Graham Robb Livres

A col is the lowest point on the saddle between two mountains. Graham Robb has spent years uncovering and cataloguing the 2,002 cols and 105 passes scattered across the British Isles. Some of these obscure and magical sites are virgin cols that have never been crossed. Dozens were lost by the Ordnance Survey and are recorded only in ballads or monastic charters. The eleven cols of Hadrian's Wall are practically unknown and have never been properly identified. These underappreciated slices of natural beauty provide a new way of looking at British history, and a challenge for cyclists and walkers.

This is a biographical journey through three continents and many different identities: the Bohemian poet in Victorian London, the mercenary in Java, the gun-runner and explorer in East Africa. By allowing the boy poet to grow up, Robb casts Arthur Rimbaud's later years in an entirely new light.

A fresh examination of the development of homosexual culture during the nineteenth century in Europe and America describes the lives of gay men and women, how they discovered their sexuality, how they made contact with like- minded people, the relationship of gay culture to religion, and how homosexuals were treated by society. Reprint.

‘One of the best biographies I have read, ever’ Selina Hastings ‘Mr Robb has written an enthralling book – one of the great biographies of our time. He contrives not to be dwarfed by his subject, which is some contrivance. He makes of Hugo’s life a story as exciting to read as it was extraordinary to have lived. He has a matchless gift for narrative. His style is epigrammatic and compelling. His judgements seem fair – not something Hugo was used to in life. Every Place Victor Hugo should now have a Café-Bar Graham Robb. He deserves, and will probably get, the Légion d’honneur’ Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph ‘Robb achieves the goal of all good literary biographies by making us long to regain, or savour for the first time, Hugo’s company as a writer. Surely no chronicler of his life or analyst of his work has ever looked this prodigy of nature so unflinchingly in the eye’ Jonathan Keates, Literary Review ‘Graham Robb’s exuberant biography of the French writer blows the cobwebs away from a neglected hero and sets him before us in lurid and quite unforgettable shape. Robb’s jaunty, self-confident style is gloriously appropriate to his subject . . . Robb’s enthusiasm is hugely exhilarating and his biography is a fascinating study in the making of a celebrity’ Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times, Books of the Year ‘The best life of the writer available in English (and likely to remain so for some time) . . . His fascinating, totally readable Life will introduce Hugo to many readers who know him only as a name’ Robin Buss, Independent on Sunday

Victor Hugo, a pivotal figure in 19th-century France, was a multifaceted artist who led the Romantic movement and produced timeless works such as Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Beyond his literary achievements, he was a radical political thinker and an exile, known for his diverse talents in painting and architecture. His visionary nature and ability to engage with the greats of literature and spirituality made him a captivating and controversial presence in his time, shaping the cultural landscape of his era.

A perceptive, vivid and sometimes startling re-evaluation of homosexuality in the Victorian era

`Intellectually thrilling, psychologically acute and very wittily written: a worthy offering to its subject' Observer schovat popis

From maps, migration and magic, to linguistic differences and tribal disputes, The Discovery of France tells the whole story of this remarkable - and surprising - country.

The New York Times bestseller: the secrets of the City of Light, revealed in the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten by the author of the acclaimed The Discovery of France.

Sunday Times top-ten bestselling author Graham Robb turns his attention on his homeland for the first time in this beautifully written and ground-breaking book.