Sylvia Townsend Warner – författare

'A great shout of life and individuality ... an act of defiance that gladdens the soul' Guardian Lolly Willowes, so gentle and accommodating, has depths no one suspects. When she suddenly announces that she is leaving London and moving, alone, to the depths of the countryside, her overbearing relatives are horrified. But Lolly has a greater, far darker calling than family: witchcraft. 'The book I'll be pressing into people's hands forever . . . It tells the story of a woman who rejects the life that society has fixed for her in favour of freedom ... tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness' Helen Macdonald'Witty, eerie, tender ... her prose, in its simple, abrupt evocations, has something preternatural about it' John Updike

'One of the great British novels of the twentieth century: a narrative of extraordinary reach, power and beauty' Sarah WatersThe nuns who enter a medieval Norfolk convent are told to renounce the world, but the world still finds ways to trouble them, whether it is through fire, floods, pestilence, a collapsing spire, jealous rivalries, a priest with a secret or a plague of caterpillars. As we follow their daily lives over three centuries, this masterpiece of historical fiction re-creates a world run by women.'As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy' George Steiner, The Times Literary Supplement'Spellbinding . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page' Sunday Times'Magnificent' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Lolly Willowes, so gentle and accommodating, has depths no one suspects. When she suddenly announces that she is leaving London and moving, alone, to the depths of the countryside, her overbearing relatives are horrified. But Lolly has a greater, far darker calling than family: witchcraft.'The book I'll be pressing into people's hands forever is Lolly Willowes . . . Starting as a straightforward, albeit beautifully written family saga, it tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness' Helen Macdonald

'A novel of love, war and death; brilliantly entertaining and far ahead of its time' Guardian 'She is my husband's mistress - and here am I, taking her out to dinner'Sophia Willoughby of Blandamer House, upstanding Victorian matriarch, has packed her errant husband off to Paris with his mistress Minna. But when tragedy throws her life off balance Sophia goes to seek him out, and instead finds herself intensely attracted to the charismatic, bohemian Minna, who leads her on a wild, chaotic adventure through a city in the throes of revolution.'One of the great under-read British novelists of the twentieth century. This is my favourite of her novels' Sarah Waters'Every page contains something brilliant, arresting or amusing, and one comes away from it staggered' Claire Harman

'She has a talent amounting to genius' John UpdikeDon Juan, that notorious libertine, has disappeared. Has he been dragged down to hell by demons, as rumoured - or has he escaped? Doña Ana, the woman he tried to seduce, will stop at nothing to discover the truth. Set in a rural eighteenth-century Spain rife with suspicion and cruelty, and featuring a glorious cast of peasants, aristocrats and vengeful ghosts, this moving, surprising tragicomedy is also Sylvia Townsend Warner's response to the dark days of the Spanish Civil War.'The kind of novelist who inspires an intense sense of ownership in her fans' Sarah Waters

'A comic masterpiece' Patrick Gale, GuardianPillar of society and stern upholder of Victorian values, god-fearing Norfolk merchant John Barnard presides over a large and largely unhappy family. This is their story - his brandy-swilling wife, their hapless offspring and their changing fortunes - over the decades. Sylvia Townsend Warner's last novel, The Flint Anchor gloriously overturns our ideas of history, family and storytelling itself.'A novel created with solidity and subtlety of feeling, a fusion of warmth, wit and quietly biting shrewdness that are reminiscent of Jane Austen' Atlantic Review'As a sustained work of historical imagination, it has few rivals ... one of the most acute and intelligent writers of her age' Claire Harman

'Witty, poetic, clairvoyant' John UpdikeThe Reverend Timothy Fortune, ex-clerk of the Hornsey branch of Lloyds Bank, has found his vocation: to convert the inhabitants of the remote tropical island of Fanua to Christianity. Even when everyone except for a young boy called Lueli remains indifferent to his preaching, Mr Fortune's good spirits cannot be dampened - until one day his faith is put to a terrible test.'This quizzical tale is so intensely moving' Gillian Beer, New Statesman'Original, elegant and hypnotically strange' Miranda Seymour, The New York Times'Sylvia Townsend Warner pursues the psychology of the story with beautiful accuracy' John Carey

'The kind of novelist who inspires an intense sense of ownership in her fans ... her sympathies tended naturally to the marginal, the vulnerable, the exploited, the obscure' Sarah WatersSukey Bond, a sixteen-year-old orphan, is sent to work as a servant at a farm on the remote Essex Marshes. There she falls in love with gentle, unworldly Eric, the son of the rector's wife, only for them to be separated when their relationship is discovered. But nothing will deter Sukey in her quest to be reunited with her true love, even if it means seeking the help of Queen Victoria herself.'One of our most idiosyncratic, courageous and versatile writers' Hermione Lee 'One can't be too thankful that Miss Townsend Warner has lived to discover the alchemist's secret of transmuting the past into pure gold' Hilary Spurling

'One of the great British novels of the twentieth century: a narrative of extraordinary reach, power and beauty' Sarah WatersThe nuns who enter a medieval Norfolk convent are told to renounce the world, but the world still finds ways to trouble them, whether it is through fire, floods, pestilence, a collapsing spire, jealous rivalries, a priest with a secret or a plague of caterpillars. As we follow their daily lives over three centuries, this masterpiece of historical fiction re-creates a world run by women.'As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy' George Steiner, The Times Literary Supplement'Spellbinding . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page' Sunday Times'Magnificent' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

'A novel of love, war and death; brilliantly entertaining and far ahead of its time' Guardian 'She is my husband's mistress - and here am I, taking her out to dinner'Sophia Willoughby of Blandamer House, upstanding Victorian matriarch, has packed her errant husband off to Paris with his mistress Minna. But when tragedy throws her life off balance Sophia goes to seek him out, and instead finds herself intensely attracted to the charismatic, bohemian Minna, who leads her on a wild, chaotic adventure through a city in the throes of revolution.'One of the great under-read British novelists of the twentieth century. This is my favourite of her novels' Sarah Waters'Every page contains something brilliant, arresting or amusing, and one comes away from it staggered' Claire Harman

'A great shout of life and individuality ... an act of defiance that gladdens the soul' Guardian Lolly Willowes, so gentle and accommodating, has depths no one suspects. When she suddenly announces that she is leaving London and moving, alone, to the depths of the countryside, her overbearing relatives are horrified. But Lolly has a greater, far darker calling than family: witchcraft. 'The book I'll be pressing into people's hands forever . . . It tells the story of a woman who rejects the life that society has fixed for her in favour of freedom ... tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness' Helen McDonald'Witty, eerie, tender ... her prose, in its simple, abrupt evocations, has something preternatural about it' John Updike

'She has a talent amounting to genius' John UpdikeDon Juan, that notorious libertine, has disappeared. Has he been dragged down to hell by demons, as rumoured - or has he escaped? Doña Ana, the woman he tried to seduce, will stop at nothing to discover the truth. Set in a rural eighteenth-century Spain rife with suspicion and cruelty, and featuring a glorious cast of peasants, aristocrats and vengeful ghosts, this moving, surprising tragicomedy is also Sylvia Townsend Warner's response to the dark days of the Spanish Civil War.'The kind of novelist who inspires an intense sense of ownership in her fans' Sarah Waters

'A comic masterpiece' Patrick Gale, GuardianPillar of society and stern upholder of Victorian values, god-fearing Norfolk merchant John Barnard presides over a large and largely unhappy family. This is their story - his brandy-swilling wife, their hapless offspring and their changing fortunes - over the decades. Sylvia Townsend Warner's last novel, The Flint Anchor gloriously overturns our ideas of history, family and storytelling itself.'A novel created with solidity and subtlety of feeling, a fusion of warmth, wit and quietly biting shrewdness that are reminiscent of Jane Austen' Atlantic Review'As a sustained work of historical imagination, it has few rivals ... one of the most acute and intelligent writers of her age' Claire Harman

'Witty, poetic, clairvoyant' John UpdikeThe Reverend Timothy Fortune, ex-clerk of the Hornsey branch of Lloyds Bank, has found his vocation: to convert the inhabitants of the remote tropical island of Fanua to Christianity. Even when everyone except for a young boy called Lueli remains indifferent to his preaching, Mr Fortune's good spirits cannot be dampened - until one day his faith is put to a terrible test.'This quizzical tale is so intensely moving' Gillian Beer, New Statesman'Original, elegant and hypnotically strange' Miranda Seymour, The New York Times'Sylvia Townsend Warner pursues the psychology of the story with beautiful accuracy' John Carey

'The kind of novelist who inspires an intense sense of ownership in her fans ... her sympathies tended naturally to the marginal, the vulnerable, the exploited, the obscure' Sarah WatersSukey Bond, a sixteen-year-old orphan, is sent to work as a servant at a farm on the remote Essex Marshes. There she falls in love with gentle, unworldly Eric, the son of the rector's wife, only for them to be separated when their relationship is discovered. But nothing will deter Sukey in her quest to be reunited with her true love, even if it means seeking the help of Queen Victoria herself.'One of our most idiosyncratic, courageous and versatile writers' Hermione Lee 'One can't be too thankful that Miss Townsend Warner has lived to discover the alchemist's secret of transmuting the past into pure gold' Hilary Spurling

The original U.S. blurb says it well, '. . .But some readers consider her short stories the best vehicle for her impeccable craftsmanship, her peerless ability to sketch in a few deft lines a man or woman in a brief moment of destiny - tragic, comic, absurd or moving. These fourteen new stories are once again evidence of her wit and irony, her grace and poise.'A Spirit Rises comprises fourteen stories: Youth and the Lady; The Locum Tenens; The Fifth of November; A Question of Disposal; Barnby Robinson; In a Shaken House; The Old Nun; Randolph; On Living for Others; A Dressmaker; A Spirit Rises; The Snow Guest; During a Winter Night; A Work of Art.Many of the stories first appeared in The New Yorker which makes the dedication to William Maxwell all the more appropriate. A Spirit Rises is one of four collections of Sylvia Townsend Warner's short stories that Faber Finds are reissuing: Winter in the Air; A Spirit Rises; A Stranger with a Bag; Scenes of Childhood.'Miss Townsend Warner, as always, comes up to scratch with the sheer caress of her style. The stories in A Spirit Rises, private, utterly leisured, are like charades played by angels - albeit rather sardonic ones, and in a slightly unreal hothouse. The choice and rhythm of her words are not to be wolfed; be patient, keep the mind free to wander on a quickening phrase or a squint of humour.' David Hughes, Sunday Times

In the course of her brilliant career Sylvia Townsend Warner wrote superbly in many and diverse forms but never penned a memoir, properly speaking. However, from the 1930s to the 1970s she did contribute a series of short reminiscences to the New Yorker. Scenes of Childhood collects and orders those reminiscences, thus forming a volume that reads as a joyous, wry and moving testament to the experience of being alive. The collection evokes a recognisably English world of nannies, butlers, pet podles, public schools, 'good works' and country churches, but the resonances of these stories are universal - funny and touching by turns.

In the course of her brilliant career Sylvia Townsend Warner wrote superbly in many and diverse forms but never penned a memoir, properly speaking. However, from the 1930s to the 1970s she did contribute a series of short reminiscences to the New Yorker. Scenes of Childhood collects and orders those reminiscences, thus forming a volume that reads as a joyous, wry and moving testament to the experience of being alive. The collection evokes a recognisably English world of nannies, butlers, pet podles, public schools, 'good works' and country churches, but the resonances of these stories are universal - funny and touching by turns.

This, arguably Sylvia Townsend Warner's most luminous collection of stories, was first published in 1966 and includes 'A Love Match', hailed by the Los Angeles Times as 'a supreme example of her technique.' It is the tale of Celia and Justin Tizard, sister and war-scarred brother, whose uncommon closeness becomes the talk of a small English village.'Sylvia Townsend Warner was one of the most talented and well-respected British authors of the twentieth century. Today she is shamefully under-read. Her short stories have been particularly neglected - and yet, intelligent, lyrical, beautifully crafted, they constitute some of the very best of her work. It is wonderful to see so many of them being made available again by Faber Finds.' Sarah Waters

Winter in the Air comprises eighteen short stores written between 1938 and 1955. Despite the time span Sylvia Townsend Warner's biographer, Claire Harman, considers this collection the first 'to seem all-of-a-piece - not unvarious, but more controlled.' Although better known as a novelist, it is debateable whether that medium saw her at her best. Her short stories are invariably good, compassionate and with a leavening of wit which is, by turns, deeply comical and wryly ironic. Her reputation in this field needs reviving and to assist that Faber Finds are reissuing four volumes of her short stories: Winter in the Air, A Spirit Rises, A Stranger with a Bag and Scenes of Childhood. The stories in Winter in the Air are: Winter in the Air, Hee-Haw!; The Children's Grandmother; Evan; A Priestess of Delphi; At the Trafalgar Bakery; Shadwell; Under New Management; At a Monkey's Breast; Absolom, My Son; A Kitchen Knife; Uncle Blair; Emil; Idenborough; A Funeral at Clovie; A Passing Weakness; The Reredos; and A Second Visit.

This Christmas, 'hand yourself over to be enchanted' (Guardian) by the English genius behind witchcraft classic Lolly Willowes.'Worth £9.99 for the book jacket alone (trust Faber) ... It's exquisite and shivery, just like the stories within ... By turns creepy, melancholy, horrifying, tragic and beltingly romantic.' Sunday Times'One of our finest writers.' Neil Gaiman'One of the most shamefully under-read great British authors of the past 100 years.' Sarah Waters'Diminutive masterpieces ... Hand yourself over to be enchanted.' Guardian'Extraordinary, lucid wildness.' Helen MacDonald'Glinting perfection' The TimesDecades after her divorce, a lady returns to the village of her tumultuous marriage. A railway carriage hosts a charged schoolboy encounter. A murder raises fears of blackmail. A woman waits anxiously in a café before eloping to Paris. Another steals a friend's kitchen knife.In these bittersweet tales, the author of Lolly Willowes reveals her mastery of the short story, celebrated by the New Yorker for decades. Sylvia Townsend Warner is a tragicomic chronicler of the heart's entanglements, from marriages and affairs to widowhood; and a champion of outsiders, whether single women, the elderly or wartime refugees.Witty and subversive, her stories meld tradition and transgression, with secret sins and fetishes as much a feature of English life as eccentric aunts, country houses and parish churches.

This Christmas, 'hand yourself over to be enchanted' (Guardian) by the English genius behind witchcraft classic Lolly Willowes.'Worth £9.99 for the book jacket alone (trust Faber) ... It's exquisite and shivery, just like the stories within ... By turns creepy, melancholy, horrifying, tragic and beltingly romantic.' Sunday Times'One of our finest writers.' Neil Gaiman'One of the most shamefully under-read great British authors of the past 100 years.' Sarah Waters'Diminutive masterpieces ... Hand yourself over to be enchanted.' Guardian'Extraordinary, lucid wildness.' Helen MacDonald'Glinting perfection' The TimesDecades after her divorce, a lady returns to the village of her tumultuous marriage. A railway carriage hosts a charged schoolboy encounter. A murder raises fears of blackmail. A woman waits anxiously in a café before eloping to Paris. Another steals a friend's kitchen knife.In these bittersweet tales, the author of Lolly Willowes reveals her mastery of the short story, celebrated by the New Yorker for decades. Sylvia Townsend Warner is a tragicomic chronicler of the heart's entanglements, from marriages and affairs to widowhood; and a champion of outsiders, whether single women, the elderly or wartime refugees.Witty and subversive, her stories meld tradition and transgression, with secret sins and fetishes as much a feature of English life as eccentric aunts, country houses and parish churches.

In medieval times, Christmas was not a single day but a twelve-day festival incorporating saints' days and feast days, beginning on December 25th and ending on January 5th. It was a structured time of celebration, with twelve days of symbolic indulgence and reflection navigating people through to the year's rebirth.Stories for the 12 Days of Christmas seeks to revive this ritual period through a carefully curated selection of stories, which map these ancient celebrations onto their twentieth-century equivalents. Courtly masques become pantomimes, feasts in the Great Hall become festive dinner parties, winter hunts become countryside dog walks and lordly acts of charity become the spontaneous whims of socialites. Alongside these modern equivalencies, the collection also touches on the historic commonalities of the season: love, family, finding connection and embracing new beginnings.

In this delightful and witty novel, Laura Willowes rebels against pressure to be the perfect "maiden aunt." Not interested in men or the rushed life of London, Laura is forced to move there from her beloved countryside after the death of her father. Finally, she strikes out for the countryside on her own, selling her soul to an affable but rather simpleminded devil. First written in the 1920s, this book is timely and entertaining. It was the first selection of the Book of the Month Club in 1926.

In this delightful and witty novel, Laura Willowes rebels against pressure to be the perfect "maiden aunt." Not interested in men or the rushed life of London, Laura is forced to move there from her beloved countryside after the death of her father. Finally, she strikes out for the countryside on her own, selling her soul to an affable but rather simpleminded devil. First written in the 1920s, this book is timely and entertaining. It was the first selection of the Book of the Month Club in 1926.