VINTAGE

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred

When Michael Holroyd's life of Strachey first appeared in 1967, it was hailed as a landmark in contemporary biography. Drawing now on new material, published and unpublished, Holroyd has completely revised and rewritten his masterwork to tell the ful

Blending memories and family myths, Mary McCarthy takes us back to the twenties, when she was orphaned in a world of relations as colourful, potent and mysterious as the Catholic religion. There were her grandmothers: one was a blood-curdling Catholi

Angela Bradbury's 'Poor Mother': delicate, humble, permanently disappointed, has made endless sacrifices for her family, for which they can never quite be grateful enough. 'You can't please your mother', as her father says. Even now, just one phone c

This book is based on Jeanette Winterson's own upbringing but using herself as a fictional character.

This is an extraordinary anthology of poems, chosen by well-known names from the worlds of theatre, literature and film in response to the Afghan crisis brought about by the events of September 11th 2001. A deeply moving collection of poems ranging f

A brilliant follow-up to Hidden Lives, Margaret Forster's most personal book yet takes up the story of her gritty, northern father, Arthur, intertwined with that of her sister-in-law, Marion, who died of cancer at almost half the age of the 96 year-o

In 1831 John Dodgson Carr, son of a Quaker grocer, set off to walk from his home in Kendal to Carlisle, determined to launch a great enterprise. Within 15 years, Carr's of Carlisle had become one of the largest baking businesses in the world -and is