Kirjahaku

Winner of the Elizabeth Longford prize for Historical Biography 'Engrossing' Claire Tomalin / 'Superb' Sunday Times / 'A triumph' Daily Mail Whether honoured and admired or criticized and ridiculed, Florence Nightingale has invariably been misrepresented and misunderstood. As the Lady with the Lamp, ministering to the wounded and dying of the Crimean War, she offers an enduring image of sentimental appeal and one that is permanently lodged in our national consciousness. But the awesome scale of her achievements over the course of her 90 years is infinitely more troubling - and inspiring - than this mythical simplification. From her tireless campaigning and staggering intellectual abilities to her tortured relationship with her sister and her distressing medical condition, this vivid and immensely readable biography draws on a wealth of unpublished material and previously unseen family papers, disentangling the myth from the reality and reinvigorating with new life one of the most iconic figures in modern British history.'Enthralling' Guardian'Excellent' Spectator'Hugely readable' Lancet 'Gripping and faultless' Observer, Books of the Year 'Remarkable. A subtle, scholarly and immensely readable portrait. Scrupulous, thoughtful and clear-eyed. A masterly achievement' Financial Times 'It will not be superseded for generations to come' Sunday Telegraph

From Normandy to the Caribbean Islands, this innovative biographical pursuit follows Adèle Hugo on her reckless journey of unrequited love – and the writer who chased after her more than 150 years later.It’s 1863. The daughter of the most famous writer in the world, Victor Hugo, who has ambitions as a writer and composer, suddenly leaves her family’s home on the Channel Islands bound for Nova Scotia. She is in pursuit of a young British soldier, with whom she is desperately in love, but who has rejected her. Eight years later, after stalking him to the Caribbean, where he’s stationed with the army, Adèle Hugo is brought back to Paris by a benevolent former slave woman who has taken pity on her. She is admitted to an asylum where she dies decades later, rich from the inheritance of the rights to her father’s books. This story of hopeless love has inspired writers, composers, and a well-known film by François Truffaut. Yet much about Adèle Hugo’s tragic life has remained shrouded in mystery – not least the true character and identity of the soldier who ultimately contributed to her undoing. Mark Bostridge was drawn to Adèle’s story in his twenties, thanks in part to the François Truffaut film, and has been following her story ever since. Now he sets out in pursuit of the truth about her, travelling halfway across the world, acting as sleuth and tracking down the descendants of the soldier she loved. In so doing he recognises the source of his fascination with the aspects of Adèle’s life that reflect and parallel his own. The result is a moving book about the pain of loving too much and of parents loving too little; about the ways in which we are haunted by the dead; and about our insatiable appetite for other people’s stories which possess us and invade our own lives. In Pursuit of Love is part memoir and part travelogue, as well as an invigorating new approach to the writing of biography.

‘A compelling experiment in biography-cum-memoir’ -- Times Literary Supplement ‘Bostridge elegantly and poignantly interweaves tales of amorous grief and mental illness.’ -- The Spectator From Normandy to the Caribbean Islands, this innovative biographical pursuit follows Adèle Hugo on her reckless journey of unrequited love – and the writer who chased after her more than 150 years later. It’s 1863. The daughter of the most famous writer in the world, Victor Hugo, who has ambitions as a writer and composer, suddenly leaves her family’s home on the Channel Islands bound for Nova Scotia. Adèle Hugo is in pursuit of a young British soldier, with whom she is desperately in love, but who has rejected her. She stalks him around the world to no avail, until she returns to Paris and is admitted to the asylum where she will spend the rest of her life. Now Mark Bostridge sets out in pursuit of the truth about Adèle, following in her footsteps around the world over a century later. In so doing he recognises the source of his fascination with the aspects of Adèle’s life that reflect and parallel his own. In Pursuit of Love is part memoir and part travelogue, as well as an invigorating new approach to the writing of biography.

The inspiration for the film Testament of Youth, this book from Mark Bostridge (Vera Brittain's biographer) tells the story of a remarkable woman and her extraordinary account of the destructive power of war.In the midst of her studies at Oxford when war broke out across Europe, Vera Brittain left university in 1915 to become a V.A.D (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse, treating soldiers in London, Malta and Etaples in France. The events of the First World War were to have an enormous impact on her life. Four of Brittain's closest friends including her fiancé Roland Leighton and her brother Edward Brittain MC were killed in action, sparking a lifelong commitment to pacifism.In 1933 she published Testament of Youth, the first of three books dealing with her experience of war. In equal measures courageous, tragic and deeply fascinating, Testament of Youth is one of the most compelling and important works of war literature ever to have been written by a British woman.Mark Bostridge's Vera Brittain and the First World War explores the effects of the First World War on Vera Brittain, both in terms of her personal life and in terms of its effect on her development as a writer and her eventual decision to become a pacifist. Taking advantage of the interest generated by the film, it will bring her story to a new generation and incorporate the most up-to-date research.The book includes a short essay 'From Book to Film', describing the process of turning Testament of Youth into a major feature film. This includes interviews with the production staff and actors, as well as with members of Vera Brittain's family, including Shirley Williams.

* The bestselling and moving collection of letters to Vera Brittain from a lost generation - four young men who lost their lives in the great war