Andrew Lycett

The definitive biography of Wilkie Collins: the Victorian novelist, playwright, author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White, who lived a life of sensation.Part biography, part history, part intimate family saga, Wilkie Collins brings to life one of England''s greatest writers against the backdrop of Victorian London and all its complexities. It is a truly sensational story.1868, and bestselling author Wilkie Collins is hard at work on a new detective novel, The Moonstone. But he is weighed down by a mountain of problems his own sickness, the death of his mother, and, most pressing, the announcement by his live-in mistress that she has tired of his relationship with another woman and intends to marry someone else. His solution is to increase his industrial intake of opium and knuckle down to writing the book T. S. Eliot called the greatest English detective novel.Of Wilkies domestic difficulties, not a word to the outside world: indeed, like his great friend Charles Dickens, he took pains to keep secret any detail of his menage. Theres no doubt that the arrangement was unusual and, for Wilkie, precarious, particularly since his own books focused on uncovering such deeply held family secrets. Indeed, he was the master of the Victorian sensation novel, fiction that left readers on the edge of their seats as mysteries and revelations abounded.In this colourful investigative portrait, Andrew Lycett draws Wilkie Collins out from the shadow of Charles Dickens. Wilkie is revealed as a brilliant, witty, friendly, contrary and sensual man, deeply committed to his work. Here he is given his rightful place at the centre of the literary, artistic and historical movements of his age.

Part biography, part history, part intimate family saga, Wilkie Collins brings to life one of England''s greatest writers against the backdrop of Victorian London and all its complexities. It is a truly sensational story.1868, and bestselling author Wilkie Collins is hard at work on a new detective novel, The Moonstone. But he is weighed down by a mountain of problems - his own sickness, the death of his mother, and, most pressing, the announcement by his live-in mistress that she has tired of his relationship with another woman and intends to marry someone else. His solution is to increase his industrial intake of opium and knuckle down to writing the book T. S. Eliot called the ''greatest'' English detective novel.Of Wilkie''s domestic difficulties, not a word to the outside world: indeed, like his great friend Charles Dickens, he took pains to keep secret any detail of his menage. There''s no doubt that the arrangement was unusual and, for Wilkie, precarious, particularly since his own books focused on uncovering such deeply held family secrets. Indeed, he was the master of the Victorian sensation novel, fiction that left readers on the edge of their seats as mysteries and revelations abounded.In this colourful investigative portrait, Andrew Lycett draws Wilkie Collins out from the shadow of Charles Dickens. Wilkie is revealed as a brilliant, witty, friendly, contrary and sensual man, deeply committed to his work. Here he is given his rightful place at the centre of the literary, artistic and historical movements of his age.

This riveting, acclaimed account of the life of Dylan Thomas takes a poignant yet stirring look at the chaos of the poet''s personal life and offers a reevaluation of the lyricism and experimentalism

La pesquisa era el oficio de Sherlock Holmes. Adoptó las últimas técnicas forenses, canalizó la pasión victoriana por la indagación, se mantuvo al día de los principales avances científicos de su época y llevo a cabo sus investigaciones de forma enigmatica y elegante. El cerebro de todo ello fue, por supuesto, su creador, sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Pero ¿de donde saco Doyle la inspiracion para Holmes? En esta detallada exposicion de los mundos de Sherlock Holmes, Andrew Lycett da vida al gran detective rastreando sus origenes e influencias, su labor, su caracter y su perdurable legado.