Author:Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson is the bete-noir of the Oxbridge literary establishment. He never went to university, let alone Oxbridge, yet wrote The Outsider, a brilliant account of the pain of being alive today, when he was just twenty-four. It sold millions of copies around the world, and he was acclaimed as one of the leading intellectuals of the age, finding a huge audience with the anti-establishment, alternative and underground thinkers. Because of his radically new attitudes he was - with John Osborne - dubbed an 'angry young man' in the article that originally coined that phrase. In this way a young man from a working class background suddenly found himself moving in the most colourful literary and artistic circles of the day. In his autobiography he tells stories about, among others, Aldous Huxley, Angus Wilson, John Osborne, Kingsley Amis, Kenneth Tynan, Francis Bacon and Norman Mailer - all observed with a true outsider's eye for absurdity. He is regarded by many as a true literary hero - Julian Cope stopped a recent concert to pay tribute to Wilson who as sitting in the audience and Donovan Leitch dedicates his new autobiography to him - but he also has huge mass market appeal. His insightful, brilliant books on the Occult, the Mysteries and Atlantis and the Sphinx were all huge bestsellers netting millions of copies. In this return to the themes of The Outsider, looked at from the point of his own life story, he again proves himself one of the great intellectuals of our age, never ceasing to wrestle with the great questions of life and death, and writing with an erudition and an easy way with ideas that is rare in English literary life.
Wilson admits that "being alive is grimly hard work". Dreaming to Some Purpose is a good argument that the reward is worth the effort.
—— Independent on SundayBooks, sex and the meaning of life- a satisfying richness
—— Literary ReviewOne of the great figures of literature whose importance will one day be recognised
—— Sunday TimesIn all the literature on the Second World War, there is not a more honest, realistic or moving memoir than Eugene Sledge's. This is the real deal, the real war: unvarnished, brutal, without a shred of sentimentality or false patriotism, a profound primer on what it actually was like to be in that war. It is a classic that will outlive all the armchair generals' safe accounts of--not the "good war"--but the worst war ever.
—— Ken BurnThis exciting book proves that such obscurity is both surprising and undeserved
—— James McConnachie , The TimesA thrilling account
—— The Sunday TelegraphFascinating book
—— Kathryn Hughes , Mail on SundaySkilfully evokes the dread that corsairs aroused
—— Ludovic Hunter-Tilney , Financial TimesTinniswood's artful blend of narrative and analysis brings the pirates' society to life. Beneath the vivid surface of this book there lie, sometimes obscured by the vividness, the careful investigation and astute judgement of one of the most incisive of our popular historians.
—— Blair Worden , SpectatorNorth African pirates were the scourge of the 17th century, and plundered as far as Cornwall. Tinniswood tells their story with verve
—— Keith Lowe , TelegraphThe author's style is an absolute joy and his stories of attacks, based in eyewitness accounts, make rather more thrilling than many fictional thrillers are... He also proves an even-handed judge. While there's no attempt to whitewash the privateers here, there are explanations of what caused men to turn their hand to conquering the seas.
—— Robert James , The Book BagThis well-researched history of piracy presents brutal seafaring extortionists instead of eye-patched rascals.
—— Benjamin Evans , Telegraph Seven MagazineTinniswood unearths colourful characters and historical oddities while pointing out that the West's inability to deal with Somali pirates show how little we've learned in 400 years
—— HeraldMeticulously researched history of unrestrained murder, robbery and kidnapping on the high seas... This is a brisk, entertaining story, with royal proclamations, letters, maps and lavishness illuminating Tinniswood's vivid tales.
—— Lorraine Courtney , Irish Times[He] has unearthed many colourful characters and historical oddities and uses eyewitness accounts to weave a fascinating tale
—— Chard & Ilminster NewsAn astounding story of bitter civil warfare that raged across many countries for decades. Butterworth's passionate account of the anarchist movements born in the late 19th century describes a conflict that spawned its own "war on terror"
—— Steve Burniston , Guardian
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