This exquisitely illustrated and updated edition of Bill Bryson's best-selling biography of William Shakespeare takes the reader on an enthralling journey through Elizabethan England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship. Includes exclusive audio of Shakespeare's sonnets, read by Sir John Gielgud.

J. G. Ballard has been, for over fifty years, one of this country's most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, 'Empire of the Sun', in this revelatory autobiography he charts the course of his astonishing life.

At the outset of his career Ted Hughes described letter-writing as 'excellent training for conversation with the world', and he was to become a prolific master of this art which combines writing and talking. This title documents the course of a life at once resolutely private but intensely attuned to other lives.

The first new biography for a generation of one of the great figures of English literature: Samuel Johnson - poet, essayist, biographer, critic, conversationalist and wit.

Jacqueline Wilson was known as 'Jacky Daydream' as a child - making up stories was her favourite way to spend time. If you too are a daydreamer or a doodler, this title gives you lots of space for you to record your thoughts, experiences and ideas. It features illustrations of your favourite Jacqueline Wilson characters.

When she married Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace , husband and wife regularly exchanged diaries. This book features Sofia Tolstoy's extensive diaries, which cover the years from 1862 to 1910.

This short biography of William Shakespeare by world famous writer Bill Bryson brims with the author's inimitable wit and intelligence.

* A moving memoir by a unique character which delivers a penetrating insight into some of the major events in post-war Britain

The authoritative biography of one of the twentieth century's greatest and most popular writers

The authorized biography of 'the greatest diarist of our times'

Paulo Coelho is a worldwide phenomenon. At a time when he is coming up to the fantastic achievement of 100 million copies sold worldwide across all his books, his fans will be delighted with the first ever official biography of Paulo, an in-depth look at his life and work, and what makes him the much-loved author he is today.

Diana Athill made her reputation as a writer with the candour of her memoirs and freed from any inhibitions that even she may once have had, she reflects frankly on the losses and occasionally the gains that old age brings, and on the wisdom and fortitude required to face death.

William Golding was born in 1911 and educated at his local grammar school and Brasenose College, Oxford. Lord of the Flies , his first novel, was an immediate success, and was followed by a series of remarkable novels, including The Inheritors , Pincher Martin and The Spire . This book presents his biography.

A biography that reveals Dickens the man through the profession in which he excelled. Drawing on a study of this prodigiously brilliant figure, it explores the personal and emotional life, the high-profile public activities, the relentless travel, the charitable works, the amateur theatricals and the astonishing productivity.

A terrifically engaging and original biography about one of England's greatest novelists, and the glamorous, eccentric, debauched and ultimately tragic family that provided him with the most significant friendships of his life and inspired his masterpiece, Brideshead Revisited .

When Aeronwy was 6, her parents Dylan and Caitlin Thomas moved to the boathouse at the edge of the small Welsh village Laugharne. Through a child's eye this work recalls the chaos and joy of living with Dylan Thomas while the poet was at the height of his creative powers, composing Under Milk Wood .

John Cheever was a peerless writer who, on his death in 1982, left some of the best short stories of the 20th century and a number of highly acclaimed novels. This biography reveals - behind the disguises with which he faced the world - a troubled but strangely lovable man, and a writer of timeless fiction.

Arthur Ransome was, in the mid-twentieth century, author of a series of children's books which shaped the imagination of a generation. Rooted in the heyday of the British Empire, Swallows and Amazons and its sequels described a nostalgic Utopia. This title presents a revision of this English icon.

Following the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns (1759-96), this work explodes the Burns myth, and replaces the ram-stam lad of popular cliche with the real, living Burns - a Scottish patriot of the heart, an idealist who wished for 'Freedom and Liberty' for his beloved country, but also a man who was pragmatically a British patriot.

Features John Cheever's letters that include correspondence with his contemporaries, such as Philip Roth, John Updike and Saul Bellow, his days as a young, aspiring writer and his battles with bisexuality and alcoholism.