Adam Sisman – författare

The first book to explore the extraordinary story of the legendary friendship – and quarrel – between Wordsworth and Coleridge, two giants of English Romanticism.Wordsworth and Coleridge’s passionate intimacy, shared ambition and subsequent estrangement contribute to a tragic tale. But Sisman’s biography of this most remarkable friendship – the first to devote itself wholly to exploring the impact of their relationship on each other – seeks to re-examine the orthodox assumption that these two poets flourished as a result of it. Instead, Sisman argues that it was a meeting that may well have been disastrous for both: for it was Wordsworth’s rejection of Coleridge, and not primarily his opium addiction, that destroyed the latter as a poet, and that Coleridge’s impossible ambitions for Wordsworth pushed the latter towards failure and disappointment.Underlying the poignancy of the tale is the intriguing subject of the influence one writer can have on another. Sisman seeks to answer fundamental questions about this relationship: why was Wordsworth so reliant on Coleridge, and why was he so easily swayed in the most critical decision of his career? Was it in Coleridge’s nature to play second fiddle? Would it, in fact, have been better for both men if they had never met?

Asa Briggs’s energy fuelled him to write more than fifty books, including five formidable volumes on the history of broadcasting. At the zenith of his fame he was one of the best-known historians of his generation, his name on a cover a guarantee of substantial sales. From humble beginnings in the back streets of Keighley, he rose to become a peer of the realm, one of the Great and the Good. He was Vice-Chancellor of Sussex, the most fashionable of the new universities, and Chancellor of the Open University, the largest. He became President of the Workers’ Educational Association, reflecting his deep commitment to a more equal society. His own life illustrated the power of education to overcome disadvantage.But for all his success, his was also a story of frustration and disappointment. He took on too much, and in later life was unable to juggle his commitments as once he could. Moreover, the world around him had changed. Once at the centre of things, he found himself on the periphery.The inner life of Asa Briggs was more turbulent than it appeared from the outside. Even those who thought they knew him well may be surprised by the revelations in this fascinating biography.

Asa Briggs’s energy fuelled him to write more than fifty books, including five formidable volumes on the history of broadcasting. At the zenith of his fame he was one of the best-known historians of his generation, his name on a cover a guarantee of substantial sales. From humble beginnings in the back streets of Keighley, he rose to become a peer of the realm, one of the Great and the Good. He was Vice-Chancellor of Sussex, the most fashionable of the new universities, and Chancellor of the Open University, the largest. He became President of the Workers’ Educational Association, reflecting his deep commitment to a more equal society. His own life illustrated the power of education to overcome disadvantage.But for all his success, his was also a story of frustration and disappointment. He took on too much, and in later life was unable to juggle his commitments as once he could. Moreover, the world around him had changed. Once at the centre of things, he found himself on the periphery.The inner life of Asa Briggs was more turbulent than it appeared from the outside. Even those who thought they knew him well may be surprised by the revelations in this fascinating biography.

A sparkling account of the writing of one of the most celebrated biographies of all time – ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’ – and an account of the friendship that blossomed between writer and his subject.James Boswell’s ‘The Life of Dr Johnson’ is acknowledged as one of the greatest and most entertaining books in the English language: a model of biographical endeavour and achievement, an epic attempt to capture the spirit of a man who embodied the spirit of an age. And yet Boswell himself has generally been considered as little more than an idiot, condemned by posterity as a lecher and a drunk, a man who spent his short life in various states of dissipation, on a fruitless search for amusement and diversion. But Adam Sisman’s sparkling account of the writing of Boswell's biographical masterpiece tells another story: of how Boswell succeeded in his presumptuous task of capturing the character of his garrulous, curmudgeonly, beloved friend Samuel Johnson on the page. And by tracing the friendship between the writer and his subject Sisman provides a fascinating, detailed and richly textured account of the writing of one of the masterpieces of literature in the English canon.

The one hundred letters brought together for this book illustrate the range of Hugh Trevor-Roper's life and preoccupations: as an historian, a controversialist, a public intellectual, an adept in academic intrigues, a lover of literature, a traveller, a countryman. They depict a life of rich diversity; a mind of intellectual sparkle and eager curiosity; a character that relished the comédie humaine, and the absurdities, crotchets, and vanities of his contemporaries. The playful irony of Trevor-Roper's correspondence places him in a literary tradition stretching back to such great letter-writers as Madame de Sévigné and Horace Walpole. Though he generally shunned emotional self-exposure in correspondence as in company, his letters to the woman who became his wife reveal the surprising intensity and the raw depths of his feelings. Trevor-Roper was one of the most gifted scholars of his generation, and one of the most famous dons of his day. While still a young man, he made his name with his bestseller The Last Days of Hitler, and became notorious for his acerbic assaults on other historians. In his prime, Trevor-Roper appeared to have everything: a grey Bentley, a prestigious chair in Oxford, a beautiful country house, a wife with a title, and, eventually, a title of his own. But he failed to write the 'big book' expected of him, and tainted his reputation when in old age he erroneously authenticated the forged Hitler diaries. For an academic, Trevor-Roper's interests were extraordinarily wide, bringing him into contact with such diverse individuals as George Orwell and Margaret Thatcher, Albert Speer and Kim Philby, Katharine Hepburn and Rupert Murdoch. The tragicomedy of his tenure as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, provided an appropriate finale to a career packed with incident. Trevor-Roper's letters to Bernard Berenson, published as Letters from Oxford in 2006, gave pleasure to a wide variety of readers. This more general selection of his correspondence has been long anticipated, and will delight anyone who values wit, erudition, and clear prose.

The one hundred letters brought together for this book illustrate the range of Hugh Trevor-Roper's life and preoccupations: as an historian, a controversialist, a public intellectual, an adept in academic intrigues, a lover of literature, a traveller, a countryman. They depict a life of rich diversity; a mind of intellectual sparkle and eager curiosity; a character that relished the comédie humaine, and the absurdities, crotchets, and vanities of his contemporaries. The playful irony of Trevor-Roper's correspondence places him in a literary tradition stretching back to such great letter-writers as Madame de Sévigné and Horace Walpole. Though he generally shunned emotional self-exposure in correspondence as in company, his letters to the woman who became his wife reveal the surprising intensity and the raw depths of his feelings. Trevor-Roper was one of the most gifted scholars of his generation, and one of the most famous dons of his day. While still a young man, he made his name with his bestseller The Last Days of Hitler, and became notorious for his acerbic assaults on other historians. In his prime, Trevor-Roper appeared to have everything: a grey Bentley, a prestigious chair in Oxford, a beautiful country house, a wife with a title, and, eventually, a title of his own. But he failed to write the 'big book' expected of him, and tainted his reputation when in old age he erroneously authenticated the forged Hitler diaries. For an academic, Trevor-Roper's interests were extraordinarily wide, bringing him into contact with such diverse individuals as George Orwell and Margaret Thatcher, Albert Speer and Kim Philby, Katharine Hepburn and Rupert Murdoch. The tragicomedy of his tenure as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, provided an appropriate finale to a career packed with incident.Trevor-Roper's letters to Bernard Berenson, published as Letters from Oxford in 2006, gave pleasure to a wide variety of readers. This more general selection of his correspondence has been long anticipated, and will delight anyone who values wit, erudition, and clear prose.

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SECRET LIFE OF JOHN LE CARRÉ'A fine and serious biography which, on page after page, has made me laugh out loud' Sunday Telegraph'It is a long time since I have enjoyed a book as much as this one' Robert Harris, Sunday Times'It is impossible to praise Sisman's biography too highly' A.N. Wilson, ObserverClever, witty and cruel, Hugh Trevor-Roper was one of the most gifted scholars of his generation. As a young intelligence officer, he broke one of the German codes while taking a bath during an air raid. After the war, his solo investigation into the death of Hitler made him famous in his early thirties and rich enough to buy a Bentley. Ten years later he was appointed the most senior history professor at Oxford. He married into the aristocracy and was acknowledged as one of the most brilliant intellectuals of his time. But he failed to write the 'big book' expected of him and tainted his reputation when in old age he erroneously authenticated the forged 'Hitler Diaries'. The tragicomedy of his tenure as Master of Peterhouse forms a fitting finale to the story of a full and varied life.

The definitive biography of the undisputed giant of English literature, a man whose own true history has long been hidden behind the fictional world of his books'Compendious and compelling ... it is impossible to imagine this Life being bettered' WILLIAM BOYD, NEW STATESMAN'Smiley himself could not have done a better job' SUNDAY TIMESLong after The Spy Who came in from the Cold made John le Carré a worldwide, bestselling sensation, David Cornwell, the man behind the pseudonym, remained an enigma. In this definitive biography, written with unprecedented access to the man himself, Adam Sisman offers an illuminating portrait of a fascinating and enigmatic writer.In Cornwell's lonely childhood, Adam Sisman uncovers the origins of the themes of love and abandonment which dominated le Carré's fiction: the departure of his mother when he was five, followed by 'sixteen hugless years' in the dubious care of his father, a man of energy and charm, a serial seducer and conman who hid the Bentleys in the trees when the bailiffs came calling - a 'totally incomprehensible father' who could 'put a hand on your shoulder and the other in your pocket, both gestures equally sincere'. And in Cornwell's adult life - from recruitment by both MI5 and MI6, through marriage and family life, to his emergence as the master of the spy novel - Sisman explores the idea of espionage and its significance in human terms; the extent to which betrayal is acceptable in exchange for love; and the endless need for forgiveness, especially from oneself.Written with exclusive access to David Cornwell, to his private archive and to the most important people in his life - family, friends, enemies, intelligence ex-colleagues and ex-lovers - and featuring a wealth of previously unseen photographic material, Adam Sisman's extraordinarily insightful and constantly revealing biography brings in from the cold a man whose own life was as complex and confounding and filled with treachery as any of his novels. 'I'm a liar,' Cornwell once wrote. 'Born to lying, bred to it, trained to it by an industry that lies for a living, practised in it as a novelist.'This is the definitive biography of a major writer, described by Richard Osman as 'just the finest, wisest storyteller we had.'

A revelatory collection of letters written by the author of The Broken Road.Handsome, spirited and erudite, Patrick Leigh Fermor was a war hero and one of the greatest travel writers of his generation. He was also a spectacularly gifted friend. The letters in this collection span almost seventy years, the first written ten days before Paddy's twenty-fifth birthday, the last when he was ninety-four. His correspondents include Deborah Devonshire, Ann Fleming, Nancy Mitford, Lawrence Durrell, Diana Cooper and his lifelong companion, Joan Rayner; he wrote his first letter to her in his cell at the monastery Saint Wandrille, the setting for his reflections on monastic life in A Time to Keep Silence. His letters exhibit many of his most engaging characteristics: his zest for life, his unending curiosity, his lyrical descriptive powers, his love of language, his exuberance and his tendency to get into scrapes - particularly when drinking and, quite separately, driving. Here are plenty of extraordinary stories: the hunt for Byron's slippers in one of the remotest regions of Greece; an ignominious dismissal from Somerset Maugham's Villa Mauresque; hiding behind a bush to dub Dirk Bogarde into Greek during the shooting of Ill Met by Moonlight, the film based on the story of General Kreipe's abduction; his extensive travels. Some letters contain glimpses of the great and the good, while others are included purely for the joy of the jokes.

Longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction'I embarrassed myself by uncontrollable guffaws ... This is a truly wonderful story' A. N. Wilson, Spectator'A white-knuckle roller-coaster ride of fibs and frauds' Sunday Telegraph'An utterly mad, and wholly delightful story of chicanery and fantasy' Simon WinchesterOne day in November 1958, the celebrated historian Hugh Trevor-Roper received a curious letter. It was an appeal for help, written on behalf of a student at Magdalen College, with the unlikely claim that he was being persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. Curiosity piqued, Trevor-Roper agreed to a meeting. It was to be his first encounter with Robert Parkin Peters: plagiarist, bigamist, fraudulent priest and imposter extraordinaire. The Professor and the Parson traces the strange career of one of Britain's most eccentric criminals. Motivated not by money but by a desire for prestige, Peters' lied, stole and cheated his way to academic positions and religious posts from Cambridge to New York, Singapore and South Africa. Frequently deported, and even more frequently discovered, his trail of destruction included seven marriages (three of which were bigamous), an investigation by the FBI and a disastrous appearance on Mastermind. Based on Trevor-Roper's own detailed 'file on Peters', The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming account of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction.

WINNER OF THE CRIMEFEST HRF KEATING AWARDA Times Best Literature Book of the Year 2023A Financial Times Book of the Year 2023A Spectator Book of the Year 2023A Daily Express Best Book of 2023'A fascinating, revelatory appendix ... providing new insights into the inner workings of the man who created George Smiley' 'Best Books of the Year 2023', Financial Times'Sisman can set the record straight' 'Books of the Year 2023', The Sunday Times'Complex and consequential ... casts le Carré's life and writing in a fresh light ... a fascinating examination of the biographer's art' Washington Post'Now that he is dead, we can know him better.'Secrecy came naturally to John le Carré, and there were some secrets that he fought fiercely to keep. Nowhere was this more so than in his private life. Apparently content in his marriage, the novelist conducted a string of love affairs over four decades. To keep these relationships secret, he made use of tradecraft that he had learned as a spy: code names and cover stories, cut outs, safe houses and dead letter boxes.Such affairs introduced both jeopardy and excitement into what was otherwise a quiet, ordered life. Le Carré seemed to require the stimulus they provided in order to write, though this meant deceiving those closest to him. It is no coincidence that betrayal became a recurrent theme in his work.Adam Sisman's definitive biography, published in 2015, revealed much about the elusive spy-turned-novelist; yet le Carré was adamant that some subjects should remain hidden, at least during his lifetime. The Secret Life of John le Carré is the story of what was left out, and offers reflections on the difficult relationship between biographer and subject. More than that, it adds a necessary coda to the life and work of this complex, driven, restless man. The Secret Life of John le Carré reveals a hitherto-hidden perspective on the life and work of the spy-turned-author and a fascinating meditation on the complex relationship between biographer and subject. 'Now that he is dead,' Sisman writes, 'we can know him better.'