Author: Simon Gray
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847088546
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
The final volume of the trilogy that began with The Smoking Diaries finds Simon Gray determined to give up smoking. Really. At last. Can he kick the habit of sixty years? Will he, sometime soon, be able to leave his house without nervously feeling for his two packets of twenty and his two lighters? As this wonderful, wayward record of Gray's life progresses, these questions are overtaken by much larger ones. What was sex like before 1963? Will his name be in lights on Broadway? Why leave the bedside of his dying mother? With their combination of comedy and serious reflection, of sharp observation and painful self-disclosure, Simon Gray's diaries reinvented the memoir form and are destined to become classics of autobiography.
The Smoking Diaries Volume 3
Author: Simon Gray
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847088546
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
The final volume of the trilogy that began with The Smoking Diaries finds Simon Gray determined to give up smoking. Really. At last. Can he kick the habit of sixty years? Will he, sometime soon, be able to leave his house without nervously feeling for his two packets of twenty and his two lighters? As this wonderful, wayward record of Gray's life progresses, these questions are overtaken by much larger ones. What was sex like before 1963? Will his name be in lights on Broadway? Why leave the bedside of his dying mother? With their combination of comedy and serious reflection, of sharp observation and painful self-disclosure, Simon Gray's diaries reinvented the memoir form and are destined to become classics of autobiography.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847088546
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
The final volume of the trilogy that began with The Smoking Diaries finds Simon Gray determined to give up smoking. Really. At last. Can he kick the habit of sixty years? Will he, sometime soon, be able to leave his house without nervously feeling for his two packets of twenty and his two lighters? As this wonderful, wayward record of Gray's life progresses, these questions are overtaken by much larger ones. What was sex like before 1963? Will his name be in lights on Broadway? Why leave the bedside of his dying mother? With their combination of comedy and serious reflection, of sharp observation and painful self-disclosure, Simon Gray's diaries reinvented the memoir form and are destined to become classics of autobiography.
The Complete Smoking Diaries
Author: Simon Gray
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 184708866X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 901
Book Description
When he turned sixty-five, playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary in which he reflected on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing), alcohol (stopped), several triumphs and many more disasters, shame, adultery, friendship and love. Bringing together the four parts of The Smoking Diaries (The Smoking Diaries, The Year of the Jouncer, The Last Cigarette, and Coda) this beautiful volume is filled with comedy and serious reflection, sharp observation and painful self-disclosure. A brilliant and moving account of life's unsteady progress, it takes the reader to the heart of one man's brilliant struggle towards some kind of personal truth.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 184708866X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 901
Book Description
When he turned sixty-five, playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary in which he reflected on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing), alcohol (stopped), several triumphs and many more disasters, shame, adultery, friendship and love. Bringing together the four parts of The Smoking Diaries (The Smoking Diaries, The Year of the Jouncer, The Last Cigarette, and Coda) this beautiful volume is filled with comedy and serious reflection, sharp observation and painful self-disclosure. A brilliant and moving account of life's unsteady progress, it takes the reader to the heart of one man's brilliant struggle towards some kind of personal truth.
Smoking Diaries
Author: Simon Gray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
In this volume, Simon Gray is determined to give up smoking. Can he kick the habit of sixty years?
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
In this volume, Simon Gray is determined to give up smoking. Can he kick the habit of sixty years?
Coda
Author: Simon Gray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
'Coda' is Simon Gray's powerful account of the year in which he struggles to come to terms with terminal lung cancer. From heartbreaking reflections on his own mortality to outrageous asides Gray's self-proclaimed 'last written words on the subject of myself' records his extraordinary emotional journey.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
'Coda' is Simon Gray's powerful account of the year in which he struggles to come to terms with terminal lung cancer. From heartbreaking reflections on his own mortality to outrageous asides Gray's self-proclaimed 'last written words on the subject of myself' records his extraordinary emotional journey.
Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57
Author: Chips Channon
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1529151740
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 1201
Book Description
The third and final volume of the remarkable Sunday Times bestselling diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon ___________________________________________ 'An utterly addictive glimpse of London high society and politics in the 40s and 50s.' Robert Harris 'An instant classic . . . quite simply the greatest social and political diaries of the 20th century.' Daily Telegraph 'Rich, exuberant, copious and shatteringly honest.' Spectator 'A scurrilous read. Fascinating. Gripping!' Alan Titchmarsh 'Chips writes with such vividness that one feels one is living each day in his exalted company.' The Oldie _______________________________________ This final volume of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon begins as the Second World War is turning in the Allies' favour. It ends with Chips descending into poor health but still able to turn a pointed phrase about the political events that swirl around him and the great and the good with whom he mingles. Throughout these final fourteen years Chips assiduously describes events in and around Westminster, gossiping about individual MPs' ambitions and indiscretions, but also rising powerfully to the occasion to capture the mood of the House on VE Day or the ceremony of George VI's funeral. His energies, though, are increasingly absorbed by a private life that at times reaches Byzantine levels of complexity. We encounter the London of the theatre and the cinema, peopled by such figures as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, as well as a seemingly endless grand parties at which Chips might well rub shoulders with Cecil Beaton, the Mountbattens, or any number of dethroned European monarchs. He has been described as 'The greatest British diarist of the 20th century'. This final volume fully justifies that accolade.
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1529151740
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 1201
Book Description
The third and final volume of the remarkable Sunday Times bestselling diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon ___________________________________________ 'An utterly addictive glimpse of London high society and politics in the 40s and 50s.' Robert Harris 'An instant classic . . . quite simply the greatest social and political diaries of the 20th century.' Daily Telegraph 'Rich, exuberant, copious and shatteringly honest.' Spectator 'A scurrilous read. Fascinating. Gripping!' Alan Titchmarsh 'Chips writes with such vividness that one feels one is living each day in his exalted company.' The Oldie _______________________________________ This final volume of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon begins as the Second World War is turning in the Allies' favour. It ends with Chips descending into poor health but still able to turn a pointed phrase about the political events that swirl around him and the great and the good with whom he mingles. Throughout these final fourteen years Chips assiduously describes events in and around Westminster, gossiping about individual MPs' ambitions and indiscretions, but also rising powerfully to the occasion to capture the mood of the House on VE Day or the ceremony of George VI's funeral. His energies, though, are increasingly absorbed by a private life that at times reaches Byzantine levels of complexity. We encounter the London of the theatre and the cinema, peopled by such figures as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, as well as a seemingly endless grand parties at which Chips might well rub shoulders with Cecil Beaton, the Mountbattens, or any number of dethroned European monarchs. He has been described as 'The greatest British diarist of the 20th century'. This final volume fully justifies that accolade.
The Smoking Diaries Volume 4
Author: Simon Gray
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 184708852X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
Coda is Simon Gray's powerful account of the year in which he struggled to come to terms with terminal lung cancer. Darkly comic depictions of the medical team are set against joyful accounts of sunlit days with his beloved wife, Victoria. Written with exceptional candour and a poignant reluctance to leave this world behind, Simon Gray's Coda is as life-affirming as it is heart-rending. Sadly, Coda was published posthumously: Gray died in August 2008.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 184708852X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
Coda is Simon Gray's powerful account of the year in which he struggled to come to terms with terminal lung cancer. Darkly comic depictions of the medical team are set against joyful accounts of sunlit days with his beloved wife, Victoria. Written with exceptional candour and a poignant reluctance to leave this world behind, Simon Gray's Coda is as life-affirming as it is heart-rending. Sadly, Coda was published posthumously: Gray died in August 2008.
The Smoking Diaries Volume 2
Author: Simon Gray
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847088554
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 238
Book Description
As a baby, Simon Gray discovered that he could move his pram while still nestling inside it. 'It was a complete mystery to the adult intelligences, how had he done it, if it was he who had done it, but if not he, who then and why? So the next afternoon they (Mummy and Nanny) planted the pram in the usual spot, and stood over it, watching - the baby lay there smiling or snivelling up at them, until it struck them that they should try observing the baby when unobserved by the baby, and they withdrew behind bushes and trees etc.; and thus witnessed the swaying of the pram, then the juddering of the pram, then its slow, unsteady progress along the path, the movement accompanied by a low humming and keening sound from within that reminded them more of a dog than a human ... "jouncing" was the word they used for it. I was a jouncer therefore.' In the second book of his chronicles of triumph and disaster which started with The Smoking Diaries, Gray intertwined scenes from his adult and his childish self to produce a brilliant and moving counterpoint of life's unsteady progress.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847088554
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 238
Book Description
As a baby, Simon Gray discovered that he could move his pram while still nestling inside it. 'It was a complete mystery to the adult intelligences, how had he done it, if it was he who had done it, but if not he, who then and why? So the next afternoon they (Mummy and Nanny) planted the pram in the usual spot, and stood over it, watching - the baby lay there smiling or snivelling up at them, until it struck them that they should try observing the baby when unobserved by the baby, and they withdrew behind bushes and trees etc.; and thus witnessed the swaying of the pram, then the juddering of the pram, then its slow, unsteady progress along the path, the movement accompanied by a low humming and keening sound from within that reminded them more of a dog than a human ... "jouncing" was the word they used for it. I was a jouncer therefore.' In the second book of his chronicles of triumph and disaster which started with The Smoking Diaries, Gray intertwined scenes from his adult and his childish self to produce a brilliant and moving counterpoint of life's unsteady progress.
The Smoking Diaries Volume 1
Author: Simon Gray
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847088511
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
When he turned sixty-five, the playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary: not a careful honing of the day's events with a view to posterity but an account of his thoughts as he had them, honestly, turbulently, digressively expressed. The Smoking Diaries was the result, in which one of Britain's most beloved and original writers reflected on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing), alcohol (stopped), several triumphs and many more disasters, shame, adultery, friendship and love. Few diarists have been as frank about themselves, and even fewer as entertaining.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847088511
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
When he turned sixty-five, the playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary: not a careful honing of the day's events with a view to posterity but an account of his thoughts as he had them, honestly, turbulently, digressively expressed. The Smoking Diaries was the result, in which one of Britain's most beloved and original writers reflected on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing), alcohol (stopped), several triumphs and many more disasters, shame, adultery, friendship and love. Few diarists have been as frank about themselves, and even fewer as entertaining.
Pinter’s World
Author: William Baker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611479320
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
Pinter’s World: Pinter and Company is not a full-scale biography but a series of illuminating chapters about Pinter’s life, character, and thought, employing new information found in his “Appointment Diaries,” recent biographical sources such as Simon Gray’s memoirs, and Henry Woolf’s reminiscences in addition to personal discussions with several in Pinter’s world. This book provides a fresh illumination of Pinter’s life and art, his friendships, obsessions, and concerns.Material is arranged around themes, key concerns, Pinter’s activities. Pinter’s meetings and endeavors, for instance, with whom he met and when, when he wrote what and when, and his perspective at the time are documented. This work explores Pinter’s writing: drama, poetry, prose, journalism, and letters, which are here regarded as part of his aesthetic achievement. Pinter’s World: Pinter and Company presents a pointillist portrait of him through examining central concerns in his life. These encompass an obsession with the theater and games; delight in restaurants, demonstrating that Pinter is far removed from the socially awkward isolated figures populating his early work; and the women in Pinter’s world. Other areas examined include Pinter’s political engagement, from his adolescence to his last years, and the literary and other creative influences upon him. This work draws upon consultation of his papers at the British Library, including letters to others, especially close friends with whom he kept close contact for over half a century. These letters should be regarded on par with his other creative accomplishments. Pinter was a fascinating letter writer, whose letters reveal thoughts at the time of writing often in abrupt most colorful idiomatic language. His “Appointment Diaries” cannot reveal what actually occurred during his meetings, but they do provide a guide to what he did on a daily basis and whom he met. Memories from his friends, his professional colleagues, cricket players, and his second wife, Antonia Fraser, illuminate Pinter’s personality and actions. Pinter’s first literary love was poetry and, unlike most other Pinter studies, this one gives attention to his neglected poetic output that often reveals the real Pinter and the enigma that is at the heart of every great artist.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611479320
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
Pinter’s World: Pinter and Company is not a full-scale biography but a series of illuminating chapters about Pinter’s life, character, and thought, employing new information found in his “Appointment Diaries,” recent biographical sources such as Simon Gray’s memoirs, and Henry Woolf’s reminiscences in addition to personal discussions with several in Pinter’s world. This book provides a fresh illumination of Pinter’s life and art, his friendships, obsessions, and concerns.Material is arranged around themes, key concerns, Pinter’s activities. Pinter’s meetings and endeavors, for instance, with whom he met and when, when he wrote what and when, and his perspective at the time are documented. This work explores Pinter’s writing: drama, poetry, prose, journalism, and letters, which are here regarded as part of his aesthetic achievement. Pinter’s World: Pinter and Company presents a pointillist portrait of him through examining central concerns in his life. These encompass an obsession with the theater and games; delight in restaurants, demonstrating that Pinter is far removed from the socially awkward isolated figures populating his early work; and the women in Pinter’s world. Other areas examined include Pinter’s political engagement, from his adolescence to his last years, and the literary and other creative influences upon him. This work draws upon consultation of his papers at the British Library, including letters to others, especially close friends with whom he kept close contact for over half a century. These letters should be regarded on par with his other creative accomplishments. Pinter was a fascinating letter writer, whose letters reveal thoughts at the time of writing often in abrupt most colorful idiomatic language. His “Appointment Diaries” cannot reveal what actually occurred during his meetings, but they do provide a guide to what he did on a daily basis and whom he met. Memories from his friends, his professional colleagues, cricket players, and his second wife, Antonia Fraser, illuminate Pinter’s personality and actions. Pinter’s first literary love was poetry and, unlike most other Pinter studies, this one gives attention to his neglected poetic output that often reveals the real Pinter and the enigma that is at the heart of every great artist.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner)
Author: Sherman Alexie
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316219304
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller—over one million copies sold! A National Book Award winner A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and black-and-white interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316219304
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller—over one million copies sold! A National Book Award winner A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and black-and-white interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.