granta books london (Over 3,800 results)

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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. LAST GASPS Thoughts about Alan while waiting for Harold, by Simon Gray The author of the celebrated and widely-acclaimed The Smoking Diaries returns to print with a tender, affecting, and of course funny account of his friendship with Alan Bates, written as he waits in Barbados for Harold Pinter to turn up. PLUS: Said Sayrafiezadeh on the perils of having a socialist for a father Simon Garfield on his obsession with faulty postage stamps Wayne McLennan on the Australian outback's last boxing nomads. And Margaret Atwood, James Hamilton-Paterson, James Lasdun, Orhan Pamuk, Maarten 't Hart and Tim Winton on our changing weather. With new fiction by Frederic Tuten and Gllad Evron. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Granta's 'History' is devoted to history of the most old-fashioned kind: historia in its original Greek sense. A chronicle of events with a beginning, a middle and an end. 'History' is also about how we make these chronicles. How we manipulate facts. How we exploit and shape and bend memory. How we make up stories to make sense of our past. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This is a portrait of Diego Velazquez, from his arrival at the court of King Philip IV of Spain, to his death 38 years and scores of paintings later. It is a portrait of a relationship that is not quite a friendship, between an artist and his subject. It is a portrait of a ruler, always on duty, and increasingly burdened by a life of public expectation and repeated private grief. And it is a portrait of a court collapsing under the weight of its own excess. Unfolding through series of masterly set-pieces and glancing sketches, this is a novel of brilliance, imagination and sheer style -- about what is shown and what is seen, about art and life. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Against the backdrop of the current recession, journalists Polly Toynbee and David Walker present a worrying account of social inequality in Britain today. Shredding the myth that executives require astronomical salaries, they put the case for higher taxation of the very rich. This was once the heart of Labour ideology, but politicians now seem almost embarrassed to raise the subject. Toynbee and Walker demolish the arguments against higher taxation, and show how government policy could revitalize British society. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME PRIZE 'She writes better than anyone I know about the way we live now . I loved this book. . She is also very funny' Margaret Drabble On a day like any other, stay-at-home father Adam receives a call from his daughter's school. Miriam, his brilliant fifteen-year-old, has collapsed and stopped breathing; her heart has inexplicably stopped. The Tidal Zone shows the familiar world of a modern family turned inside out. From the complicated lives of teenagers to the complexities of marriage this is a moving, funny and instantly recognisable tale of 21st century domestic life. It confirms Sarah Moss as a unique voice in modern fiction and a writer of luminous intelligence. A poignant, engrossing and beautifully observed exploration of family life, from the acclaimed author of Summerwater and Ghost Wall. 'This is grown-up writing for grown-up readers, the kind of story that makes you think about your own life choices and close relationships.' Sunday Herald 'A novel for our times. An excellent read' Penelope Lively, Guardian 'A remarkable, passionate, funny and beautifully furious book' AL Kennedy. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Several years ago, Diana Athill accepted that she could no longer live entirely independently, and moved to a retirement home in Highgate. There, she found herself released from the daily anxieties of caring for her own property, and free to settle into her remaining years. From this vantage point, she reflects on what it feels like to be very old, and on the moments in her long life that have risen to the surface and which sustain her in these last years. What really matters in the end? And after a long life, which memories stand out? As she approaches her 100th year, Athill recalls in sparkling, precise detail the exact layout of the garden of her childhood, a vast and beautiful park attached to a large house; relates with humour, clarity and honesty her experiences of the First and Second World Wars and her trips to Europe as a young woman; and in the remarkable title chapter, describes her pregnancy at the age of forty-three, losing the baby and almost losing her life - and her gratitude and joy on discovering that she had survived. With vivid memories of the past mingled with candid, wise and often very funny reflections on what it's like to be very old, Alive, Alive Oh! reminds us what really matters, and of the joy to be found at every stage of life. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 'There is a sense throughout Athill's work that you are making a new friend as much as reading a new story . a delight to read' Observer WINNER OF THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY PRIZE, the moving and witty memoir on what it means to grow old. Written in her nineties, when she was free from any inhibitions she may have once had, Diana Athill reflects frankly on the losses and occasionally the gains that old age can bring, and on the wisdom and fortitude required to face death. Lively, fearless and humorous, Somewhere Towards the End encapsulates the vibrant final decades of Athill's life. Filled with events, love and friendships, this is a memoir about maintaining hope, joy and vigour in later life, resisting regret, and questioning the beliefs and customs of your own generation. 'Informative, honest and lacking in the usual sorrow over old age. A remarkable woman' Beryl Bainbridge 'An honest joy to read' Alice Munro 'The book is a moving and humorous account of old age, unsparing about its indignities, unflinching from the inevitability that the end can not be many years away, but full of joy at the way life keeps on, at the most unexpected moments, renewing itself' Irish Times 'Her brilliant book is entirely lacking in the usual regrets, nostalgia and Hovis-ad recollections of old-timers. It is a little literary gem, penned by a marvellous, feisty old character . What a treasure' Daily Mail. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Dark Horses and Black Beauties is an exploration of the fascination and romance of horses. The author discusses the obsession with tackle and boots, the willingness to get dirty, to live with manure and hay, and to polish leather until it shines. She remembers the enthusiasm with which young girls read detailed treatises on equine behaviour. She recalls the burgeoning collections of combs, brushes and hats. The book is also extraordinary and tragic history of the horse's domestication by humans. For thousands of years, until the close of the Second World War, horses died by the million in military encounters and harsh agricultural work. The author reminds us that it has been less than a century since commerce, travel and war relied on the muscles and bones of horses. This is a book written in praise of a powerful and gentle creature. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. WINNER OF THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2018 Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2017 A stunning new non-fiction voice tackles an urgent question. what next for mankind? 'Troubling and humorous, this is one of my current give-it-to-everyone books - I buy six copies at a time' Jeanette Winterson. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Zummo - a 17th-century prodigy and creator of figures so realistic they look as though they might draw breath - has spent his life fleeing his past. Summoned to the Medici court by the Grand Duke, a man of holy devotions and hidden longings, Zummo finds himself in a city riddled with hypocrisy and contradictions, where adulterers are publicly flogged, while within the palace walls members of the court indulge their nefarious pleasures. Commissioned by the Grand Duke to sculpt a life-size Venus from wax, Zummo scours the streets for inspiration. But 1690s Florence is a place of unforseen dangers and secrets still more devastating than his own, and when a young woman's body is found on the banks of the Arno, Zummo suspects that the source of vice has its bed in the Medici court. As he proceeds with his creation, he begins to wonder whether this perfect woman will be his salvation or his downfall. Set in a Florence blighted by corruption and austerity, Secrecy is a tour de force of whispered pleasures and startling revelations. It is a scintillating, breathtaking read from a novelist at the height of his powers. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. From sofa suppers and comfort food to celebration meals and festive feasts, Victoria Moore helps you choose the wine that will taste most delicious with whatever you're eating. Based on the bestselling The Wine Dine Dictionary, this new guide also includes Moore's favourite at-home recipes, portraits of the top twelve best-loved grapes, plus quick-look lists for perfect pairings. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This work completes the circle begun by "Instead of a Letter" and "Stet". Here Diana Athill looks back on a childhood unfashionably filled with happiness - a Norfolk country house, servants, the pleasures of horses, and the unfolding secrets of adults and sex. This is England in the 1920s, seen with an unsentimental eye from the vantage point of England in 2001. It was a privileged and loving life, of course: but did it equip her to be happy? The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. "A poignant tale about guilt, blame and love in a time of tragedy" Stylist It is an early spring evening in 1943 when the air-raid sirens wail out over the East End of London. From every corner of Bethnal Green, people emerge from pubs, cinemas and houses and set off for the shelter of the tube station. But at the entrance steps, something goes badly wrong, the crowd panics, and 173 people are crushed to death. When an enquiry is called for, it falls to the local magistrate, Laurence Dunne, to find out what happened during those few, fatally confused minutes. But as Dunne gathers testimony from the guilt-stricken warden of the shelter, the priest struggling to bring comfort to his congregation, and the grieving mother who has lost her youngest daughter, the picture grows ever murkier. The more questions Dunne asks, the more difficult it becomes to disentangle truth from rumour, and to decide just how much truth the damaged community can actually bear. It is only decades later, when the case is reopened by one of the children who survived, that the facts can finally be brought to light. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Ronald Blythe's 1969 book Akenfield - a moving portrait of English country life told in the voices of the farmers and villagers themselves - is a modern classic. In 2004, writer and reporter Craig Taylor returned to the village in Suffolk on which Akenfield was based. Over the course of several months, he sought out locals who had appeared in the original book to see how their lives had changed, he met newcomers to discuss their own views, and he interviewed Ronald Blythe himself, now in his eighties. Young farmers, retired orchardmen and Eastern European migrant workers talk about the nature of farming in an age of computerization and encroaching supermarkets; commuters, weekenders and retirees discuss the realities behind the rural idyll; and the local priest, teacher and more describe the daily pleasures and tribulations of village life. Together, they offer a panoramic and revealing portrait of rural English society at a time of great change. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Granta is ten years old. And its 'Birthday Special' is a celebration, a merry miscellany, a mad editorial tea party of some of the writers who, since 1979, have made Granta the most widely read literary magazine in the English language. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 'Most of the serious thinking I have done over the past twenty years has been done while running.' Mark Rowlands has run for most of his life. He has also been a professional philosopher. And for him the two - running and philosophising - are inextricably connected. In Running with the Pack he tells us about the most significant runs of his life - from the entire day he spent running as a boy in Wales, to the runs along French beaches and up Irish mountains with his beloved wolf Brenin, and through Florida swamps more recently with his dog Nina. Intertwined with this honest, passionate and witty memoir are the fascinating meditations that those runs triggered. He ends by describing running a mid-life marathon with absolutely no training. Woven throughout the book are profound meditations on mortality, midlife and the meaning of life. This is a highly original and moving book that will make the philosophically inclined want to run, and those who love running become intoxicated by philosophical ideas. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. From the prize-winning author of To Be a Machine - meet the men and women preparing for the end of the world In the remote mountains of Scotland, in high-tech bunkers in South Dakota and in the lush valleys of New Zealand, small groups of determined men and women are getting ready. They are environmentalists who fear the ravages of climate change; billionaire entrepreneurs dreaming of life on Mars; and right-wing conspiracists yearning for a lost American idyll. One thing unites them: their certainty that we are only years away from the end of civilization as we know it. Not unconcerned himself by the possibility of the end of days, Mark O'Connell set out to meet them. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2019 'I am astonished by Four Soldiers. I have never read anything like it, yet it is one of those books you feel must always have existed, a classic of writing about the human condition. A small miracle' Hilary Mantel 1919. The Russian Civil War. It is the harsh dead of winter, as four soldiers set up camp in a forest somewhere near the Romanian front line. There is a lull in the fighting, so their days are filled with precious hours of freedom, enjoying the tranquillity of a nearby pond and trying to forget their terrifying nightmares, all the while talking, smoking and waiting. Waiting for spring to come, waiting for their battalion to move on, waiting for the inevitable resumption of violence. Tightly focused and simply told, this is a story of friendship and the fragments of happiness that can illuminate the darkness of war. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Ranging from the Welsh valleys to the Malaysian jungle, from Coventry to Natal, the eight stories in this original and elegant collection are filled with unlikely characters and striking juxtapositions. In one story two infamous American bandits herd ostriches in Patagonia, while in another, a self-styled John Wayne leads a band of local revolutionaries, the Silver Screen Platoon, in Southeast Asia. In England, a couple of unemployed men wait for Lady Godiva to appear and the pubs to open, while, on the other side of the world, a young Chinese man searches for underwater demons. Alongside a quirky, pointed humour, these pieces reveal a deep humanity. In the understated title story, the accidental death of a child forces a father and son to confront deeper questions of guilt and responsibility; in 'A Union', a prolonged strike at a Welsh slate quarry is the backdrop for an acutely sensitive portrayal of a marriage; and in 'I Don't Know, What Do You Think?', a man working for a crisis phone-line learns that redemption is far from simple. Peter Ho Davies' eccentric, heartbreaking stories of small lives affected by consequential events, herald the arrival of an engaging and powerful new voice in fiction. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This collection of stories ranges through time and space, from a tunnel under Vimy Ridge in 1916 where a Canadian sentry hears his enemy singing through the wall, to a tourist town in the Rockies where a painter and her dying husband make love for the last time. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Dire Sunday services, shrinking congregations and financial meltdown are the realities of the contemporary Church of England. In this controversial book, Michael Hampson, who worked as a parish priest for thirteen years, examines why the Church of England is in such crisis. He describes a church irreconcilably divided between liberals and evangelicals, shackled by tradition and with little resonance for the laity of modern Britain. He locates the roots of its demise in its history, from the Reformation to the ordination of women and beyond. The internal fault lines of the Church were exposed in 2003 by the forced resignation of Jeffrey John, the first openly gay man appointed a bishop. Michael Hampson demolishes the damaging arguments against homosexual clergy and movingly describes his own journey to ordination as a gay man within a prejudiced Church. In a powerful conclusion, he argues that a radical transformation of both culture and structure is the one hope for the renewal of the Church of England. Last Rites is a fiery insider's fascinating view of a Church that has failed its clergy, its laity and the nation at large. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A collection of new writing. This edition features a fable-like account of the extraordinary things discovered about death by Tracy Kidder during the year he spent as an observer in a nursing home. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. On Tuesday, April 13th Fiona McMillan wakes to the sound of a package being delivered. The documents it contains present her story told by more than one person. But which voice is telling the truth? She has only one day to decipher which of the three men she works for is a murderer. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This is Blake Morrison's memoir of his father, Dr Arthur Morrison. It shows a son asking who his father really was. Was he the man seen through a seven-year-old's eyes, jumping queues, or the sexual charmer seen by a 17-year-old? Or was he the figure, so hard to recognize, on his death-bed? The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. It is 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall came down. Jonathan Fabrizius, a journalist living in West Germany, is asked to travel to the contested lands of former East Prussia - where the Nazi legacy lives on in buildings and fortifications - to write about the route for a car rally. It's a plum job, but his interest is piqued by a personal connection. Here, among the refugees fleeing the advancing Russians in 1945, he was born. Homeland is a nuanced work from one of the great modern European storytellers, in which an everyday German comes face to face with his painful family history, and devastating questions about ordinary Germans' complicity in the war. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. He disappeared. That's all she really knew. finds him, a wary, tormented man living in self-imposed exile. Slowly Lena unlocks the secrets of her father's past, and in getting to know him begins to understand the grim realities of contemporary Greek history. Like many politically active Greeks, Andreas was arrested and tortured during the rule of the Colonels in the sixties, disappearing for several years without trace. evokes the currents and cross-currents between individuals, within families and in broader society. And in Lena and Andreas's stories, it shows how difficult it is to confront our personal and collective pasts - and the terrible consequences of being unable to do so. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Reef is a love story set in a spoiled paradise. It is told by Trtion, who at the age of eleven goes to work as a houseboy to Mister Salgado, a marine biologist obsessed by swamps, sea movements and the island's disappearing reef. Triton learns to polish silver; to mix a love cake with ten eggs, creamed butter and fresh cashew nuts; and to steam the exotic parrot fish for his master's lover. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.