Author:Anne Carson,Anne Carson
'Fans of Anne Carson, rejoice!... Carson's depth of knowledge about Greek mythology coupled with her poetic sensibility and illustrations is sure to breathe new life into this oft-told story.' Lit Hub
H of H Playbook is an explosion of thought, in drawings and language, about a Greek tragedy called Herakles by the 5th-century BC poet Euripides. In myth Herakles is an embodiment of manly violence who returns home after years of making war on enemies and monsters (his famous "Labours of Herakles") to find he cannot adapt himself to a life of peacetime domesticity. He goes berserk and murders his whole family. Suicide is his next idea. Amazingly, this does not happen. Due to the intervention of his friend Theseus, Herakles comes to believe he is not, after all, indelibly stained by his own crimes, nor is his life without value. It remains for the reader to judge this redemptive outcome.
"I think there is no such thing as an innocent landscape," said Anselm Kiefer, painter of forests grown tall on bones.
Carson applies the habits of classical scholarship, the linguistic rigour, the relentless search for evidence, the jigsaw approach to scattered facts, to the trivia of contemporary private life.-
—— Sam Anderson, New York MagazineThis book is a beautiful one, thoughtfully produced... the bold, bloody red paint makes a powerful impact, evoking the violent outcome of the play.
—— MineraLike all of Anne Carson's writing, this book is amazing - I haven't discovered any writing in years that's so marvellously disturbing. I just feel so happy that she's around.
—— Alice Munro on AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REDHer work is full of moments of startling originality and beauty. The poems play with character and plot, myth and magic; they are rich with attitude and wit and the undertow of grief. If she was a prose writer she would instantly be recognised as a genius.
—— Colm Tóibín on AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REDAnne Carson is a daring, learned, unsettling writer. Autobiography of Red, which perhaps comes closest to representing the range of her voice and gifts, is a spellbinding achievement.
—— Susan Sontag on AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REDThe joy of travelling with Higgins… [is that Red Thread] delights in the blinking movement from one subject to the next. In a few pages, we travel from Middlemarch to Ovid, from Arachne to Velázquez and his painting The Spinners and then back to George Eliot. It sounds dizzying; in truth it is illuminating.
—— Christian Donlan , New StatesmanThis is a book to get gloriously lost in… It’s a lovely, wayward meander, combining memoir with surprising historical facts, unexpected connections and intriguing, imaginative speculations.
—— Psychologies *Book of the Month*Higgins’ range is admirably, enviably broad… there is no shortage of visual pleasure in Red Thread.
—— Tim Smith-Laing , Daily TelegraphCharlotte Higgins’ Red Thread is subtitled “On Mazes And Labyrinths” but is much more than that. It takes a nimble thinker to link the ancient stories of the Minotaur to archeological fabrication in the Edwardian era and to Arnold Bennett and the Potteries... [one] of the most interesting books this year.
—— Stuart Kelly , Scotsman, *Books of the Year*Fascinating… enriching… very satisfying.
—— Jonathan McAloon , Financial TimesRed Thread is no ordinary piece of cultural criticism. It is certainly a learned journey through the role and history of mazes in art and reality. But it is also a deeply personal exploration of the role of the labyrinth in Higgins's own life… [Higgins] leads us all the way to the monster at the centre of the maze.
—— Natalie Haynes , ObserverI adored this twisty-turny, illustrated history of labyrinths... A book to lose yourself in.
—— Caroline Sanderson , Bookseller *Editor's Choice*This erudite and elegantly written book transcends its esoteric subject matter: what begins as an art historical investigation develops into a thoughtful meditation on the nature of intellectual inquiry, and a celebration of human curiosity.
—— Houman Barekat , ProspectFascinating… Higgins is a brilliant and scholarly writer.
—— Laura Beatty , OldieA new book from journalist Charlotte Higgins is the [Radio 4] Book of the Week, treading a path through the winding topic of mazes and labyrinths.
—— Charlotte Runcie , Daily TelegraphThe material is wonderfully rich, and the author I excellent at marshalling it into a series of vignettes to conjure the shape of a labyrinth.
—— Daisy Dunn , Literary Review[A] beautifully crafted book.
—— Dee Lalljee , Western Morning NewsHiggins’ darting, spooling path connects myth with faith, art with literature, landscape with architecture, anecdote with interpretation… its images and schematic diagrams of labyrinths adding a visual dimension to a book already rich in thought and observation.
—— Ariane Bankes , The TabletRichly erudite and compellingly personal.
—— Louisa Buck , Art NewspaperA rich cultural history of mazes and labyrinths… Beautifully designed and precisely structured, it’s also a personal book about childhood memories, dreams and feeling at times lost in life.
—— Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2019*[An] immersive, unusual love tale
—— Claire Allfree , MetroStokes-Chapman can write fascinating, three-dimensional characters... Meanwhile, extensive research brings the period so much to life you can taste it... full of buried family histories and fantastical archaeological theories, Pandora is a readable, solid debut
—— Natasha Pulley , GuardianWhether the discussion is about artificial intelligence, the future capacities of knowledge, politics, philosophy, intuition, history (philosopher Thomas Metzinger shares experiences from post–World War II Germany that are hard to look away from), religion, reason, or the nature of consciousness, Harris grounds lofty discussions with concrete examples and his gift for analogy . . . free and open debate, in the best sense of the word . . . the book’s advantage over the podcast is that readers can linger as they need to and cherry-pick interviews at will. Recommended for anyone who wants to spend time with intelligent minds wrestling not with each other but with understanding.
—— Kirkus ReviewsOne of the most eloquent and inspiring memoirs of recent years... A Dutiful Boy is real-life storytelling at its finest
—— Mr Porter, *Summer Reads of 2021*Mohsin Zaidi...in a compassionate, compelling and humorous way, tells his story of seeking acceptance within the gay community, and within the Muslim community in which he grew up
—— Gilllian Carty , Scottish Legal NewsA powerful portrayal of being able to live authentically despite all the odds
—— Mike Findlay , ScotsmanZaidi's affecting memoir recounts his journey growing up in east London in a devout Muslim household. He has a secret, one he cannot share with anyone - he is gay. When he moves away to study at Oxford he finds, for the first time, the possibility of living his life authentically. The dissonance this causes in him - of finding a way to accept himself while knowing his family will not do the same - is so sensitively depicted. One of the most moving chapters includes him coming home to a witch doctor, who his family has summoned to "cure" him. This is an incredibly important read, full of hope.
—— Jyoti Patel, The GuardianA beautifully written book, a lovely story, life-affirming
—— Jeremy VineZaidi's account is raw, honest and at times quite painful to read. It's so vivid that it feels almost tangible, as though you're living the experiences of the author himself.
—— VogueThis heartfelt and honest book is beautifully written and full of hope
—— The New Arab