HERMIONE LEE

Take a stroll through London with Virginia Woolf as your guide in this beautifully illustrated book.From the docklands of the East End to the Houses of Parliament; from the bustle of Oxford Street to peaceful moments on Hampstead Heath - Virginia Woolf explores the city''s hidden places and draws a remarkable portrait of the daily lives of Londoners. Capturing the London of the 1930s, but also the eternal city we recognise today, this is the perfect snapshot of an extraordinary metropolis.

Take a stroll through London with Virginia Woolf as your guide in this beautifully illustrated book. Virginia Woolf relished any opportunity for a stroll around London. She found great pleasure in observing the city and its people - noticing the subtle details that others often miss. In this collection of stunning essays, Woolf gives us an intimate tour of her beloved hometown. We venture through unfamiliar pockets of London and revisit its most famous landmarks; we smell the salty air of the East End docks and hear the echoing sounds inside the Houses of Parliament; Woolf transports us to the bustle of Oxford Street and the more peaceful moments on Hampstead Heath.Originally published bi-monthly in 1931 by Good Housekeeping, the essays in The London Scene exhibit Virginia Woolf at the height of her literary powers and present an unparalleled and meditative portrait of an extraordinary metropolis - capturing the London of the 1930s and also the eternal city we recognise today. While it might not list the hottest restaurants and the newest boutique hotels, The London Scene gives us an amalgam of intelligence and beauty that few, if any, guidebooks provide. - Francine Prose1930s London comes alive in these six evocative essays . . . a discerning, affectionate tour of her beloved city. - Washington Post

The key book for all time on Tom Stoppard: the biography of our greatest living playwright, by one of the leading literary biographers in the English-speaking world, a star in her own right, Hermione Lee.With unprecedented access to private papers, diaries, letters, and countless interviews with figures ranging from Felicity Kendal to John Boorman and Trevor Nunn to Steven Spielberg, Hermione Lee builds a metiucously researched portrait of one of our greatest playwrights.Drawing on several years of long, exploratory conversations with Stoppard himself, it tracks his Czech origins and childhood in India to every school and home hes ever lived in, every piece of writing hes ever done, and every play and film hes ever worked on; but in the end this is the story of a complex, elusive and private man, which tells you an enormous amount about him but leaves you, also, with the fascinating mystery of his ultimate unknowability.

In the title story, we meet Bertha, a young married woman, who experiences a blissful sexual awakening, only to be cruelly disillusioned. 'Prelude' reveals the tensions at the heart of a seemingly united family. In 'The Little Governess', an emotionally immature young woman allows childish fantasy to obscure her judgement, placing her in danger. Cynical and self-loathing, the voyeuristic writer in 'Je ne parle pas français' delights in the tragic outcome of an elopement. In these fourteen stories, the characters reveal - through their inner thoughts and conflicts - the universal struggle of human beings to fulfil their expectations.