Robert Douglas-Fairhurst Livres

The second novel from the ever popular authour of Night Song of the Last Tram and Whose Turn for the Stairs?

A darkly comic and moving reflection on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain, from the award-winning Oxford professor 'The best book about multiple sclerosis' THE TIMES 'A story about the importance of stories' GUARDIAN 'An outstanding feat' SUNDAY TIMES We all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time ... But sometimes we are unlucky. My own trapdoor was hidden in the consulting room of an Oxford neurologist. When the trapdoor opened for Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, he plummeted into a world of MRI scans, a disobedient body and the crushing unpredictability of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. But, like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, his fall did something else. It took him deep into his own mind: his hopes, his fears, his loves and losses, and the books that would sustain, inform and nourish him as his life began to transform in ways he could never have imagined. From Kafka to Barbellion, this is a literary map of the journey from the kingdom of the well to the land of the sick, and forwards into a hopeful future. It's an ode to great writing, to storytelling, to science and to the power of the imagination.

A major new biography of Charles Dickens, tracing the year that would transform his life and times BY THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF BECOMING DICKENS AND THE STORY OF ALICE 'It is hard to imagine a better book on Dickens' NEW STATESMAN The year is 1851. It's a time of radical change in Britain, when industrial miracles and artistic innovations rub shoulders with political unrest, poverty and disease. It's also a turbulent time in the private life of Charles Dickens, as he copes with a double bereavement and early signs that his marriage is falling apart. But this formative year will become perhaps the greatest turning point in Dickens's career, as he embraces his calling as a chronicler of ordinary people's lives, and develops a new form of writing that will reveal just how interconnected the world is becoming. The Turning Point transports us into the foggy streets of Dickens's London, closely following the twists and turns of a year that would come to define him, and forever alter Britain's relationship with the world. Fully illustrated, and brimming with fascinating details about the larger-than-life man who wrote Bleak House, this is the closest look yet at one of the greatest literary personalities ever to have lived. 'A startling and exciting writer' A. S. BYATT, SPECTATOR

This provocative biography tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England's greatest novelist. Focused on the 1830s, it portrays a restless, uncertain Dickens who could not decide on a career path. Through twists and turns, the author traces a double transformation: in reinventing himself Dickens reinvented the form of the novel.

Exploring the complex debates surrounding survival and immortality in the nineteenth century, this study delves into the Victorian era's cultural landscape. It examines how these discussions influenced not only the Victorians but also contemporary thought. By integrating literary criticism, philosophy, and the history of science, the book offers a vibrant and engaging analysis that reinterprets the connections among various fields of inquiry. It highlights the enduring relevance of Victorian ideas in shaping our understanding of identity and existence today.

A tale of family, community and strength of spirit

The third novel in Robert Douglas' much-loved Glaswegian trilogy will delight readers with its blend of humour, tragedy, and vivid sense of place.

* BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week * Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage - a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject: of Charles Dodgson, the quiet academic, and his second self, Lewis Carroll - storyteller, innovator and avid collector of 'child-friends'. And of his 'dream-child', Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up. This is their secret story: a history of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man's need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world. Drawing on previously unpublished material, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst traces the creation and influence of the Alice books against a shifting cultural landscape - the birth of photography, changing definitions of childhood and sexuality and the tensions inherent in the transition between the Victorian and modern worlds.

Confucianism and Taouism - With a Map is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1879. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.