Search Results for: Gift and Humour

Whether your problem is a commonplace challenge or a drastic decision, the world of literature is sure to provide an inspiring answer.
Soothe your stresses with these heartfelt passages and let the beauty of the prose help you resolve the dilemmas in your life.

‘One hates an author that’s all author.’
Lord Byron
With quips, quotes and insults from beloved literary figures such as William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway to modern literati including Zadie Smith and Will Self, this charming book reveals your favourite authors’ opinions on subjects from families, food and friendship to writing  masterpieces, being married and silencing dim-witted critics. Literary Wit and Wisdom will ensure that you’re never at a loss for the perfect witticism.
 

These entertaining collections gather together the wisest and wittiest quotations from some of Britain’s best-loved historical figures. Packed with humorous, perceptive and compelling quotes, they are sure to delight readers everywhere.

Do you know…
Which famous author died of caffeine poisoning? Why Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was banned in China? Who was the first British writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature? Banned books, feuding authors, literary felons, rejected masterpieces – it’s all in these pages, along with tips for aspiring writers and lists of the most iconic works. A treasure trove of compelling facts, riveting anecdotes and extraordinary characters, this is every book-lover’s dream: a book about books and the people who write them. Read on!

‘Hard is his heart that loveth naught in May’ – Geoffrey Chaucer.
12 June: ‘Male glow-worms, attracted by the light of the candles, come into the parlour. The distant hills look very blue’ – Gilbert White, 1791.
Join some of England’s best-loved writers in this day-by-day celebration of an English year, from the frosty mornings of January through to the buds of spring and blooms of summer, from the autumn harvest to the festivities of Christmas. Diary entries by literary figures such as Gilbert White, Dorothy Wordsworth and Thomas Hardy guide us through the year, accompanied by poems and quotations celebrating the changing seasons, and passages explaining the origins of some of our oldest festive traditions.

‘One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.’


Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own


Prepare your senses for a feast of delicious food scenes in literature accompanied with recipes to bring them to life in your very own kitchen, including Turkish delight Edmund wouldn’t be able to resist, roast goose the Cratchits would be proud of and cucumber sandwiches Algernon would be loath to share.
This book is perfect for anyone who enjoys spending their days with a book in one hand and a saucepan in the other.

Did you know…
Shakespeare is the most filmed author of all time: he’s been credited on more than 1,000 movies and TV shows. ‘Obscene’, ‘gloomy’, ‘fashionable’ and ‘generous’ are among the countless new words that Shakespeare introduced. (Actually, ‘countless’ is one of his too.) It’s also because of the Bard that we say ‘catch a cold’, ‘naked truth’ and ‘green-eyed monster’.  Almost all the moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare, including Titania, Oberon and Puck? For further fascinating insights, dive into this masterful miscellany and become a Shakespeare buff.
There’s never been a better time to take a fresh look at William Shakespeare’s eternal works. A treasure trove of wit, imagination and emotion, his plays and poems continue to surprise, inspire, console and delight us. Whether you’re a lifelong lover of the Bard or a curious newcomer to his world, this companion will lift the curtain on the unforgettable characters and stories of Britain’s greatest dramatist.

‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’ Hamlet



This entertaining collection gathers together William Shakespeare’s wisest and wittiest quotations. The Wit and Wisdom of William Shakespeare proves that brevity is the soul of wit and is sure to delight all lovers of the Bard’s uniquely perceptive and influential works.

This entertaining collection gathers together William Shakespeare’s wisest and wittiest quotations.

Quotable Shakespeare proves that brevity is the soul of wit and is sure to delight all lovers of the Bard’s uniquely perceptive and influential works.