by Colm Toibin
Jane Austen 1997
Jenny Uglow
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories 1993
Poetry
TWENTY OF THE BEST COLLECTIONS PUBLISHED SINCE 1950
John Ashbery
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror 1977
W. H. Auden
City Without Walls 1969
Elizabeth Bishop
Complete Poems, 1927–1979 1986
Paul Durcan
A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems 1993
Thom Gunn
My Sad Captains 1961
Seamus Heaney
Field Work 1979
Anthony Hecht
Millions of Strange Shadows 1977
Geoffrey Hill
King Log 1968
Ted Hughes
The Hawk in the Rain 1957
Philip Larkin
The Whitsun Weddings 1964
Robert Lowell
Robert Lowell’s Poems: A Selection 1974
Derek Mahon
The Snow Party 1974
Les Murray
The Vernacular Republic 1982
Howard Nemerov
The Western Approaches 1975
Sylvia Plath
Ariel 1965
Adrienne Rich
The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New
1950–1984 1984
Theodore Roethke
Collected Poems 1966
Anne Sexton
Complete Poems 1981
R. S. Thomas
Song at the Year’s Turning 1955
Derek Walcott
The Star-Apple Kingdom 1979
Autobiographies and memoirs by novelists
chosen in this book
Chinua Achebe
Home and Exile 2000
Martin Amis
Experience 2000
Kingsley Amis
Memoirs 1991
J. G. Ballard
Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton 2008
Julian Barnes
Nothing to be Frightened of 2008
Sybille Bedford
Quicksands: A Memoir 2005
Elizabeth Bowen
Seven Winters 1942
Bowen’s Court 1942
John Cheever
The Journals of John Cheever 1991
Agatha Christie
Autobiography 1977
Joan Didion
The Year of Magical Thinking 2005
Isak Dinesen
Out of Africa 1937
Anthony Burgess
Little Wilson and Big God 1987
You’ve Had Your Time 1990
John Fowles
The Journals Volume 1 1949–1965 2003
The Journals Volume 2 1965–1990 2006
Janet Frame
To the Is-Land 1983
An Angel at My Table 1984
The Envoy from Mirror City 1985
Graham Greene
A Sort of Life 1971
Ways of Escape 1980
Shirley Hazzard
Greene on Capri: A Memoir 2000
Roy Heath
Shadows Round the Moon: Caribbean Memoirs 1990
Joseph Heller
Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here 1998
Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast 1964
P. D. James
Time to be in Earnest 2000
Margaret Laurence
Dance on the Earth 1990
Rosamond Lehmann
The Swan in the Evening 1967
Doris Lessing
Under My Skin, Volume 1 of my Autobiography 1994
Walking in the Shade, Volume 2 of my Autobiography 1996
David Lodge
The Year of Henry James 2006
Mary McCarthy
Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood 1957
How I Grew 1987
Intellectual Memoirs, New York 1936–1938 1992
John McGahern
Memoir 2005
David Malouf
12 Edmonstone Street 1985
Frank Moorhouse
Martini: A Memoir 2005
R. K. Narayan
My Days 1975
Vladimir Nabokov
Speak, Memory 1951
(new edition 1966)
Sylvia Plath
The Journals of Sylvia Plath 1982
Anthony Powell
Infants of the Spring 1978
Messengers of the Day 1978
Faces in My Time 1980
The Strangers All Are Gone 1982
Published as one volume: To Keep the Ball Rolling 1983
V. S. Pritchett
The Cab at the Door 1968
Midnight Oil 1971
Philip Roth
The Facts: A Novelist’s Autobiography 1989
Frank Sargeson
Once is Enough 1972
More Than Enough 1975
Never Enough 1978
Published as one volume: Sargeson 1981
Vikram Seth
Two Lives 2005
Alan Sillitoe
Life Without Armour 1995
Kushwant Singh
Truth, Love and a Little Malice 2002
Wole Soyinka
Ake: The Years of Childhood
Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: A Memoir 1946–1965
Muriel Spark
Curriculum Vitae – Autobiography 1992
Robert Stone
Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties 2007
William Styron
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness 1991
William Trevor
Excursions in the Real World: Memoirs 1994
John Updike
Self-Consciousness: Memoirs 1989
Evelyn Waugh
A Little Learning 1964
Eudora Welty
One Writer’s Beginnings 1984
Tobias Wolff
This Boy’s Life 1989
In Pharoah’s Army 1995
Literary biographies of novelists chosen in this book
Chinua Achebe
Christophe Tshikala Kamgaji
Chinua Achebe: A Novelist and A Portrait of His Society 2004
Kingsley Amis
Zachary Leader
The Life of Kingsley Amis 2006
James Baldwin
James Campbell
Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin 1992
Samuel Beckett
Anthony Cronin
Samuel Beckett. The Last Modernist 1996
James Knowlson
Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett 1996
Elizabeth Bowen
Victoria Glendinning
Elizabeth Bowen: Portrait of a Writer 1977
William Burroughs
Ted Morgan
Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William Burroughs 1988
Raymond Chandler
Tom Hiney
Raymond Chandler: A Biography 1997
Bruce Chatwin
Susannah Clapp
With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer 1997
Nicholas Shakespeare
Bruce Chatwin 1999
John Cheever
Scott Donaldson
John Cheever: A biography 1988
Blake Bailey
Cheever: A life 2009
Agatha Christie
Laura Thompson
Agatha Christie: The Biography of Agatha Christie 2004
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Hilary Spurting
Ivy When Young: The Early Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884–1919 1974
The Secrets of a Woman’s Heart: The Later Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1920–1969 1984
Robertson Davies
Judith Skelton Grant
Robertson Davies: Man of Myth 1994
Isak Dinesen
Judith Thurman
Isak Dinesen: The Life of A Story Teller 1986
Daphne du Maurier
Margaret Forst
er
Daphne du Maurier 1993
Ralph Ellison
Lawrence Jackson
Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius 2002
J. G. Farrell
Lavinia Greacen
J. G. Farrell: The Making of A Writer 1999
William Faulkner
Frederick R. Karl
William Faulkner: American Writer 1989
John Fowles
Eileen Warburton
John Fowles: A Life in Two Worlds 2004
William Golding
John Carey
William Golding, A Life 2009
Nadine Gordimer
Ronald Suresh Roberts
No Cold Kitchen: A Biography of Nadine Gordimer 2005
Alasdair Gray
Rodge Glass
Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography 2008
Henry Green
Jeremy Treglown
Romancing: The Life and Times of Henry Green 2001
Graham Greene
Norman Sherry
The Life of Graham Greene Vol 1: 1904–1939 1989
The Life of Graham Greene Vol 2: 1939–1955 1995
The Life of Graham Greene Vol 3: 1956–1991 2004
Patrick Hamilton
Sean French
Patrick Hamilton 1993
Ernest Hemingway
Carlos Baker
Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story 1969
Georgette Heyer
Jane Aiken Hodge
The Private World of Georgette Heyer
B. S. Johnson
Jonathan Coe
Like A Fiery Elephant: A Life of B. S. Johnson 2005
Jack Kerouac
Barry Miles
Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats 1998
Rosamond Lehmann
Selina Hastings
Rosamond Lehmann: A Life 2002
Norman Mailer
Peter Manso
Mailer: His Life and Times 1989
Mary McCarthy
Frances Kiernan
Seeing Mary Plane: A Life of Mary McCarthy
Carson McCullers
Virginia Spencer
Carr The Lonely Hunter: A Biography of Carson McCullers 1975
Olivia Manning
Neville Braybrooke and June Braybrooke
Olivia Manning: A Life 2004
William Maxwell
Barbara A. Burckhardt
William Maxwell: A Literary Life 2005
Brian Moore
Patricia Craig
Brian Moore: A Biography 2003
Vladimir Nabokov
Brian Boyd
Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years 1990
Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years 1991
V. S. Naipaul
Patrick French
The World is What it Is: The Authorised Biography of V. S. Naipaul 2008
John O’Hara
Frank Mac Shane
The Life of John O’Hara 1987
Sylvia Plath
Janet Malcolm
The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes 1994
Jacqueline Rose
The Haunting of Sylvia Plath 1991
Katherine Anne Porter
John Givner
Katherine Anne Porter: A Life 1990
Anthony Powell
Hilary Spurling
Invitation to the Dance: A Handbook to Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time 1976
Jean Rhys
Carol Angier
Jean Rhys: Life and Work 1990
Lillian Pizzichini
The Blue Hour 2009
Frank Sargeson
Michael King
Frank Sargeson: A Life 1995
Paul Scott
Hilary Spurling
Paul Scott: A Life 1990
Christina Stead
Hazel Rowley
Christina Stead: A Biography 1993
John Steinbeck
Jay Parini
John Steinbeck: A Biography 1995
Jackson J. Benson
The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography 1989
Peter Taylor
Hubert Horton McAlexander
Peter Taylor: A Writer’s Life 2004
John Kennedy Toole
George Hardy
Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole 2001
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Claire Harman
Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography 1989
Evelyn Waugh
Selina Hastings
Evelyn Waugh: A Biography 1995
Eudora Welty
Paul Binding
The Still Moment: Eudora Welty, Portrait of a Writer 1994
Patrick White
David Marr
Patrick White: A Life 1991
P. G. Wodehouse
Frances Donaldson
P. G. Wodehouse: The Authorised Biography 1992
Robert McCrum
P. G. Wodehouse: A Life 2004
Literary Prizewinners
BOOKER PRIZE
Author must be a citizen of the Commonwealth, Pakistan, or the Republic of Ireland. No short stories or novellas. No English translation. Formerly named the Booker McConnell Prize.
1969 Something to Answer For P. H. Newby
1970 The Elected Member Bernice Rubens
1971 In a Free State V. S. Naipaul
1972 G John Berger
1973 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell
1974 The Conservationist Nadine Gordimer
Holiday Stanley Middleton
1975 Heat and Dust Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1976 Saville David Storey
1977 Staying On Paul Scott
1978 The Sea, the Sea Iris Murdoch
1979 Offshore Penelope Fitzgerald
1980 Rites of Passage William Golding
1981 Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
1982 Schindler’s Ark Thomas Keneally
(US: Schindler’s List)
1983 Life and Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee
1984 Hôtel du Lac Anita Brookner
1985 The Bone People Keri Hulme
1986 The Old Devils Kingsley Amis
1987 Moon Tiger Penelope Lively
1988 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey
1989 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
1990 Possession A. S. Byatt
1991 The Famished Road Ben Okri
1992 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje
Sacred Hunger Barry Unsworth
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Roddy Doyle