Humphrey Carpenter

Mr Majeika can behave just like any ordinary teacher if he wants to, but something has to be done about Hamish Bigmore, the class nuisance, and so he uses a little magic to turn him into a frog. And to everyone's delight it looks as if Hamish will have to remain a frog because Mr Majeika can't remember the spell to turn him back again! With Mr Majeika in charge, suddenly life at school become much more exciting - there's even a magic-carpet ride to Buckingham Palace!

W. H. Auden disapproved of literary biography. Or did he? The truth is far more equivocal than at first seems apparent. There is no denying he delivered himself of such unambiguous pronouncements as Biographies of writers are always superfluous and usually in bad taste.; and that he asked for his friends to burn his letters at his death, but, against that, Auden himself often reviewed literary biographies and normally with enthusiasm. Moreover he argued for biographies of writers such as Dryden, Trollope, Wagner and Gerard Manley Hopkins as their lives would tell us something about their art. Humphrey Carpenter himself nicely summarizes Audens ambiguity on this question. Here (referring to literary biography), as so often in his life, Auden adopted a dogmatic attitude which did not reflect the full range of his opinions, and which he sometimes flatly contradicted. Although the biography was not authorized it did receive the co-operation of the Auden Estate which gave permission for letters and unpublished works to be quoted. The result is a biography that was widely praised on first publication in 1981 and which continues to hold its own. Now is the obvious time to reissue it with the character of Humphrey Carpenter playing an important role in Alan Bennetts The Habit of Art. In his introduction Alan Bennett writes When I started writing the play I made much use of the biographies of both Auden and Britten written by Humphrey Carpenter and both are models of their kind. Indeed I was consulting his books so much that eventually Carpenter found his way into the play.Carpenter is a model biographer - diligent, unspeculative, sympathetic, and extremely good at finding out what happened when and with whom . . . admirably detailed and researched study. John Bayley, The Listeneran illuminating book; full of information, unobtrusively affectionate, it describes with unpretentious elegance the curve of a great poets life and work Frank Kermode, Guardiansharpens and usually lights up even the most canvassed parts of the Auden life and myth . . . a deeply interesting book about a deeply interesting life Roy Fuller, Sunday Times . . . the story of a remarkable man told by one of the best living biographers David Cecil, Book Choice

Covering the period from the publication of Alices Adventures in Wonderland to Winnie-the-Pooh, Humphrey Carpenter examines the lives and writings of Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, George Macdonald, Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, A.A. Milne and others whose works make up the Golden Age of childrens literature.Both a collective biography and a work of criticism, Secret Gardens forces us to reconsider childhood classics in a new light. Secret Gardens permits us to see in a fresh light the interaction between cultural history and literature, and to realize that ... it wasnt mere misfits who withdrew into the writing of childrens books, but rather the sort of misfits who reflected the prevailing dissatisfactions of the age.New York Times Book Review

Durante años, un reducido número de catedráticos y profesores de Oxford, así como algunos de sus amigos, se reunían en un pub cada jueves por la tarde para tomar unas cervezas, debatir sobre cuestiones como la mitologia, la religion o la literatura, y leerse mutuamente las obras que estaban escribiendo. Aunque, probablemente, los encuentros mas importantes tuvieron lugar las noches de los martes en las habitaciones de C. S. Lewis en el Magdalen College. Este grupo, que incluia a intelectuales de la talla de Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien y Charles Williams, era conocido por el nombre de Los Inklings. Los Inklings tuvieron una gran influencia tanto en el mundo de la literaria fantastica como en el de la apologia cristiana. La presente biografia de Humphrey Carpenter pretende examinar en detalle la naturaleza de aquellas reuniones y su efecto sobre cada uno de sus participantes.

"Do be careful, Mr Majeika, there might be real ghosts in there." When Class Three and Mr Majeika get on board a Ghost Train they are in for a surprise. Real ghosts appear and the wicked Wilhelmina Worlock isn't far away. But Jody comes to the rescue . . . with a dragon to help her. Another magical adventure for Class Three.

As a rule, magic carpets don''t turn up in schools, but this is exactly what happens when Class Three''s new teacher flies in through the classroom window and lands on the floor with a bump.Mr Majeika can behave just like any ordinary teacher if he wants to, but something has to be done about Hamish Bigmore, the class nuisance, and so he uses a little magic to turn him into a frog. And to everyone''s delight it looks as if Hamish will have to remain a frog because Mr Majeika can''t remember the spell to turn him back again! With Mr Majeika in charge, suddenly life at school become much more exciting - there''s even a magic-carpet.

"Music teacher? What music teacher?" The sudden arrival of a new music teacher throws St Barty's School into confusion. Horrid smells start coming from the staffroom and creepy-crawlies suddenly appear. For the new arrival is Wilhelmina Worlock, a wicked witch with some nasty tricks. And it's up to Mr Majeika to try to outwit her . . .

The original authorised biography and the only one written by an author who actually met J R R Tolkien reissued to mark Tolkien s 125th Anniversary

'Oh dear' said Mr Majeika. 'I didn't mean to do that at all - I must have used the wrong spell again.' But too many wrong spells for Mr Majeika mean that he will lose his power altogether and Hamish Bigmore will become a wizard. Unless the lost spell book can be found ...