In 1819 the Hungarian linguist Alexander Csoma de Koros set off for Turkestan, in search of the origins of the Magyar people. He was continuously thwarted in his quest - a misunderstood innocent who became unwittingly entangled in the games of imperial intrigue and espionage that were rife in Central Asia at the time.Today, as Edward Fox deftly illustrates, we have Csoms de Koros to thank for much of what we know about Tibetan culture. Fate eventually brought him to the Himalayas, where, in the freezing cells of Buddhist monasteries, he uncovered a vast ancient civilisation hitherto unknown to the West. His was a sublimely strange life, a heroic example of scholarly masochism.

The Hungarian Who Walked to Heaven-Alexander Csoma De Koros-1784-1842

History

Fox, Edward

Asia

Short Books

<p>King Camp Gillette’s disposable safety razor revolutionized a time-consuming chore and made its creator a very rich man. In this incisive biography, Tim Dowling examines the contradictions at the heart of the razor king, a socialist utopian who fulminated against the evils of capitalism in his radical tracts, while at the same time zealously embracing his role as the father of the disposable economy.</p>

Inventor of the Disposable Culture: King Camp Gillette 1855-1932 (Short Lives)

Biographies & Memoirs

Dowling, Tim

Professionals & Academics

Arthur Hugh Clough is the great undiscovered genius of Victorian literature. The golden hope of his generation at Rugby and Oxford, he battled against the orthodoxies of his time to produce some of the 19th century’s most witty and original verse. Sexually and morally tortured, he died at a tragically early age, his health destroyed by his devotion to the cause of Florence Nightingale. In this study, Rupert Christiansen draws on newly discovered documents to present a dramatic portrait of a maverick figure, whose radical ideas about politics, religion, and women will make him vividly sympathetic to modern readers.

The Voice of Victorian Sex: Arthur H. Clough 1819-1861 (Short Lives)

CHRISTIANSEN, Rupert

Arts & Literature

In 1949, at the beginning of the Cold War, Lieutenant-Commander John Kerans, stuck in a desk job in Nanking, was suddenly called upon by the Admiralty to go to the rescue of a naval frigate, the HMS Amethyst, which had been caught in the crossfire of the Chinese civil war. In this thrilling account of the "Yangtse Incident," Nigel Farndale captures all the excitement that surrounded Kerans's unexpected hour of glory, and all the poignancy of his inevitable fall from grace.

Last Action Hero of the British Empire: CDR John Kerans 1915-1985 (Short Lives)

Farndale, Nigel

Leaders & Notable People

<p>Carrie Kipling was one of the most despised women of her generation. Henry James called her that hard, capable little person.” Rudyard Kipling’s parents saw her as no more than an American on the make. And yet, suspicious and vituperative as she was, Carrie was in many ways misunderstood. It was she who provided the backbone that her husband often preached but privately lacked. Drawing on a vast archive of diaries and letters, Adam Nicolson exposes the malignancy and detachment at the heart of the Kipling marriage. For the first time, Carrie is seen for the woman she wasnot as a bully intent on controlling her genius husband, but as a lonely survivor in the face of serial family tragedy.</p>

The Hated Wife: Carrie Kipling 1862-1939 (Short Lives)

Nicolson, Adam

Community & Culture

Nurse Wolf is Manhattan's Queen of Pain - she gives pleasure by inflicting it, gains pleasure from causing it. The neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks is her opposite, a defuser of pain, a comforter. And yet the dominatrix and the doctor operate in similar territory: both are involved in the ritual and theatrical aspects of sexuality. In Nurse Wolf and Dr Sacks, Paul Theroux hears two remarkable confessions. His book offers an extraordinary insight into the 'other' side of New York.

Nurse Wolf and Dr. Sacks

Politics & Social Sciences

Paul, Theroux

Social Sciences

Thomas Harris is the great melodramatist of our time, author of the definitive thrillers of the last 20 years. The Silence of the Lambs alone has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. And yet Harris's phenomenal success has been achieved without any personal publicity whatsoever. He has never given an interview. In this gripping - and sometimes chilling - profile, David Sexton exploits every possible source to get to the bottom of Harris's monstrous genius: who really is the man behind Hannibal Lecter?

The Strange World of Thomas Harris

Literature & Fiction

Sexton, David

History & Criticism

Since its launch 70 years ago, Alcoholics Anonymous has sparked hot debate. IN AA to LA, John Sutherland examines the exotic mutation of the movement in the hothouse atmosphere of southern California. This book is part-reportage, part-confession - a study of AA as it has evolved alongside the Dream Factory of Hollywood, laced with personal testimony from two generations of Sutherlands who have passed through it. When it comes to cleaning up, West is best - or at least more fun...

Last Drink to LA

Sutherland, John

Americas

As a child, William Leith was educated in old buildings, and dragged around ruins for a 'treat'. Later, he began to question the British love of everything decrepit. Was it a sign of a nation growing old gracefully, or of something altogether more ominous? Then something happened. A tooth, which had been throbbing for a while, snapped. At the same time, his 'period' home began to crack. During the course of his dental treatment, and the underpinning of his house, Leith cast his mind back over his personal history - his education, his diet and particularly his dentistry - and thought about what it was to be British...

British Teeth: An Excruciating Journey from the Dentist's Chair to the Rotten Heart of a Nation

Leith, William

Ann Boleyn-The Wife Who Lost Her Head

Children's Books

Beatty, Laura

Biographies

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