Penelope Lively Books

Intimate, perceptive, critically acute, funny, and moving, this biography explores the life of one of the finest English novelists of the last century, Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000). A great writer who would never describe herself as such, her novels are short, spare masterpieces that are self-concealing and subtle. She won the Booker Prize for Offshore in 1979, and her last work, The Blue Flower, was hailed as genius. Her early novels drew from personal experiences, such as a boat on the Thames in the 1960s and a failing bookshop in Suffolk, while her later works ventured into historical realms, including pre-Revolution Russia and post-war Italy. Fitzgerald's life mirrored the complexity of her fiction, spanning the twentieth century and shifting from a Bishop's Palace to a sinking barge, and from an intellectual family to hardship. First published at sixty and achieving fame at eighty, her story embodies lateness, patience, and a unique form of heroism. Despite being loved and admired, she remained mysterious, often presenting herself as an absent-minded old lady, concealing a sharp intellect and a rich imagination. This brilliant account, penned by a biographer Fitzgerald admired, delves into her life, writing, and enigmatic self with fascination.

This book offers a sharp and unsentimental portrayal of Lively, blending humor with insightful reflections on her life and the historical context surrounding her experiences. It captures both her personal journey and the broader societal changes, providing a compelling glimpse into her character and the era she navigated.

Unwelcome ghosts are joined by uninvited dragons, gryphons, Martians, and magicians, in eight twisty stories with everyday English settings

This anthology of new writing promotes contemporary literature of the English language from Britain and the rest of the Commonwealth. It contains new names among older, recognizable names and includes short stories, poems, novels in progress and short fiction.

Passing On is the eighth novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively.Helen is fifty-two and Edward forty-nine when Dorothy, their mother, dies, ending her reign of terror and leaving them ill-equipped to deal with their lives. Timid, cautious and naive, Helen makes the charming Giles Carnaby, familiy solicitor, the object of a belated schoolgirl crush, while Edward, free to express his sexuality at last, finds it gets the better of him. Dorothy may be dead and buried, but her iron grip continues to hold them in its power.

Clare's grandfather brought back a shield from New Guinea seventy years ago, and now Clare's dreams are haunted by images of New Guinea. It is up to her to lay the ghost of an encounter between a Victorian anthropologist and a Stone Age New Guinea tribe to rest. First published in 1974.

In Pack of Cards, Penelope Lively introduces the reader to slivers of the everyday world that are not always open to observation, as she delves into the minutiae of her characters' lives. Whether she writes about a widow on a visit to Russia, a small boy's consignment to boarding school, or an agoraphobic housewife, Penelope Lively takes the reader past the closed curtains, through the locked door, into a world that seems at first mundane and then at second glance, proves to be uniquely memorable.

Frances, happily married for many years, and suddenly plunged into mourning. Her international celebrity husband Steve has died leaving her unprepared and vulnerable. This title illuminates two terrifying taboos of the twentieth- century - death and grief.

Wry, compassionate and glittering with wit, Penelope Lively's stories get beneath the everyday to the beating heart of human experience. In intimate tales of growing up and growing old, chance encounters and life-long relationships, Lively explores with keen insight the ways that individuals can become tangled in history, and how small acts ripple through the generations. With two new never-before-published stories alongside treasures from her early writing days, Metamorphosis showcases the very best from a literary master.

This glimmering collection of new short fiction from a Booker Prize winner showcases a unique blend of sympathy, emotional wisdom, and satiric wit. The author, known for acclaimed novels like The Photograph and Family Album, captivates readers with themes of history, family, and relationships set in vividly rendered environments. In the title story, a Mediterranean purple swamp hen reveals the secrets of Quintus Pompeius's villa, highlighting his narrow escape from Vesuvius's eruption. "Abroad" depicts a low point for an artist couple on a tumultuous European road trip, forced to paint a mural in a remote Spanish farmhouse while repairing their broken-down car. Other tales explore friends and lovers in pivotal moments of indiscretion and discovery, such as in "The Third Wife," where a woman uncovers her husband's con artist ways and turns a house-hunting trip into a revenge scheme. Each story is enhanced by the author's graceful prose and keen eye for evocative detail. Wry, charming, and insightful, this collection is a masterful achievement from one of our most beloved writers.

A seventeenth-century sorcerer emerges in an old house as a poltergeist and targets James as his apprentice.

Claudia Hampton - beautiful, famous, independent, dying. But she remains defiant to the last, telling her nurses that she will write a 'history of the world ...and in the process, my own'. And it is her story from a childhood just after the First World War through the Second and beyond.

In 1900 Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to Egypt where she falls in love with Sharif, and Egyptian Nationalist utterly committed to his country's cause. A hundred years later, Isabel Parkman, an American divorcee and a descendant of Anna and Sharif, goes to Egypt, taking with her an old family trunk, inside which are found notebooks and journals which reveal Anna and Sharif's secret.

'Sharp, unsentimental and ruefully funny. A fascinating portrait not only of Lively but of the times through which she has lived' Daily Telegraph 'Clever and poignant . . . there is much to enjoy. This is Lively at her best' Sunday ExpressIn this powerful and compelling 'view from old age', Penelope Lively, at eighty, reports back on what she finds. There are meditations on what it is like to be old as well as on how memory shapes us. There are intriguing examinations of key personal as well as historical moments she has lived through and her thoughts on her own bookishness - both as reader and writer. Lastly, she turns to six treasured possessions to speak eloquently about who she is and where she's been - fragments of memories from a life well lived.'A superb study of memory and of her own voyage into the ninth decade of her life. Lively is a compelling, vitally interested witness to time past' Helen Dunmore, Observer, Books of the Year'Enthralling. Will delight all those who love Lively's novels' Daily Mail

Ann Linton leaves her family in Berkshire and sets up camp in her father's house when he is taken into a nursing home in distant Lichfield. As she shares his last weeks she meets David Fielding, and the love they share brings her feelings into sharp focus.

Pauline is spending the summer at World's End, a cottage somewhere in the middle of England. This year the adjoining cottage is occupied by her daughter Teresa and baby grandson Luke; and, of course, Maurice, the man Teresa married. As the hot months unfold, Maurice grows ever more involved in the book he is writing.

Each book in the "Bookworms" series offers young readers the chance to enjoy accessible adaptations of the best classic and modern English fiction. Each title is illustrated, provides help with specific vocabulary and is accompanied by exercises suitable for use in the class or at home.

A respected literary biographer, Mark is working on the life of Gilbert Strong - a writer about whom he thinks he knows everything. Happily married, and apparently dedicated to a life of letters, he nevertheless falls in love with Strong's granddaughter Carrie, a vague and unsophisticated young woman more interested in bedding plants than books or passion. As Mark's obsessions develop over a hot, complicated summer, he begins to understand that nothing is ever what it seems; not Gilbert Strong, and certainly not himself. According to Mark is a witty and moving look at love, literature and the dangers of middle-aged folly.

Beyond the Blue Mountains is a collection of short stories by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively. The fourteen warmly humorous stories in Beyond the Blue Mountains range from the fantasy of Scheherazade to a dazzling example of chaos theory, depicting in exquisite prose the subtle but significant events that go to create everyday experience.

Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people.

Three incisive vignettes of human experience: these short stories are taken from Pack of Cards.

Penelope Lively has turned her considerable literary talent to non-fiction with A House Unlocked, a meandering collection of memories inspired by Golsoncott, the Somerset country home occupied by her family for the greater part of the last century. By walking around the rooms of the house (in her mind) and looking at fondly remembered objects and furniture, she recalls the events, customs and people that together paint a slowly shifting picture of English country life in the 20th century. It is at once personal and social - a diary of the house and its occupants, and a memoir of the historical landscape.

A vibrant novel from Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively—a wry, wise story about the surprising ways lives intersect When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends. In this engaging, utterly absorbing and brilliantly told novel, Penelope Lively shows us how one random event can cause marriages to fracture and heal themselves, opportunities to appear and disappear, lovers who might never have met to find each other and entire lives to become irrevocably changed. Funny, humane, touching, sly and sympathetic, How It All Began is a brilliant sleight of hand from an author at the top of her game.

Focusing on the lives of three generations of women, this sweeping saga explores their struggles, triumphs, and interconnected destinies. The narrative delves into themes of family, resilience, and the evolving roles of women over time. Richly drawn characters navigate personal and societal challenges, creating a poignant reflection on heritage and the bonds that shape their identities. This compelling tale captures the essence of womanhood and the enduring impact of the past on future generations.

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens- the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own, and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today. It is also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lostto Alice in Wonderland, and of writers and their gardens, from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin.

Hugh Paxton was a very important archaeologist and highly influential man. So important that the BBC have decided to make a documentary on his life, focusing on the dig that made him famous. As the film-makers take over the family home, and begin to delve into Hugh's life, there are unexpected upheavals along the way.

Stella Brentwood, retired anthropologist, has studied social systems around the world, but she finds life in rural Somerset, to which she has retired, as strange and absorbing as any she has met. She re-explores old friendships, but it is her neighbour Karen Hiscox, a fiery and aggressive woman governing her husband and sons with menacing force, who is the most unsettling presence in her new life. SPIDERWEB is an intricate mesh of letters, journal entries, classified adverts and news items which illuminate the narrative of Stella's reassessment of the relationships and journeyings which make up the spiderweb of her life.

Run by Toby and Paula, the centre offers ordinary people a chance to learn from professional artists skilled in poetry, sculpture, ceramics, and the like. Artists like Greg, the New England poet, whose works are strangely absent; or Bob the lascivious potter who sells his Toby jugs to department stores.

A big shabby Victorian suburban house, the smell of raincoats and coq au vin in the hall, the six mugs for the children slung from the kitchen dresser hooks: for destructive Paul, difficult Gina, elegant Sandra, considerate Katie, clever Roger and flighty Clare, Allersmead was the perfect place to grow up

Searching through a little-used cupboard at home, Glyn Peters chances upon a photograph he has never seen before. Taken in high summer, many years earlier, it shows his wife, Kath, holding hands with another man. Glyn's work as a historian should have inured him to unexpected findings and reversals, but he is ill-prepared for this radical shift in perception. His mind fills with questions. Who was the man? Who took the photograph? Where was it taken? When? Had Kath planned for him to find out all along? As Glyn begins to search for answers, he, and those around him, find the certainties of the past and present slip away, and the picture of the beautiful woman they all thought they knew distort.

Word count 17,100 Read at a comfortable level with word count and CEFR level on every cover Illustrations, photos, and diagrams support comprehension Activities build language skills and check understanding Glossaries teach difficult vocabulary Free editable tests for every book Selected Bookworms are available for your tablet or computer through the Oxford Learner's Bookshelf

Four illustrated stories for reading ahead or reading alone. 7-9 yrs.

Helen und Edward - beide altmodisch und oft wunderbar eigensinnig - müssen erkennen, daß sie für die gierigen achtziger Jahre nicht geeignet sind. Der wilde Garten, das Wäldchen hinterm Haus - wie erwehrt man sich der begehrlichen Blicke der Makler und Anlageberater? Und seit die Geschwister nicht mehr unter der Fuchtel der starrsinnigen Mutter stehen, die jeden Heiratskandidaten vergrault hat, ist auch ihre Gefühlswelt durcheinandergeraten. Helen verliebt sich in den Testamentsvollstrecker, und Edward ignoriert eisern, daß ihn der schöne Nachbarssohn in größte Verwirrung stürzt. Das Leben ist auf einmal in Bewegung geraten, und Helen und Edward sind dem Schock der Erkenntnis ausgesetzt, daß nicht nur ihre Idylle und die wuchernde Wildnis hinterm Haus bedroht sind, sondern auch ihre Lebensgewohnheiten und - umstände, in denen sie sich über die Jahre häuslich eingerichtet haben.

Glyn Peters, un prestigioso historiador del paisaje, encuentra por casualidad una vieja fotografía en la que aparece su mujer, Kath, fallecida quince años antes, cogida de la mano de otro hombre. El hallazgo le impulsará a indagar en la vida de su mujer con la saña del marido humillado y la meticulosidad del arqueólogo. El descubrimiento de la fotografía también afectará, de una forma u otra, a otras cuatro personas muy cercanas a Kath y les llevará a rememorar algunos de los momentos que compartieron con ella. El lector descubrirá que además de la Kath que vive en el recuerdo de todas ellas existió otra a la que ninguna llegó a conocer.

Ein Spuk kommt selten allein - bk2048; Boje Verlag; Penelope Lively; Paperback; 1986

»Eines der schönsten Frauenbücher dieser Zeit!« ›Buchmarkt‹ Stella Brentwood ist in ihrem ganzen Leben nie sesshaft gewesen. Als Anthropologin hat sie in Ägypten, Griechenland, auf Malta und den Orkneys gearbeitet. Ihr Freiheitsdrang ist immer größer gewesen als der Wunsch nach Familie. Jetzt will sie sich zur Ruhe setzen, und zwar auf die klassische Art: ein Cottage auf dem Land, Gartenarbeit, vielleicht ein Hund... Aber binnen kurzem hält Stella es vor Ruhe und Beschaulichkeit kaum mehr aus. Ab und zu ein Vortrag vor der Frauenunion oder ein Abendessen mit einem alten Freund - das kann ihr nicht genügen. Auch im englischen Sommerset jedoch gibt es für die Anthropologin Strukturen des Zusammenlebens zu analysieren. Während Stella sich mit wissbegierigem Blick ihrer neuen Umgebung nähert und dabei Erinnerungen an die wichtigen und schönen Ereignisse in ihrem Leben aufsteigen, bereitet sich nur einen Steinwurf von ihrem Cottage entfernt eine Katastrophe vor ...

Současná britská spisovatelka, nositelka řady prestižních cen, se ve svém románu zamýšlí nad láskou v mnoha jejích podobách. Na konci světa se nazývá jistá usedlost na britském venkově, kde tráví horké letní měsíce Pauline, redaktorka středních let, a její dcera Tereza se svou rodinou. Zatímco Tereza pečuje o malého Luka, její manžel Maurice zde dokončuje práci na své knize. Na první pohled idyla, ale jak se ukáže, jen zdánlivá. Pauline rediguje rukopisy, ale zároveň přemýšlí o rodině své dcery. Srovnává vlastní osud s osudem Terezy, kterou by ráda uchránila před chybami a omyly, kterých se kdysi dopustila ona sama. Z různých náznaků Pauline vycítí blížící se krizi dřív, než kdokoli jiný. Citlivě reaguje na napětí ve vzájemných vztazích, které s postupujícím horkým létem stoupá, až vyvrcholí tragédií.