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  • Book cover of Playing with Fire
    Grevel Lindop

     · 2006

    A dazzling blend of intellectualism and eroticism, this poetry collection employs sumptuous, sensory language to explore a wide range of subjects--including a blood-drinking Tibetan deity, lemons in Robert Graves' garden, and an East London strip club. By boldly traversing the boundary between the erotic and the sexual, these love poems are both passionate and strikingly original.

  • Book cover of Charles Williams
    Grevel Lindop

     · 2015

    This is the first full biography of Charles Williams (1886-1945), an extraordinary and controversial figure who was a central member of the Inklings--the group of Oxford writers that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Charles Williams--novelist, poet, theologian, magician and guru--was the strangest, most multi-talented, and most controversial member of the group. He was a pioneering fantasy writer, who still has a cult following. C.S. Lewis thought his poems on King Arthur and the Holy Grail were among the best poetry of the twentieth century for 'the soaring and gorgeous novelty of their technique, and their profound wisdom'. But Williams was full of contradictions. An influential theologian, Williams was also deeply involved in the occult, experimenting extensively with magic, practising erotically-tinged rituals, and acquiring a following of devoted disciples. Membership of the Inklings, whom he joined at the outbreak of the Second World War, was only the final phase in a remarkable career. From a poor background in working-class London, Charles Williams rose to become an influential publisher, a successful dramatist, and an innovative literary critic. His friends and admirers included T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and the young Philip Larkin. A charismatic personality, he held left-wing political views, and believed that the Christian churches had dangerously undervalued sexuality. To redress the balance, he developed a 'Romantic Theology', aiming at an approach to God through sexual love. He became the most admired lecturer in wartime Oxford, influencing a generation of young writers before dying suddenly at the height of his powers. This biography draws on a wealth of documents, letters and private papers, many never before opened to researchers, and on more than twenty interviews with people who knew Williams. It vividly recreates the bizarre and dramatic life of this strange, uneasy genius, of whom Eliot wrote, 'For him there was no frontier between the material and the spiritual world.'

  • Book cover of The Opium-eater, a Life of Thomas De Quincey
  • Book cover of Selected Poems
  • Book cover of Against the Sea
  • Book cover of The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part I Vol 1

    Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the first part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

  • Book cover of A Literary Guide to the Lake District
    Grevel Lindop

     · 2005

    A guide to the Lake District's literary connections since the earliest times, which are illustrated and arranged in five easy-to-follow routes for walkers and drivers.

  • Book cover of The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part I Vol 6

    Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the first part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

  • Book cover of The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part III vol 21

    Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the final part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

  • Book cover of The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part III vol 19

    Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the final part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.