Fourth Estate – serie

Harold Bloom, the doyen of American literary critics and author of The Western Canon, has spent a professional lifetime reading, writing about and teaching Shakespeare. In this magisterial interpretation, Bloom explains Shakespeare’s genius in a radical and provocative re-reading of the plays.How to understand Shakespeare, whose ability so far exceeds his predecessors and successors, whose genius has defied generations of critics’ explanations, whose work is of greater influence in the modern age even than the Bible? This book is a visionary summation of Harold Bloom’s reading of Shakespeare and in it he expounds a brilliant and far-reaching critical theory: that Shakespeare was, through his dramatic characters, the inventor of human personality as we have come to understand it. In short, Shakespeare invented our understanding of ourselves. He knows us better than we do: ‘The plays remain the outward limit of human achievement: aesthetically, cognitively, in certain ways morally, even spiritually. They abide beyond the end of the mind’s reach; we cannot catch up to them. Shakespeare will go on explaining us in part because he invented us… ’ In a chronological survey of each of the plays, Bloom explores the supra-human personalities of Shakespeare’s great protagonists: Hamlet, Lear, Falstaff, Rosalind, Juliet. They represent the apogee of Shakespeare’s art, that art which is Britain’s most powerful and dominant cultural contribution to the world, here vividly recovered by an inspired and wise scholar at the height of his powers.

A startling and at times unsettlingly prescient collection of J. G. Ballard’s greatest interviews.J.G. Ballard was a literary giant. Best known for his controversial bestseller ‘Crash’ and the memoir ‘Empire of the Sun’, he was a writer of unique talent – always surprising, frequently prescient.Such acuity was not exclusive to his novels and, as this book reminds us, Ballard’s restive intelligence sharpened itself in dialogue. He entertained many with insights into the world as he saw it, and speculated, often correctly, about its future. Some of these observations earned Ballard an oracular reputation, and continue to yield an uncannily accurate commentary today.‘Extreme Metaphors’ collects the finest interviews of his career. Conversations with Will Self, Jon Savage, Iain Sinclair and John Gray, and collaborators like David Cronenberg, are a reminder of his wit and humanity, testament to Ballard’s profound worldliness as much as his otherworldly imagination. This collection is an indispensable tribute to one of recent history’s most original thinkers.

Capturing the magic and finest festive traditions of Fortnum & Mason, Christmas and Other Winter Feasts gathers together everything you need to enjoy a truly delicious winter. A joyous celebration of Fortnum & Mason’s love for extraordinary seasonal food, Christmas and Other Winter Feasts is filled with flavoursome recipes for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, as well as Guy Fawkes and Burns’ Night.From seasonable soups to hearty January eating, and featuring exclusive stories from the Fortnum & Mason archives, Christmas and Other Winter Feasts is the essential accompaniment to any party, gathering or feast.

Time for Tea is a celebration of Fortnum's passion for tea in its every form. Drawing on over 300 years of experience, you will find the history, geography, seasonality of tea – everything from leaf to cup – as well as 50 delicious recipes. Fortnum & Mason has nearly as much experience of selling tea as Britain has of drinking it – some three centuries’ worth, in fact, since the early eighteenth century.This fun and deeply authoritative guide whisks you through all the information you need to get the most out of your cuppa. It instructs on how to make the perfect brew or infusion and helps identify a wide range of teas to try that will suit different tastes whether for a single estate Darjeeling, a smoky or a delicate tea from China or a regular builder’s. It also explores which teas are best to kickstart the day, revive the spirits or soothe at evening’s end. And now, enough of the talk, it’s Time for Tea.