British Art

From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels.

John le Carré led a life entirely constructed of secrets—not just in his first career, as a British spy and agent runner during the height of the Cold War or in his second, as a world-renowned writer of espionage fiction, but also in his personal involvements. He guarded his private life with fierce determination, fending off all would-be biographers until his ninth decade, when he finally relented and permitted his life story to be written. But there was still one element that he insisted be excluded, even then: the women.

With Muse of Fire, Michael Korda, the bestselling author of Alone and Hero, takes a novel approach to World War I by telling its history through the lives of the soldier-poets whose verses memorialize the war's unimaginable horrors. He begins with Rupert Brooke and the halcyon days before violence engulfed his generation—destroying the self-contented world of Edwardian England—and ends with the tragic death of Wilfred Owen, killed only days before the armistice brought an end to a war that took over 25,000,000 lives.

Phil Spector, born in the Bronx in 1940, grew up an outsider despised by his peers. But he formed a band, and had a number-one hit with "To Know Him Is to Love Him". He quickly became the top producer of early rock and roll and the originator of such girl groups as the Ronettes. Hit followed hit, and for all of them he used a new recording style called the "wall of sound". But the reign of the boy-man who owned pop music was doomed, and Spector spiraled into paranoid isolation and peculiar behavior.

Cosy is “the slacker’s guide to staying at home, an antidote to peak frazzle.” With trademark Anglo cheekiness, Laura Weir perfectly captures the British essence of cosy. She celebrates socks, warms to the joys of toasty open fires, and extols the virtues of a quiet walk, ultimately enticing us all to create the British magic of cosy in our everyday lives.

In Clothes...And Other Things that Matter, Alexandra Shulman delves into her own life to look at the emotions, ambitions, expectations and meanings behind the way we dress. From the bra to the bikini, the trench coat to trainers, the slip dress to the suit, she explores their meaning in women's lives and how our wardrobes intersect with the larger world - the career ladder, motherhood, romance, sexual identity, ambition, failure, body image and celebrity.

It was Emily Carr (1871-1945), not Georgia O'Keeffe or Frida Kahlo, who first blazed a path for modern women artists. Overcoming the confines of late Victorian culture, Carr became a major force in modern art. Her boldly original landscapes are praised today for capturing an untamed British Columbia, and its indigenous peoples, just before industrialization would change it forever. In this novel, Susan Vreeland brings to life this fiercely independent and underappreciated figure.

Set in Calcutta, London, the glacier-locked wilds of the Karakoram, and on Everest itself, The Last Englishmen is also the story of a generation. The cast of this exhilarating drama includes Indian and English writers and artists, explorers and Communist spies, Die Hards and Indian nationalists, political rogues and police informers. Key among them is a highborn Bengali poet named Sudhin Datta, a melancholy soul torn, like many of his generation, between hatred of the British Empire and a deep love of European literature, whose life would be upended by the arrival of war on his Calcutta doorstep.

Maximum Volume offers a glimpse into the mind, the music, and the man behind the sound of the Beatles. George Martin's working-class childhood and musical influences profoundly shaped his early career in the BBC's Classical Music department and as head of the EMI Group's Parlophone Records. Out of them flowed the genius behind his seven years producing the Beatles' incredible body of work, including such albums as Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road.

"Red beef and strong beer" was how C. S. Lewis described his education under one of his early tutors. It was, in other words, a substantial education that engaged deeply with the intellectual tradition and challenged him to grow. Gary Selby sees Lewis' expression as an indication of the kind of transformation that is both possible and necessary for the Christian faith, and he contends that spiritual formation comes about not by retreating from the physical world, but through deeper engagement with it.

Gary Barlow is one of the most successful British musicians and songwriters of all time, but 15 years ago, as he himself admits, he hit rock bottom - he was out of shape, out of work, depressed. Food for him had become an addiction, a means not only of comfort but almost of self-medication as he grappled with the cruel twists of fate of musical stardom. In 2003, as he struggled with the disappointment of an underperforming solo career alongside the tireless media taunts; Gary turned to food.

Bond and the Beatles present us with opposing values, visions of the British culture, and ideas about sexual identity. Love and Let Die is the story of a clash between working class liberation and establishment control, and how it exploded on the global stage. It explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.

“This author is sheer perfection when it comes to using descriptions and locations that are richly done and offering sharp details throughout the entirety of the story.” – Suspense Magazine When art recovery expert Laurel Beacham’s personal and professional worlds collide, she learns no good theft goes unpunished. Incomplete intel and a missing source compel her to make a huge mistake, and she’s left with a divided team. Every retrieved masterpiece has a price—and the cost of forgeries can be deadly. This time Laurel could lose not only her best lead, but also her most trusted ...

Imagine a world without Mr. Darcy. How would things have been different if he had never been born? In a moment of despair over Elizabeth’s rejection, the iconic hero of Pride and Prejudice wishes his life away. Now, on a tour with a surprising celestial guide, he must face up to the results. Instead of everybody being better off, as he had supposed, there have been unexpected consequences for his closest friends. Darcy realizes, too late, that his presence made a positive difference in the world, and that he really had a wonderful life. Is it all lost and gone forever?

A grim horror overshadows the village. A horror over three hundred years old. Here lives a witch who seeks vengeance on the folk who live beneath Raven Hill. A witch gone rogue, an evil crone with a vengeance that must be satisfied at all costs. Fish are dying. Crops are withering. The birds no longer sing. Everywhere, flocks of malevolent ravens darken the skies. The air is poisoned. Nate fears the life is slowly being choked from the village. But he has no idea why. For the villagers, time is running out. Who is the mysterious but enchanting Abbie who has set up camp close by? Is her ...

Shortly after moving into an old house Coraline discovers a big, carved, brown wooden door at the far corner of the drawing room. And it is locked. Curiosity runs riot in Coraline's mind and she unlocks the door to see what lies behind it. Disappointingly, it opens onto a brick wall. Days later, after exploring the rest of the house and garden, Coraline returns to the same mysterious door and opens it again. This time, however, there is a dark hallway in front of her.

A legendary relic of great power—and one man whose name is synonymous with adventure! Legend has it that whoever possesses the Holy Lance—the spear that pierced Christ's at the Crucifixion—holds in his hands the fate of the world. Ten years after serving in World War II in the British Special Service Brigade―and now teaching history at a military academy―Major Allan Quatermain is asked to perform one last mission. MI6 has received intel that a renegade band of Nazi holdouts is seeking the powerful Spear of Destiny. Worse, that Hitler himself might still be alive and orchestrating ...

Alastair Niven has plied a career as a writer, a lecturer and an administrator, including as director of literature at both the Arts Council and the British Council. He was president of English PEN during an epoch of controversial change and has had a special interest in Africa dating from his university years. Dedication to public service finally led him to Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, where he headed its royal foundation for discussion of educational and ethical issues.

After a wealthy woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow home in 1908, the police found a convenient suspect in Oscar Slater, an immigrant Jewish cardsharp. Though he was known to be innocent, Slater was tried, convicted, and consigned to life at hard labor. Outraged by this injustice, Arthur Conan Doyle, already world famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used the methods of his most famous character to reinvestigate the case, ultimately winning Slater’s freedom.

Laurel Beacham may have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but she has long since lost it digging herself out of trouble. Her father gambled and womanized his way through the family fortune before skiing off an Alp, leaving her with more tarnish than trust fund. Quick wits and connections have gained her a reputation as one of the world’s premier art recovery experts. The police may catch the thief, but she reclaims the missing masterpieces. The latest assignment, however, may be her undoing. Using every ounce of luck and larceny she possesses, Laurel must locate a priceless art ...