Norman MacCaig, who died in 1996, is widely regarded as Scotland's finest contemporary poet, whose later poetry is both accessible and popular. This perceptive study places him in his literary and soc
Kandola (English, Liverpool John Moores U.) presents a study of the life and writings of British writer, Violet Paget (1856-1935), more famously known by her pen name Vernon Lee. Following a short bio
In this third edition of his popular volume on Heaney, Andrew Murphy offers an accessible and wide-ranging study of the poet's work, charting the trajectory of Heaney's career and placing his work wit
W. G. Sebald was a literary phenomenon: a German literary scholar working in England, who took up creative writing out of dissatisfaction with German post-war letters. Within only a few years, his uni
Flann O'Brien was the best known pen name of Brian O'Nolan one of modern Ireland's most perplexing, subversive and underrated writers. This new study assesses the whole span of O'Noaln's achievement,
This original and stimulating study traces the connections that Shakespeare makes between that ancient Roman culture of cruelty and the order which structured thought and belief in the Christian Engla
Graham Greene is among the major creative talents of our time. During a career which spanned more than sixty years, he achieved a world-wide reputation. As skilful in writing with humour as with serio
Douglas Dunn is one of the most widely-read and respected poets of his generation. In a career spanning over 30 years, he has refined lyric and elegiac poetry into an instrument with which to make acu
Moving adroitly between historical context and modern critical problems, this study explores the intertwining of politics, sexuality, and the social order in Measure for Measure, one of the most frequ
This study looks at Duffy's work from her early development and involvement with the Liverpool poets in the 1970s, through to her later published work. It concentrates on the way in which Duffy devel
The notion of thinking as an outsider, and the critical distance which this entails, is a key to an understanding of Desai as writer. Through discussions of short stories and novels, and references to
Subjecting biographical evidence to close examination, Stevie Davies' book questions the legibility of Emily Brontë's life-records, explores the symphonic qualities of Wuthering Heights and establishe
Recounting his 1897-98 Klondike Gold Rush experience Jack London stated: “It was in the Klondike I found myself. There nobody talks. Everybody thinks. There you get your perspective. I got mine.” This
Jonathan Swift was a Church of Ireland priest and an Irish patriot, a poet, pamphleteer, and the greatest prose satirist in the English language. The surrealists regarded Swift as the true initiator o
The novels and stories of Elizabeth Taylor (1912-75) have always had an enthusiastic following among the general reading public. This study aims to introduce her work, to trace some of its recurrent p
Louis MacNeice is a key twentieth-century poet whose life exemplifies transitions and tensions between conflicting and overlapping commitments, be they aesthetic, national or institutional. This book
Martin Amis is one of the most important and distinctive writers of the last 30 years; this study provides a critical evaluation of all his work from his first novel, The Rachel Papers, to The Pregnan
The Jamaican writer, Olive Senior, has been writing and publishing since the 1980s. Her oeuvre includes poetry and short stories as well as journalism, a sociological study of Caribbean women and a co
