespeare's works in one volume. It also includes Shakespeare's world been captured by the titan of Victorian illustration, Sir John Gilbert RA. Gilbert's illustrations sensitively hand-coloured by Barbara Frith, one of Britain's finest colourists, whose work has won widespread acclaim. This sumptuous volume contains biographies of Shakespeare and Sir John G... read more

This is a witty, elegant enquiry into the art of persuasion. Rhetoric is nothing to be afraid of. It isn't the exclusive preserve of politicians: it's everywhere, from your argument with the insurance company to your plea to the waitress for a table near the window. It convicts criminals (and then frees them on appeal). It causes governments to rise and fall, best men to be shunned by their friends' brides, and perfectly sensible adults to march with steady purpose towards machine guns. In this highly entertaining (and persuasive) ... read more

This is the most complete history of fiction in English ever published. The world's greatest authority - arguably the only person who could have written it, John Sutherland - provides the lives of some 294 novelists writing in English, from the genre's seventeenth-century origins to the present day. Arranged in chronological order the novelist's lives are opinionated, informative, frequently funny and often shocking. Professor Sutherland's authors come from all over the world; their writings illustrate every kind of fiction from go... read more

"The Kelmscott Chaucer" is the most memorable and beautiful edition of the complete works of the first great English poet. Next to "The Gutenberg Bible", it is considered the outstanding typographic achievement of all time. There are 87 full-page illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and the borders, decorations and initials are drawn by William Morris himself. Only 425 copies of this magnificent work were produced in 1896, and this beautiful monochrome facsimile, slightly smaller than the original, makes this glorious book avai... read more