Dickens

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Peter Morton

"Despite his lifelong ill health and relatively short life, Grant Allen (1848-1899) was a writer of extraordinary productivity and range. His work reflects interests from Darwinian biology to cultural travel guides. His prosperity, however, was underpinned by fiction: he wrote more than thirty novels, including The Woman Who Did, which has attracted much recent attention from feminist critics and historians. This book is the first critical biography of Allen in a century, and it draws from all the surviving primary sources. "The Busiest Man in England" uses Allen's career to examine the role and status of the freelance author/journalist in the late Victorian period, and analyzes what it took to succeed in this notoriously tough profession."--BOOK JACKET.

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Norman Rose

"Harold Nicolson, born in the late Victorian age, scion of a privileged family, was a man of extraordinary gifts. As a diplomat, a glittering career beckoned. But his talents extended well beyond the conference chamber, for he was also a renowned politician, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster and gardener. His position in society and politics, and his flair for recording what he witnessed, allowed Nicolson an insight into the most dramatic events of British, indeed world, history, from the peace settlements of 1919 to the Abdication Crisis, from the events leading to the Second World War to Suez." "Nicolson's personal life was no less dramatic. Married to Vita Sackville-West, one of the most famous writers of her day, their marriage survived, even prospered, despite their both being practising homosexuals. Unashamedly elitist, bound together by their literary, social, and intellectual pursuits, moving in the refined circles of the Bloomsbury group and other literary and social coteries, they viewed life from the rarified peaks of aristocratic haughtiness. At Sissinghurst Castle, their home for more than thirty years, their shared passion for gardening led to the creation of one of the most magnificent gardens in England."--BOOK JACKET.

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Jeremy Paxman

The witty, incisive and frank memoirs of bestselling author of 'The Victorians', Jeremy Paxman, whose career at the BBC included 25 years as the uncompromising presenter of Newsnight. Covering insights on politicians of every stamp over the last half century, reporting from war zones, the state of the BBC, to the role of journalism in our political system and much more, Jeremy Paxman's long-awaited and candid memoirs are packed with opinions and good humour on every page.

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Fay Weldon

"From life as a poor unwed mother in London to becoming one of England's best-selling authors and most popular exports, Fay Weldon has crammed more than most into her years. Wife, lover, playwright, novelist, feminist, antifeminist, winer and diner--Fay leads us through her peripatetic life with barely a role she can't illuminate"--Dustjacket.