Counting one's blessings

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edited and with a preface by William Shawcross

William Shawcross's official biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, published in September 2009, was a huge critical and commercial success. One of the great revelations of the book was Queen Elizabeth's insightful, witty private correspondence. Indeed, The Sunday Times described her letters as "wonderful ... brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness." Now, Shawcross has put together a selection of her letters, drawing on the vast wealth of material in the Royal Archives and at Glamis Castle. Queen Elizabeth was a prolific correspondent from her earliest childhood before the First World War to the very end of her long life at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the real person behind the public face.--From publisher description.

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Frank Kermode

Frank Kermode has been known for decades as one of the great critics of English literature. Now his subtly nuanced attention turns to a different kind of text: the experiences of his own life. Throughout his luminous, witty memoir, Kermode touches on deeper, lighter, ineffable issues of autobiography, and he does so with his characteristic grace and precision. In Not Entitled, the miraculous connections between life and literature, between the world and the word, are transformed and ennobled.

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Frances Osborne

Using letters, diaries, and family legend, Frances Osborne explores the life of Idina, her enigmatic great-grandmother, following her from Edwardian London to the hills of Kenya, where she reigned over the scandalous antics of the 'Happy Valley set'" - Back cover.

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Michael J. Ortiz

The witty and engaging diary of Susanna Shakespeare, the young daughter of William Shakespeare, from a first–time author. Thirteen–year–old Susanna Shakespeare longs for something exciting to happen in her boring village of Stratford, England. Her father, Will, is always off in London, busily working on new plays, and Susanna yearns to be a part of that world. When Susanna's uncle gets himself in trouble with the Master of Revels, and Susanna is whisked off to London to help, the stage is set for adventure...and romance. Told in a diary format with Susanna's humorous, witty perspective of late–sixteenth–century Elizabethan England, this extensively researched debut novel offers an unconventional glimpse into the life of the famed Bard's family.