Anthony Holden – författare

Who was William Shakespeare? How did the ''rude groom'' from Stratford grow up to be the greatest poet the world has known? Not for a generation, since the late Anthony Burgess''s SHAKESPEARE (1970), has there been anything approaching a popular, mainstream biography of the greatest and most celebrated writer. Yet Shakespeare''s life was as colourful, varied and dramatic as his works: the Warwickshire country boy who ''disappeared'' for seven years before fetching up in London as an apprentice actor...whose fellow players could scarcely keep up with the plays he turned out for them...who rapidly became a favourite at the court of Elizabeth I...and returned to Stratford a prosperous ''gentleman'', proud to realise his father''s dream of a family coat of arms, before his death at 52.Anthony Holden brilliantly interleaves the poets own words with the known facts to breathe new life into a story never before told in such absorbing detail. ''The perfect blend of erudition and accessibility'' - the Daily Telegraph''s verdict on Holden''s life of Tchaikovsky - applies equally to his revealing, very human portrait of Shakespeare.

BIG DEAL is the mesmerising story of a year spent by bestselling biographer Anthony Holden in the tough world of the professional poker player. He spent days and nights in the poker paradise of Las Vegas, in Malta and Morocco, even shipboard, mingling with the legendary greats, sharpening his game, perfecting his repartee, and learning a great deal about himself in the process.Poker, Holden would insist, is not gambling. Like chess it is a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that brings out the best as well as the worst in people. Its heroes, its eccentrics and is comedians stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the games themselves.A classic of the genre, BIG DEAL is here reissued with a new introduction by the author.

Fifteen years on from Anthony Holden''s undisputed classic BIG DEAL, the poker world has changed beyond recognition. When Holden played in the 1988 World Series of Poker there were 167 entrants competing for a prize of $270,000. At the 2006 WSOP, where this book climaxes, there were 8773 players and a first prize of some $12 million - the richest in any sport. What happened in the years between BIG DEAL and BIGGER DEAL is simple: thanks to the Internet and television there has been a worldwide explosion in the popularity of poker. The game even has a new respectable image, much to the disgust of die-hard players. Gone are the seedy, smoky rooms of the Horseshoe, and celebrities now crowd the tables at huge Las Vegas tournaments: Martin Sheen, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are all dedicated players. In the UK, LATE NIGHT POKER draws some 2 million viewers (Holden was banned from the last series for doing too well). In BIGGER DEAL, Holden is your guide - and the only guide you''ll need - to the world of new poker as he prepares to enter the WSOP once again. Will he win the title? Place your bets ...

Holden is an experienced poker player who does not pretend to be as expert as the world''s top pros; but he can write better than them - and he knows most well enough to milk them for personalized advice, tips and subtle strategies. HOLDEN ON HOLD''EM thoroughly analyses the difference between home and casino play, between cash and tournament play, between internet poker and the real thing against real human beings. Amid definitive charts and tables of odds, probabilities and other statistics, sample hands, advice on etiquette and other niceties, there will be sections on bluff, tells and the nuances of ''position'' and ''outs'', as well as a brief history of the game and anecdotes about its great players. This book can claim to be the first really readable manual in the history of poker! An entertaining, anecdote-packed and invaluable companion to the narrative poker classics BIG DEAL and BIGGER DEAL.

He was born in the year Dr Johnson died, and died in the year A.E. Houseman and Conan Doyle were born. The 75 years of Leigh Hunt''s life uniquely span two distinct eras of English life and literature. A major player in the Romantic movement, the intimate and first publisher of Keats and Shelley, friend of Byron, Hazlitt and Lamb, Hunt lived on to become an elder statesman of Victorianism, the friend and chamption of Tennyson and Dickens, awarded a sate pension by Queen Victoria. Jailed in his twenties for insulting the Prince of Wales, Hunt ended his long, productive life vainly seeking the Poet Laureatship with fawning poems to Victoria. A tirelessly prolific poet, essayist, editor and critic, he has been described as having no rival in the history of English criticism. Yet Hunt''s remarkable life story has never been fully told.Anthony Holden''s deeply researched and vibrantly written biography gives full due to this minor poet - but major influence on his great Romantic contempories.