Search Results for: the wedding

With a new introduction by DIANA EVANS

‘A writer of huge compassion and acute observation, and also of dazzling style . . . Her work is more relevant than ever’ Diana Evans


‘Timelessly cinematic, with painterly visual descriptions and pitch-perfect dialogue that ranges across class, region, race, age, and gender’ Emma Garman, Paris Review


Set on a bucolic Martha’s Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast’s black bourgeoisie. Within this inner circle of ‘blue-vein society’, we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of their loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from ‘a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions.’ Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Mead Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.

Not just the story of one wedding, but of many, this compelling story offers insights into issues of race, prejudice and identity while maintaining its firm belief in the compensatory power of love.

Through a delicate interweaving of past and present, North and South, black and white, The Wedding unfolds outward from a single isolated time and place until it embraces five generations of an extraordinary American family. It is an audacious accomplishment, a monumental history of the rise of a black middle class, written by a writer who lived it. Wise, heartfelt, and shattering, it is Dorothy West’s crowning achievement.

INTRODUCED BY CHARLOTTE MENDELSON

‘It is time that justice was done to Elizabeth Taylor… All her writings could be described as coming into the category of comedy. Comedy is the best vehicle for truths that are too fierce to be borne’ ANITA BROOKNER

‘”You know,'”Midge began, and paused. She was rather taken aback, and could not at once think of anything to say. “Perhaps there’s nothing so dangerous as having led a sheltered life.”‘

Cressy has grown up in a world of women, presided over by her eccentric, artist grandfather Harry Bretton. Rebelling against the wholesome, organic values of her home life, Cressy decides to leave home in search of more ephemeral pleasures. Taking a job in an antiques shop, she meets David, a self-satisfied journalist, also looking for means of fleeing the family nest. But as Cressy cannot fend for herself and David is securely tied to his mother’s apron strings, this act of escape for both of them proves a powerful form of bondage.

‘Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor’s novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I’ve returned to her too – in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it ‘ SARAH WATERS

‘The boldest of English women writers’ LORNA SAGE

‘Her writing is pyrotechnic – fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language’ OBSERVER

‘She can glide from ancient to modern, from darkness to luminosity, from depravity to comedy without any hint of strain and without losing the elusive power of the original tales’ THE TIMES

‘This crazy world whirled around her, men and women dwarfed by toys and puppets, where even the birds are mechanical and the few human figures went masked . . . She was in the night once again, and the doll was herself.’

One night Melanie walks through the garden in her mother’s wedding dress. The next morning her world is shattered. Forced to leave her rural home, she is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met: gentle Aunt Margaret, mute since her wedding day; and her brothers, Francie, whose graceful music belies his clumsy nature, and the volatile Finn. Brooding over all is Uncle Philip, who loves only the puppets he creates in his workshop, which are life-sized – and uncannily lifelike.

On the eve of her wedding anniversary, Mary Gooch is waiting for her husband to come home, listening for his car along the dark, icy roads. As the night draws on, and he fails to appear, Mary reflects on the true nature of their marriage: the secrets, the silences, and the unmentionable yet inescapable fact that for each loss and disappointment, there has been a corresponding physical gain: the woman she once was is now imprisoned in mountainous flesh. The Wife’s Tale is the inspirational story of the journey Mary is finally forced to make across a continent, ostensibly in search of her husband, but eventually towards the self she has buried for too long.

Jane Austen found her sister Cassandra a locket. Joan Didion bought nail enamel and a toaster on impulse. Karyn Bosnak charged $20,000 on credit cards – and wild child Elizabeth Wurtzel got caught shoplifting. George Eliot, on the other hand, hated shopping. Those are the true stories, but there are hundreds of fictional shoppers: The Girl with the Pearl Earring turned up her nose at some stale meat; Tom Ripley lusted after Venetian leather goods, while Jane Eyre cringed at Mr Rochester’s pre-wedding excess. This is the first anthology to feature writing about shopping by women throughout history. Buy it.

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition to write. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley’s marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a beloved son serves only to drive them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest’s ferocious literary endeavours begin to bring him recognition – not least from a woman intent on making him her own . . .

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition to write. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley’s marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a beloved son serves only to drive them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest’s ferocious literary endeavours begin to bring him recognition – not least from a woman intent on making him her own . . .

‘You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own’ New York Times

It is summer 1939 and the social event of the year is about to take place: Rose Birkett, a flighty beauty with a penchant for breaking engagements and hearts, is finally getting married, and the whole village – especially her parents – breathes a sigh of relief.

By autumn, however, summer weddings seem a distant memory as war reaches Barsetshire. While the younger generation throws itself into the war effort with cheerful aplomb, older residents remember the last war keenly, and are fearful.

When an entire London school of evacuees arrive, as well as a number of refugees, the village rallies round to accommodate them. Some inhabitants, though, fail to welcome the newcomers with open arms.

First published in 1940, this is a humorous and poignant picture of wartime in a rural community.

Justinian took a wife: and the manner she was born and bred, and wedded to this man, tore up the Roman Empire by the very roots’ Procopius
Charming, charismatic, heroic – Theodora of Constantinople rose from nothing to become the most powerful woman in the history of Byzantine Rome. In Stella Duffy’s breathtaking new novel, she comes to life again – a fascinating, controversial and seductive woman. Some called her a saint. Others were not so kind…
When her father is killed, the young Theodora is forced into near slavery to survive. But just as she learns to control her body as a dancer, and for the men who can afford her, so she is determined to shape a very different fate for herself.
From the vibrant streets and erotic stage shows of sixth century Constantinople to the holy desert retreats of Alexandria, Theodora is an extraordinary imaginative achievement from one of our finest writers.

‘The reader is thoroughly entranced and entertained’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘Among the most perceptive and accomplished novelists writing today’ P. D. JAMES

‘There’s a speck of surprise on most every page’ KIRKUS REVIEWS

After an expensive dinner on their thirteenth wedding anniversary, James calmly announces that he wishes to leave Bridie. A cherished adopted child, she stepped into marriage – and a pet name – at the age of nineteen and has nurtured two step-children and a daughter. The habit of protecting others is strong is Bridie but now, redundant and with her happiness turned into a charade, she is uncertain of her identity. Unless she reclaims a portion of her past, Bridie fears she will have no future. The mysteries and consequences of Bridie’s adoption form the bedrock of this enticing and skilfully woven novel. Here, with her characteristic wit and acuity, Nina Bawden peers into the familiar passions of family life, remembered insults, ancient scars and old deceptions.

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA

‘She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense’ GUARDIAN

‘A stunning gem . . . ‘ SUNDAY TIMES

‘No other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification’ MARGARET FORSTER

Both a spellbinding love story and a superb evocation of Cornwall’s mythic past, Castle Dor is a book with unique and fascinating origins.

It began life as the unfinished last novel of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the celebrated ‘Q’, and was passed by his daughter to Daphne du Maurier whose storytelling skills were perfectly suited to the task of completing the old master’s tale. The result is this magical, compelling recreation of the legend of Tristan and Iseult, transplanted in time to nineteenth century Cornwall.

A chance encounter between a Breton onion-seller, Amyot Trestane, and the newly-wed Linnet Lewarne launches their tragic story, taking them in the fateful footsteps of the doomed lovers of Cornish legend . . .

Beatrix Potter wove one of her most malicious tales around the roly-poly pudding. Colette counted the nuts she would pick before falling asleep in the French countryside. Dorothy Wordsworth noted her pie-making sessions in her diary and Anne Frank observed the eating habits of her companions in hiding.
Food is a constant in our lives, and it has always been a basic ingredient of women’s writing – in household books, cookbooks, diaries, letters and fiction. In this, the first anthology to concentrate on international food writing by women, you can go on a picnic with Monica Ali, learn about Frida Kahlo’s wedding feast and indulge your appetites with Edwidge Danticat and Barbara Pym. Try making Elisabeth Luard’s Afghan Betrothal Custard, Martha Washington’s marzipan birds or Nigella Lawson’s favourite comfort food. And why not sneak into the literary kitchens of Banana Yoshimoto, Emily Brontë and Angela Carter?
Something’s cooking. . .

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA

‘She wrote exciting plots . . . a writer of fearless originality’ GUARDIAN

‘Fascinating historical romance, set in the period of England’s Civil Wars’ KIRKUS REVIEWS

‘One of the last century’s most original literary talents’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

On her eighteenth birthday, Honor Harris meets Sir Richard Grenvile: he is proud, reckless – and utterly captivating. They have a rare connection, and with her beauty and sharp wit, she intrigues him too. But days before their wedding, tragedy strikes and Honor must reconcile herself to a life alone.

Fifteen years later, war forces Honor to shelter with her sister at the Cornish estate of Menabilly. There, she meets Richard, who has risen through the ranks to become a general in the king’s army. With all of England in turmoil, Honor must draw on her courage to save Richard’s life and defend her country.

‘One of the exciting books of this period . . . it strikes a wholly new note in the catalogue of books about Africa’ KIRKUS REVIEWS

Mandoa is a small African state: at its head a Virgin Princess, conceiving (immaculately) further princesses. The old traditions remain undisturbed until Mandoa’s Lord High Chamberlain, Safi Tala, visits Addis Ababa. There he discovers baths and cocktail shakers, motor cars and cutlery from Sheffield, telephones and handkerchiefs. In short, he has seen an apocalyptic vision – a new heaven and a new earth.

Meanwhile in England it is 1931. Maurice Durrant, youngest director of Prince’s Tours Limited, has won North Donnington for the Conservatives. His socialist brother Bill is unemployed and their friend Jean Stanbury loses her job on The Byeword, a radical weekly paper. How all three, and others too, find themselves in Mandoa for the wedding of the Royal Princess to her Arch-archbishop is hilariously told in this wonderful satirical novel, first published in 1933.

When Fernando spots her in a Venice cafe and knows immediately that she is The One, Marlena de Blasi is caught off guard. A divorced American woman travelling through Italy, she thought she was satisfied with her life. Yet within a few months, she quits her job as a chef, sells her house, kisses her two grown-up kids goodbye, and moves to Venice. Once there, she finds herself sitting in sugar-scented pasticcerie, strolling through sixteenth-century palazzi, renovating an apartment overlooking the seductive Adriatic Sea, and preparing to wed a virtual stranger in an ancient stone church.

As this transplanted American learns the hard way about the peculiarities of Venetian culture, we are treated to an honest, often comic view of how two middle-aged people, both set in their ways but also set on being together, build a life. A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE is filled with the foods and flavours of Italy and peppered with recipes and culinary observations. But the main course here is about a woman who falls in love with both a man and a city, and finally finds the home she didn’t know she was missing.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK
AS HEARD ON RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME, READ BY MEERA SYAL
A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, DAILY MAIL, RED MAGAZINE, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

‘Absolutely terrific’ JENNY COLGAN

‘An utterly unputdownable exploration of modern love’ STYLIST

‘Gloriously readable, acute, funny and sympathetic’ DAILY MAIL
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TWO CULTURES. TWO FAMILIES. TWO PEOPLE.

Yasmin Ghorami has a lot to be grateful for: a loving family, a fledgling career in medicine, and a charming, handsome fiancée, fellow doctor Joe Sangster. But as the wedding day draws closer and Yasmin’s parents get to know Joe’s firebrand feminist mother, both families must confront the unravelling of long-held secrets, lies and betrayals.

As Yasmin dismantles her own assumptions about the people she holds most dear, she’s also forced to ask herself what she really wants in a relationship and what a ‘love marriage’ actually means.

‘A glorious tapestry of modern British family life’ METRO

‘A joy‘ NAOISE DOLAN

‘I defy you to put this book down’ ADAM KAY

‘A surefire hit’ OBSERVER

‘Wildly entertaining … a bold and generous book’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Big-hearted, wry and tender’ HARPER’S BAZAAR

‘As engrossing and enjoyable as Brick Lane’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Rich, sensitive and gloriously entertaining’ TASH AW, TLS

‘It’s always a treat to read Elizabeth Taylor. Mossy Trotter is a real gem. A delightfully mischievous boy living in those long-ago halcyon days when children played out all day, roaming commons, scavenging on rubbish tips and stamping in newly-laid tar’ JACQUELINE WILSON

‘We – that is, Herbert and I – want you, Mossy, to be our page-boy,’ Miss Silkin said, staring hard at Mossy again, as if she were trying to imagine him dressed up, and with his hair combed.

Mossy went very red, and nearly choked on a piece of cake, and Selwyn laughed, and went on laughing, as if he had just heard the funniest joke of all his life. They both knew what being a page-boy meant. One of the boys at school – one of the very youngest ones – had had to be one, wearing velvet trousers and a frilled blouse.’

When Mossy moves to the country, life is full of delights – trees to climb, woods to explore and, best of all, the marvellous dump to rummage through. But every now and then his happiness is disturbed – chiefly by his mother’s meddling friend, Miss Silkin. And a dreaded event casts a shadow over even the sunniest of days – being a page-boy at her wedding.

In her only children’s book, Elizabeth Taylor perfectly captures the temptations, confusion and terrors of a mischievous boy, and just how illogical, frustrating and inconsistent adults are!