Only edition in print

Over the last fifteen years of his life, Tolstoy collected and published the maxims of some of the world's greatest masters of philosophy, religion and literature, adding his own contributions to various questions that preoccupied him in old age, such as faith and existence, as well as matters of everyday life.

Banned in Russia under Communism, A Calendar of Wisdom was Tolstoy's last major work, and one of his most popular both during and after his lifetime. This new translation by Roger Cockrell will offer today's generation of readers the chance to discover, day by day, these edifying and carefully selected pearls of wisdom.

The arc of literary giant John Updike's life emerges in these luminous daily letters to family, friends, editors, and lovers — a remarkable outpouring over six decades, from his earliest consciousness as a writer to his final days

In the words of his contemporary, Philip Roth, John Updike was ‘Our time’s greatest man of letters – as brilliant a literary critic and essayist as he was a novelist and short-story writer’.

Over the course of his long and immensely productive career, he also proved himself a brilliant correspondent, his letters filled with comic observations, opinions and personal news, told in his characteristically elegant and exquisitely fluid style.

In this sparkling selection of his letters, edited by James Schiff, we can see Updike in real time, capturing every stage of his unspooling life, from Pennsylvania farm boy to Pulitzer prizewinner; and from young father negotiating his first book contract to the bestselling writer he became, following the international success of his novels Couples and the ‘Rabbit ‘sequence.

Here are letters to family, friends, editors and lovers, a remarkable outpouring over six decades – including, most movingly perhaps, the letters of his final year bidding farewell to children, colleagues and friends.

Taken together, these missives make a page-turning ‘life in letters’ like no other – an intimate testament to one of the greatest of all American writers.

‘Nobody has a better understanding of the capriciousness of the human heart than John Updike’ Daily Telegraph

‘He was the ideal son of a platonic union between John Cheever and J.D. Salinger, with Nabokov attending the christening as fairy godfather’ James Wood

‘John Updike mapped our desires, our wishes, our wise and unwise dreams, our uncertainties, with such elegant precision and for so many years’ The Times

'Captures moments in time like nothing else.' RICHARD E. GRANT
'Intimate . . . and rarely predictable.' MICHAEL PALIN
'Completely fascinating and inspiring. Completely addictive.' STEPHEN FRY
'A volume to treasure, sigh and snigger over.' BIDISHA

An engrossing collection of the most remarkable diary writing – by the famous, infamous and everyman alike – curated by the creator of the globally bestselling Letters of Note.

What is more intimate than the diary? Across human history, people have kept these repositories of their most unvarnished truths, poignant hopes, hidden desires and deepest fears. In Diaries of Note, Shaun Usher collects 366 captivating diary entries, each with a different author.

The diary welcomes all to its pages. Here we encounter reflections from world leaders, artists, scientists, writers and icons of film and music – including Alan Rickman, Frederick Douglass, Virginia Woolf, Louis Theroux and Emma Thompson – alongside those who were never illuminated by fame, but whose writings reveal them as extraordinary. Beautifully illustrated, this book is a testament to the power of personal narratives, reflecting and encapsulating our deepest, and often most secret, emotions.