This volume examines the life and work of New Zealand author Maurice Duggan. His life was turbulent and difficult as he suffered from a "black Irish" personality, the lifelong trauma of an amputated leg, and battles with alcoholism, relationships and employment. This biography looks at the complexity of his life and offers a picture of literary life in New Zealand, and especially Auckland, in the 1950's and 1960's.

In this collection, Amanda Torroni expands on her previously published chapbook, Stargazing at Noon, adding over seventy poems and brand-new material. Torroni writes about intimacy, distance, the body, self-doubt, nostalgia, and love—both lost and found. Her poems weave disparate source material into beautiful metaphor; readers are as likely to find Plato and neurological terminology as they are moonlit lovers and broken hearts.

Set against the backdrop of Europe's slide into Fascism, Blue of Noon is a blackly compelling account of depravity and violence. As its narrator lurches despairingly from city to city in a surreal sexual and mental nightmare of squalor, sadism and drunken encounters, his internal collapse mirrors the fighting and marching on the streets outside. Exploring the dark forces beneath the surface of civilization, this is a novel torn between identifying with history's victims and being seduced by the monstrous glamour of its terrible victors, and is one of the twentieth century's great nihilist works.

Go on a magical adventure in this fun and playful story by Margaret Wise Brown, best-selling author of the children's classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Travel on a magical adventure with a little dog in The Noon Balloon, from best-selling children's book author Margaret Wise Brown. Beautifully illustrated, this lyrical text will be a soothing bedtime favorite.

Subtle and haunting, Noon is the story of Rehan Tabassum, a young man who has seen a childhood of uncertainty, and whose vulnerability has rendered him a gaze so keen that it divines easily the shifts around him: his mother and her new husband, the emergence of a dazzling new India, the retreat of the old, muted order of dust and shortages, and the swell of a suppressed people. In this uncompromising yet unexpectedly tender third book, Aatish Taseer maps a difficult period in India and Pakistan, a period of deep upheavals, whose true direction is elusive. By presenting Rehan's journey through lands of sudden wealth and hidden violence, in an atmosphere of political quicksand and moral danger, Taseer brings us into closer contact with a world experiencing convulsive change. Stark, brave, and absolutely compelling, Noon confirms Aatish Taseer as a writer of emotional acuity and great intellectual gift.

"St Paul's cathedral stands like a cornered beast on Ludgate hill, taking deep breaths above the smoke. The fire has made terrifying progress in the night and is closing in on the ancient monument from three directions. Built of massive stones, the cathedral is held to be invincible, but suddenly Pegge sees what the flames covet: the two hundred and fifty feet of scaffolding erected around the broken tower. Once the flames have a foothold on the wooden scaffolds, they can jump to the lead roof, and once the timbers burn and the vaulting cracks, the cathedral will be toppled by its own mass, a royal bear brought down by common dogs." (p.9) It is the Great Fire of 1666. The imposing edifice of St. Paul's Cathedral, a landmark of London since the twelfth century, is being reduced to rubble by the flames that engulf the City. In the holocaust, Pegge and a small group of men struggle to save the effigy of her father, John Donne, famous love poet and the great Dean of St. Paul's. Making their way through the heat and confusion of the streets, they arrive at Paul's wharf. Pegge's husband, William Bowles, anxiously scans the wretched scene, suddenly realizing why Pegge has asked him to meet her at this desperate spot. The story behind this dramatic rescue begins forty years before the fire. Pegge Donne is still a rebellious girl, already too clever for a world that values learning only in men, when her father begins arranging marriages for his five daughters, including Pegge. Pegge, however, is desperate to taste the all-consuming desire that led to her parents' clandestine marriage, notorious throughout England for shattering social convention and for inspiring some of the most erotic and profound poetry ever written. She sets out to win the love of Izaak Walton, a man infatuated with her older sister. Stung by Walton's rejection and jealous of her physically mature sisters, the boyish Pegge becomes convinced that it is her own father who knows the secret of love. She collects his poems, hoping to piece together her parents' history, searching for some connection to the mother she barely knew. Intertwined with Pegge's compelling voice are those of Ann More and John Donne, telling us of the courtship that inspired some of the world's greatest poetry of love and physical longing. Donne's seduction leads Ann to abandon social convention, risk her father's certain wrath, and elope with Donne. It is the undoing of his career and the two are left to struggle in a marriage that leads to her death in her twelfth childbirth at age thirty-three. In Donne's final days, Pegge tries, in ways that push the boundaries of daughterly behaviour, to discover the key to unlock her own sexuality. After his death, Pegge still struggles to free herself from an obsession that threatens to drive her beyond the bounds of reason. Even after she marries, she cannot suppress her independence or her desire to experience extraordinary love. Conceit brings to life the teeming, bawdy streets of London, the intrigue-ridden court, and the lushness of the seventeenth-century English countryside. It is a story of many kinds of love — erotic, familial, unrequited, and obsessive — and the unpredictable workings of the human heart. With characters plucked from the pages of history, Mary Novik's debut novel is an elegant, fully-imagined story of lives you will find hard to leave behind.

The new book on cooking, style and decoration from Soho House, the world's leading members club. A Way of Living charts the Soho House journey in design, food and drink. From the perfect burger to the most inspiring art, from afternoon tea to how to light a room. Developing themes from their first book Eat, Drink, Nap, Soho House shares hints and tips to get the best out of what is around us morning, noon and night. They have included their favourite recipes for every event, tips on creating an inspiring workspace, how to dress an outdoor space and much more. They have simply packed A Way of Living full of everything they think you might need to live the Soho House lifestyle. Whether you want to press your own juice, create your own bathroom style or host the best parties. It's all here.