by Norman Page (2000)
"Under the editorial direction of Professor Norman Page, more than 40 of the world's most prominent experts on Hardy have been brought together to combine their insights and understandings of all aspects of Hardy studies. The result is a unique synthesis of knowledge, incorporating different national interests and traditions of scholarship, investigating Hardy's life, work, and influences, and the historical context in which he wrote." "As well as the assurance of sound scholarship and the convenience of the Companion format, there are unexpected delights for the browser, such as entries on alcohol, humour, and pets. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy is for the Hardy scholar and the Hardy reader alike: more than 300 entries arranged A-Z for immediate access; all the novels, collections of verse, autobiography, letters, essays, stories, and notebooks; Hardy's family and friends, the places that were important to him, and the influences that shaped his works; popular reaction and critical approaches to his work, and the history of Hardy publishing; 40 integrated black-and-white illustrations; fully cross-referenced to facilitate browsing; and subject index listing entries by topic, Additional material includes a chronology of Hardy's life, an index of his poems, lists of place-names and characters in his works, a glossary of dialect words and expressions, and an extensive bibliography."--Jacket.
M. J. Simpson, historical consultant Kevin Davies
Douglas Adams will be most fondly remembered for the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series and its idiosyncratic humour. But this biography covers his life from his days as a struggling sketch writer to his untimely death at the age of 49 in May 2001.
Andrew Norman
When Agatha Christie, the so-called “Queen of Crime”, disappeared from her home in Sunningdale in Berkshire for eleven days on 3 December 1927, the whole nation held its breath. The following day, when her car was found abandoned fourteen miles away, a nationwide search was instigated. From a painstaking reconstruction of Agatha’s movements and behavior during those eleven days, Dr Andrew Norman is able to shed new light on what, in many ways, has remained a baffling mystery. Only now, fifty years after Agatha’s death, is it possible to explain fully, in the light of scientific knowledge, her behaviour during that troubled time. By deciphering clues from her celebrated works, Agatha Christie: The Finished Portrait sheds light on what is perhaps the greatest mystery of all to be associated with Britain’s best-loved crime writer, namely that of the person herself.
Stephen Fry
"Stephen Fry has already given readers a taste of his tumultuous adolescence in his autobiographical first novel, The Liar, and now he reveals the equally tumultuous life that inspired it. Sent to boarding school at the age of seven, he survived beatings, misery, love affairs, carnal violation, expulsion, attempted suicide, criminal conviction and imprisonment to emerge, at the age of eighteen, ready to start over in a world in which he had always felt a stranger. One of very few Cambridge University graduates to have been imprisoned prior to his freshman year, Fry is a character who continues to attract controversy, empathy and real devotion.
Duncan Fairhurst
From the age of four, Duncan carried a terrible secret - his father was molesting him. Raised in a household where secrets and sick rituals were part of daily life, Duncan was manipulated, bullied and raped from the age of four for over a decade. This is his story. Desperate to escape his father's tyranny, he tried to kill himself.