We periodically use this space to list recent acquisitions from the UK. It has been nearly six months since we have done so, and what follows is a lengthy list of nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and mysteries. These are books that may have gone overlooked by Library members due to lack of attention in American book review sources, and offer a wide-range of material to suit almost any reading preference. You can see previous UK acquisition postings here and here. 

NONFICTION

Adie, Kate - Fighting on the Home Front: the Legacy of Women in World War One

When men left their homes for the battlefields of WWI, women emerged from their domestic lives to become visible in public life, acquiring varied roles and independent incomes. Kate Adie looks at the legacy of this change in our world today. 

Barkham, Patrick - Badgerlands: The Twilight World of Britain's Most Enigmatic Animal

An affectionate natural and cultural history of Britain's beloved badgers, as well as a look at culling debates. Did you know that badgers’ living quarters have been to known to include up to 16 entrances, 57 chambers, and outside bathrooms? Read the Telegraph's review here. 

Barnes, Juliet - The Ghosts of Happy Valley: Searching for the Lost World of Africa's Infamous Aristocrats

A closer look at the area known as “Happy Valley”—the Wanjohi Valley in Kenya—where a group of notoriously rich, hedonistic, and scandalous British expats settled between the wars. Barnes seeks out the former grand residences of the settlers, and talks to those who have first-hand memories of the era. 

Binchy, Maeve - Maeve's Times: Selected Irish Times Writings

Binchy wrote over 20 popular novels before her death in 2012. This volume collects journalism written for the Irish Times from the 1960s through 2011.

Blakemore, Michael - Stage Blood: Five Tempestuous Years in the Early Years of the National Theatre

Blakemore was Associate Director from 1971 to 1976. His candid memoir delves into the brutal behind the scenes politics at the theatre, as well as his working relationship with Laurence Olivier. Read Simon Callow’s review in the Guardian here.

Blythe, Ronald - The Time by the Sea: Aldeburgh 1955-58

From the author of Akenfield, a memoir of time lived on the Suffolk coast among friends Benjamin Britten and E.M. Forster. The Independent called Blythe, now 92 years old, “England’s greatest living country writer,” and this book has received enthusiastic praise and comparisons to Sebald’s Rings of Saturn. “An English Institution"—the TLS.

Brook, Peter - The Quality of Mercy: Reflections on Shakespeare 

A 1993 collection of essays and speeches by the renowned theater director and writer. “An exquisite little volume...This short, modest and brilliant book does more than many more grandiose tomes,” says the Guardian. 

Burton, Richard - A Strong Song Tows Us: the Life of Basil Bunting

A hefty first biography of the modernist poet. "Tremendously diligent and feisty and energetic"— Michael Hofmann, London Review of Books.

Calvino, Italo - Collection of Sand: Essays (translated by Martin L. McLaughlin)

Campbell, Clare - Bonzo's War: Animals Under Fire, 1939-1945

The experiences of pets and zoo animals in England during WWII, including those recruited into the army. The book also reveals that, with food in scant supply, there was a government campaign against pets. 

Cobb, Matthew - Eleven days in August: the Liberation of Paris in 1944

 “…the fullest account imaginable of the Battle for Paris.” –the Spectator

Cooke, Rachel - Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties

Cooke counters the accepted image of docile, domestic, 1950s womanhood with profiles of ten exceptional women who built brilliant, pioneering careers. Guardian review here. 

Cooper, Diana - Darling Monster: the Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her Son John Julius Norwich 1939-1952

Letters from a witty British socialite (and wife of Duff Cooper) to son Norwich, who went on to become an acclaimed, prolific historian.

David, Saul - 100 Days to victory: How the Great War was Fought and Won

A somewhat unusual approach to the War: “Snapshots” of 100 days, including major events—the first day of the Somme, the Lusitania, the March 1918 German offensive—and some less known.

Dickie, John - Mafia Republic: Italy's Criminal Curse: Cosa Nostra, Camorra and 'Ndrangheta from 1946 to the Present 

Drury, John - Music at Midnight: the Life and Poetry of George Herbert

A biography of Herbert (1593-1633) that keeps his poetry at the center. 

Fermor, Patrick Leigh - The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos

Fermor is likely the most popular travel writer at the Library. Although set to be published in March 2014 by the New York Review of Books, we couldn’t wait and purchased the UK edition of The Broken Road when it was released last year. Unfinished at the time of his death in 2011, the book was completed from Fermor’s manuscripts. It covers a walk the 18 year old author took in 1934 ranging from Bulgaria and Romania to the coast of the Black Sea. 

Forsyth, Mark - The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase

In a book devoted to figures of speech, the Spectator declares that the author’s chief aim is to demolish “the bleak and imbecile idea that the aim of writing is to express yourself clearly in plain, simple English using as few words as possible.” 

Fullerton, Susannah - Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

An Austen scholar and President of the Jane Austen Society in Australia examines Austen's process writing this beloved novel, its reception, and its varied life in the 200 years since publication.

Gatrell, Vic - The First Bohemians: Life and Art in London's Golden Age

A richly illustrated look at art and culture (high and low) in mid-18th-century London. Although a serious analysis of Turner, Reynolds, Rowlandson, and their contemporaries, the words “bawdy” and “filth” and “drunkenness” seem to appear more frequently in reviews than is usually the case. Click here to see what the Guardian had to say. 

Gayford, Martin - Michelangelo: His Epic Life

Gilmour, Jane - Colette's France: Her Life and Loves

In the Spectator, Richard Davenport-Hines described this book as “gentle and affectionate, prettily illustrated, without the austerities of academic analysis… amiable holiday reading for visitors to France.” 

Goulson, Dave - A Sting in the Tale

A loving look at bumblebees from a devoted conservationist and Professor of Biology at Sussex University. Widely praised in the UK press, the Independent called it “not only enormously informative, but also hugely entertaining: its light touch and constant humour make cutting-edge research a pleasure to read about…” 

Green, Jonathon - Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961 – 1971

Fun and informative oral history of 1960s British Bohemia—beatniks, artists, mods, poets, hippies, and other fringy types. Green is the editor of several acclaimed slang dictionaries in the Library’s collection, and his sensitivity to language assures the varied voices come through loud and clear here. 

Higgins, Charlotte - Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain 

The Guardian: “This mesmerising book records the author's travels in search of the elusive remains that dot what was once ancient Rome's northernmost territory.” Many reviews noted the beauty of Higgins’ prose, including the Scotsman.

Hillier, Bevis - The Virgin's Baby: the Battle of the Ampthill Succession

A lively account of the infamous Russell trial of the 1920s. The Spectator review heaps praise upon the book:  “sparkling,” “a thumping good read,” “riveting,” “entertaining and definitive.”

Hook, Philip - Breakfast at Sotheby's: an A-Z of the Art World 

“35 years of memories as an art dealer and auctioneer, first at Christie’s and then Sotheby’s…Besides the colourful stories, Mr Hook offers various theories about the art world, and keen insight on that vexing question of what gives art value.” —The Economist

Jones, P. V.  - Veni, Vidi, Vici: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Romans but were Afraid to Ask

“Informative, casually erudite but engagingly unstuffy, Jones makes the classical world feel both beguiling and fresh…. spans all 1,200 years of Roman history with seemingly unstoppable enthusiasm.” –Sunday Times

Kildea, Paul - Benjamin Britten

Knight, Roger - Britain Against Napoleon: the Organization of Victory, 1793-1815

A veteran historian of the British Navy looks at how various British institutions were transformed during a short period of time to meet the challenges posed by Napoleon’s France. Exhaustively researched and detailed. 

Lee, Alexander - The Ugly Renaissance

In this contrary history of the Renaissance, author Lee reveals corruption, excess, and scandal behind the accepted veneer of beauty and rebirth.

Lee, Hermione - Penelope Fitzgerald: a Life

Leo, Maxim - Red love: the Story of an East German Family (translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside)

A widely acclaimed family memoir that won the European Book Prize in 2013. President of the prize jury Julian Barnes said this “personal memoir serves as an unofficial history of a country that no longer exists.” The word “moving” appears frequently in reviews. The book will be released in the U.S. in April 2014. 

Letters of note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience (compiled by Shaun Usher)

Based on the popular website, this eclectic collection of 125 letters received glowing reviews when published last year. 

Levy, Deborah - Things I Don't Want To Know

From the author of Swimming Home, this essay is a response to George Orwell's "Why I Write," with Levy's personal reflections on the writing life. Another elegant book from Notting Hill Editions.

McKie, David - What's in a Surname?: a Journey from Abercrombie to Zwicker

Not a dictionary of names, but a social history of surnames and a roaming exploration of their meanings in Britain. 

Milton, Giles - Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Global Plot

Milton has written some popular history over the last 15 years or so (Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, Samurai William). Russian Roulette chronicles the Secret Intellgence Service's success foiling Lenin’s plan to spread communism into India and elsewhere. It has been compared by reviewers to a fast-paced spy thriller. 

Moynahan, Brian - Leningrad: Siege and Symphony

A detailed, heartbreaking account of the Leningrad premiere of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony in August 1942, performed while the city was under siege by the Germany Army and its citizens were starving in the streets. “It’s certainly hard to imagine reading this gripping, skilfully woven account without emotion.”—The Spectator

Nicholson, Geoff - Walking in Ruins 

Nicholson wrote a popular book on walking in 2008, The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism. In Walking in Ruins he does just as the title promises, wandering from an abandoned Los Angeles zoo to a deserted Sheffield housing development and waxing philosophical on decay and dilapidation. 

No Man's Land: Writings from a World at War (chosen and introduced by Pete Ayrton)

Spanning across prose genres, this unusual collection gathers 47 authors from 20 of the countries that fought in the Great War.

Parissien, Steven – The Life of the Automobile: a New History of the Motor Car

Paxman, Jeremy - Great Britain's Great War

Companion to the recent BBC series. 

Porter, Linda - Crown of Thistles: the Fatal Inheritance of Mary Queen of Scots

A fresh approach to a much-written about topic, Porter explores the historical background to the famous rivalry between Elizabeth I and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.

Preston-Dunlop, Valerie - Rudolf Laban: Man of Theatre

A biography of an influential pioneer in modern dance. 

Say What You Mean: the n+1 Anthology (Christian Lorentzen, ed.)

A curated selection from the pages of n+1, a Brooklyn-based magazine covering politics, literature and culture, that was founded in 2004. Published in style by Notting Hill Editions. 

Seymour, Miranda - Noble Endeavours: the Life of Two Countries, England and Germany, in Many Stories 

A history of Anglo-German relations since the 17th-century. A review from the Telegraph can be found here. 

Smith, Emma - As Green as Grass: Growing Up Before, During and After the Second World War

A memoir by the author of A Far Cry continues the narrative begun in her previous memoir, The Great Western Beach.

Stevens, Mark - Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum

Stott, Andrew McConnell - The Vampyre Family: Passion, Envy and the Curse of Byron

Group biography of those under Bryon’s spell in the summer of 1816 in Switzerland: John Polidori, Claire Clairmont, Mary Godwin, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Thompson, Brian - A Corner of Paradise: a Love Story (with the usual reservations)

A Corner of Paradise is the third of a memoir trilogy that includes bestseller Keeping Mum and Clever Girl. It chronicles Thompson’s long star-crossed marriage to writer Elizabeth North and their life together in England and in the French countryside until her death in 2010. 

Tiffin, George - All the Best Lines: an Informal History of the Movies

The Spectator: “What treasures are to be found in this glorious book. Tiffin has grouped his entries under a number of vague-sounding themes — Love, Friends, Enemies, Power, Tears, Monsters — and then unleashed quotes in their thousands.” 

Townshend, Charles - The Republic: the Fight for Irish Independence, 1918-1923

Explores the road to Irish independence after the 1916 Easter Rising. The Guardian review includes kind words such as “magisterial,” “unflinching,” and “magnificent.”  

Uglow, Jennifer S. - Words and Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition

Examines creative working relationships between writers and artists: from Paradise Lost and Pilgrim's Progress to Hogarth and Fielding, Wordsworth and Thomas Bewick, and Dickens and Phiz. 

Waldegrave, Katie - The Poets' Daughters: Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge

A critically acclaimed look at the daughters of two famous romantic poets who were life-long friends. The Literary Review: “important and moving...[Dora and Sara] emerge from these pages as intensely knowable; never has the cost of being a daughter of Romanticism been shown with more sympathy and imagination.”

Williams, Kate - Josephine: Desire, Ambition, Napoleon 

Wolpert, L. - You're Looking Very Well: the Surprising Nature of Getting Old

By 2050, over a third of the world will be over sixty. Lewis Wolpert, a biologist at University College, London, explores the scientific background and implications of our ageing population.

POETRY

Graham, Jorie - The Taken-Down God: Selected Poems 1997-2008

A new selection of poems published by Carcanet Press, by the winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Graves, Robert - Selected Poems (edited by Michael Longley)

Márai, Sándor - The Withering World: Selected Poems (translated by John M. Ridland and Peter V. Czipott)

A collection of poems from the acclaimed Hungarian author of the novels Embers and Esther’s Inheritance.

The Winter of the World: Poems of the First World War (edited by Dominic Hibberd and John Onions)

270 poems arranged by year (1914-1930), rather than by poet, showing how WWI-inspired poetry transformed over time. 

FICTION

Ackroyd, Peter - Three Brothers 

Beigbeder, Frédéric - A French Novel (translated from the French by Frank Wynne)

A prize-winning acclaimed novel of 1960s-1970s Paris, by a writer the Guardian calls "a French Bret Easton Ellis or Jay McInerney."

Cartwright, Justin - Lion Heart

Coe, Jonathan - Expo 58

Comyns, Barbara - The Juniper Tree (foreword by Margaret Drabble)

Capuchin Classics reissue of Comyns' retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. 

Doyle, Roddy - The Guts

Revisits some of the characters from The Commitments.

Dunmore, Helen – The Lie

From the prolific author of the The Betrayal and The Siege, a novel set during and after World War One.

Gee, Sue - Coming Home

Described by the publisher as "a family story in the vein of Penelope Lively following an English couple 'coming home' from India in 1944, attempting to make their way in a changed Britain."

Hill, Susan - Black Sheep

Howard, Elizabeth Jane - All Change: Volume Five of The Cazalet Chronicles

McBride, Eimear - A Girl is a Half-formed Thing 

This debut novel of an Irish girlhood has drawn comparison to Edna O'Brien's Country Girl. In the Guardian, Anne Enright called it an "instant classic," filled with "truth-spilling, uncompromising and brilliant prose."

MacLaverty, Bernard - Collected Stories

Major collection from Belfast-born MacLaverty, the author of Cal and Grace Notes. You can read an interview with MacLaverty here.

MacLeod, Alison - Unexploded 

Set in wartime Brighton, this novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013. 

Moyes, Jojo - The Horse Dancer

Multiples: An Anthology of Stories in an Assortment of Languages and Literary Styles (Adam Thirlwell, editor)

The dust jacket declares “12 stories in 18 languages by 61 authors,” the results of a literary game/experiment in which a writer translates a story into English, which a second writer then translates into a different language, and a third translates back into English. In the process, the stories are transformed in unexpected ways. Participants include Zadie Smith, Jeffrey Eugenides, Javier Marias, David Mitchell, Colm Toibin, and many more.

Murakami, Ryu - From the Fatherland, With Love

A 700-page epic novel about a North Korean invasion of Japan. "A page-turning thriller laced with jet-black humour and a pleasing sense of the absurd." —The Guardian

Scudamore, James - Wreaking 

Sebag Montefiore, Simon - One Night in Winter 

Sebag Montefiore is the author of two acclaimed biographies, Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar and Young Stalin. This novel takes place in Stalin's Russia, and centers around a group of teenagers who form a Pushkin fan club. 

Smith, Ali - Shire (images by Sarah Wood)

MYSTERIES

Arnaldur Indriðason - Strange Shores (translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb)

Delaney, Luke - The Keeper

Ewan, Chris - Dead Line

Hayes, Terry - I am Pilgrim

Hurley, Graham - Touching Distance

Kerr, Philip - Prayer

La Plante, Lynda - Wrongful Death

McNab, Andy - Silencer

Oswald, James - The Book of Souls

Parot, Jean-François - The Baker's Blood; The Nicholas le Floch Affair; The Phantom of the Rue Royale; The Saint-Florentin Murders (all translated from the French by Howard Curtis)

We were admittedly late catching on to Jean-Francois Parot. The diplomat and historian has been writing this series of mysteries set in 18th-century Paris, featuring the detective Nicholas le Floch, for several years. They have been widely translated and acclaimed for their historical accuracy.

Sansom, Ian - The Norfolk Mystery

Seymour, Gerald - The Corporal's Wife

Upson, Nicola - The Death of Lucy Kyte   

Wilson, Laura - The Riot