Bøker utgitt av Peter Owen Publishers

"For over half a century Michael Leonard has proved to be one of Britain's most versatile and popular artists. Born in 1933, by the late 1960s he had come to public attention as a talented illustrator, with his images featuring prominently in the Sunday Times Colour Magazine and on book covers. By the mid-1970s he had devoted himself to fine art and since then has been regarded as one of Britain's leading photorealistic painters, especially acclaimed for his nudes, which combine precise brushwork and luminous intensity with abstract qualities of design. He has appeared in group exhibitions as well as one-man shows internationally. His series 'Portraits in Time' shows his sitters depicted in the style of the Old Masters, while in the mid-1980s he was commissioned to paint the Queen's picture to celebrate her sixtieth birthday; his portrait of her now hangs in London's National Portrait Gallery. Apart from portraiture, he has long been celebrated as a wonderfully assured painter of landscape and dynamic studies of the human form and as an illustrator and photographer. Patrick Bade's intimate yet comprehensive study of the artist's career reveals his artistic development in all its variety. Lavishly illustrated with paintings, drawings and photographs, this is a seminal book for admirers of his work"--

The Boat in the Evening is the last book by the acclaimed Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas. On its publication in Scandinavia it was quickly acclaimed as the culmination of Vesaas's work, and placed its author for the third time among the finalists for the Nobel Prize. A crane colony arrives at its breeding ground to play out a delicately drama that ends with the rarelyobserved ceremony of the ritual dance. All is observed by a transfixed child who has frozen into his background and become a piece of nature himself, "e;a pale tussock in a windcheater"e;. In The Boat in the Evening the author, with a kind of cinematic impressionism, voyages back to episodes from childhood, adolecence and maturity as well as making speculative forays into the unknown. Unfolding in a series of delicate sketches that record the changing moods of human experience, The Boat in the Evening is at once pervaded by a sense of melancholy and a sensuous appreciation of nature. A profound and beautiful book, it is the summation of a literary artist's firsthand experience and observation of rural life - of landscape and people.

The gripping, shocking and true story of a Bosniak family's flight from their home at the outbreak of war in former Yugoslavia. Hasan Nuhanovic was one of the few survivors of the massacre at Srebrenica. "The Last Refuge" is the first part of his remarkable story, a story of war, survival and life under siege.

The first English translation of the 2017 European Union Prize for Literature winner Nabil, a Palestinian exile who has made his life on the Mediterranean island of Malta, has his equilibrium shattered when he receives a phone call telling him that his father has died in Jordan. This news releases a flood of memories centered on the unending tragedy of the Arab world. As he reflects on his father's death Nabil is forced to confront his Palestinian roots. Born in 1967, he was involved in the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at the end of the Six-Day War. Like so many of these displaced and disenfranchised people, his family spent years moving around the Middle East, including neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. And when Nabil finally settles on Malta he discovers in its hybrid culture of east and west a pale shadow of home. Nabil's meditations expand to encompass the entire Arab world, with its colonial past, its postcolonial legacy, its fragmentation, human suffering and political turmoil. Part stream of consciousness and part history of the Middle East, Exodus of the Storks is an ambitious literary achievement, as Walid Nabhan movingly evokes the Arab experience. It is a novel for our times of international upheaval and displacement.

"Nymans is one of the National Trust's most popular properties, a vision of English tradition amid a landscape of rolling woodland. Yet appearances can be deceptive. The manor house is just a hundred years old, and the Messel family who built it were not English aristocracy but German Jewish immigrants. The vision was their triumphant creation. From Refugees to Royalty is the first book to chart the extraordinary journey of the Messel family from their roots in Germany to their new life in England. At the heart of the story lies an astonishing irony. The earliest Messels were turned into refugees by an edict of the British royal family, when George III issued a decree expelling the Jews. Two hundred years later, the wheel came full circle when the youngest Messel, Tony Armstrong-Jones, walked down the aisle with Princess Margaret, four times great-granddaughter of George III. John Hilary is a great-great-grandson of Ludwig Messel, who founded the garden at Nymans. In this beautifully illustrated book, full of colour, heartache and celebrity, he documents the rich cultural legacy of the Messels as world-famous designers, collectors, scientists and architects"--Publisher's description

This collection of Anna Kavan's short fiction and journalism marks fifty years since her death in 1968. From moving portraits of clinical depression to phantasmagoric visions of sci-fi wonder the writings collected in Machines in the Head offer an accessible introduction to, and a timely survey of, Kavan's diverse writing talents for her fans.

"Do You Mind If I Smoke?" is the astonishing and often hilarious life story of a national treasure, told for the first time in a special edition hardback book to be published on the eve of actress Fenella Fielding's 90th birthday this November.

Part of the Peter Owen World Series: Spain. From Spain's answer to Chuck Palahniuk, Alex Garland and Brett Easton Ellis, Jose Ovejero's taut, existential thriller of first mistaken and then stolen identity exposes the fictions people create to sustain themselves in the modern world.

Roll up! Roll up! See the wondrous new face of Circus Mania, 250 years in the making! Full of the remarkable tales of circus life that made it a classic on its first outing. Learn about the origins of the circus from Roman times, to the colourful characters that make the circus the international phenomenon it is today. Circus Mania 2.0 is bigger, better and couldn't be timelier. Two hundred and fifty years after Philip Astley invented the circus it has never been more diverse and captivating, the global success of the spectacular Cirque du Soleil just one testament to its enduring and universal appeal. In Britain alone there are traditional family circuses for kids and arty shows for adults, circuses in tents and circuses in theatres, circuses with animals and circuses without, the Circus of Horrors for clubbers, the comedy-based Circus Hilarious and cabaret-style hybrids on the burlesque circuit and this form of entertainment is popular around the world. What all circuses have in common are the extraordinary skills, dedication and lifestyle of those involved a unique strain of performers who blend the discipline of sports stars with the razzmatazz of showbiz; itinerant entertainers who have often had circus blood in their families for generations; world-class gymnasts who risk death twice daily, serve on the tea stand in between shows and help take down the big top afterwards. Circus Mania is a journey into this unique world, each chapter an access-all-areas pass to a different circus, talking to the trapeze flyers, clowns, animal trainers and showmen about their lives, work and customs and offering insight into the development of this traditional entertainment from the earliest times.

From the international best-selling author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon comes a dazzling new work of historical fiction. The Gospel According to Lazarus retells the story of Jesus of Nazareth from the perspective of his childhood friend whom he resurrected - how and for what purpose are the mysteries at the centre of Lazarus's narrative.

Part of the Peter Owen World Series: Baltics. Estonian author Kai Aareleid's novel, 'Burning Cities', is a poetic historical saga, in which the fortunes of a small family parallel those of a small nation under Communism. A young girl growing up in Soviet Estonia is witness to tragic events both grand and domestic.

Ahead of the global threats and tragedies of today is a common barrier to their solution - it is the spirit that has defined the age we live in: competition. The Simultaneous Policy Solution, the 'SIMPOL Solution', shows us how through cooperation we can overcome the problems we face today and tomorrow.

Part of the Peter Owen World Series. A new novel from internationally renowned author of My Father's Dreams. When a family move out to the countryside to restore a dilapidated farmhouse, progress is halted by the arrival of their chaotic relatives. Flisar handles the absurd events like no other writer, imbuing the smallest incidents with meaning.

Delve deeper into the world of the BBC hit series Versailles with this ground-breaking study of Marie-Antoinette's love affair with Swedish diplomat Count Axel von Fersen. Historian Evelyn Farr has decoded secret letters, nom de plumes and invisible ink to make this the definitive account of an historic and tragic romance.

Tallinn 1419. Three locals dead within hours of each other. The denizens of medieval Tallinn blame a ghost. But apothecary Melchior Wakenstede uncovers a corporeal truth to the murders, embroiling him in a power struggle of Tallinn's religious orders, guilds and Teutonic Knights. Book two in the pan-European best-selling Apothecary Melchior series.

The Parson was not published in Anna Kavan's lifetime, but found after her death in manuscript form. Thought to have been written between the mid 50s and early 60s, it presages, through its undertones and imagery, some of Kavan's last and most enduring fiction (such as Ice). It was published finally, to wide acclaim, by Peter Owen in 1995. The Parson of the title is not a cleric, but an upright young army officer so nicknamed for his apparent prudishness. On leave in his native homeland, he meets a rich and beguiling beauty, the woman of his dreams. The days that the Parson spends with Rejane, riding in and exploring the wild moorland have their own enchantment. But Rejane grows restless in this desolate land; doubtless in love with the Parson, she discourages any intimacy. Until that is, she persuades him to take her to a sinister castle situated on a treacherous headland . . . The Parson is less a tale of unrequited love than exploration of divided selves, momentarily locked in an unequal embrace. Passion is revealed as a play of the senses as well as a destructive force. There have been valid comparisons to Poe, Kafka and Thomas Hardy, but the presence of her trademark themes, cleverly juxtaposed and set in her risktaking prose, mark The Parson as 100% Kavan.

First published in 1945, the stories collected under the title I Am Lazarus are a brilliant summation of the war experiences of Anna Kavan in Blitz-era London, working among invalided soldiers at a 'military neurosis centre' in Mill Hill. Kavan's view of the capital and some of its war victims in this momentous era are typically original and oblique: 'Lazarus' is a patient revived from catatonia who somehow remains institutionalized; the Blitz spirit is coolly stripped of cheeriness and never-say-die in 'Glorious Boys and 'Our City'; there is a Hithcockian horror story in 'The Gannets', while in 'Who Has Desired The Sea' and 'The Blackout' the 'shell-shocked' have ultimately only seen war exacerbate old, long-suppressed psychological wounds. Chilling but compassionate classics, the I Am Lazarus collection, republished now after many years, are essential documents of the time - and of Anna Kavan.

First full biography of an international figure, recently in the news after her successful libel case against Andrew Marry, who described her as a terrorist in The Making of Modern Britain Internationally famous for starting one of the first women's refuges in the modern world, Erin Pizzey is a controversial but hugely-respected activist with enemies on the left and the right, a pioneering figure in the maelstrom of seventies politics, and a key witness of the era. Here, she tells her story in full for the first time. The daughter of a diplomat, Erin Pizzey was born in China in 1939. One of her formative experiences was seeing her parents and brother being put under house arrest by the Maoists in 1949. This instilled a hatred of totalitarian regimes and for a short time Pizzey even worked for MI6 in Hong Kong. Once relocated in the UK, Pizzey was soon swept up by sixties radicalism and the early days of the emerging Women's Liberation Movement. Opening a small community center for maltreated women in Chiswick in 1971 was to bring Pizzey to the front line of what was becoming a national issue in a time when feminists were still treated with hostility and derision by right-wing figures, but also when left-wing radicals scorned anyone, like Pizzey, who put humanity before ideology. By the mid-1970s, Pizzey found herself under bomb threat and picketed by feminists for allowing men to staff refuges: this led to a long exile from the UK where she kept up her activities and achieved international recognition, while also reinventing herself as a best-selling writer. Erin Pizzey's life and trials have been unique; her story is a compelling one, vital to any understanding of a more revolutionary age and burning issues that still resonate today.

Peter Owen Publishers are proud to announce the publication of a previously unpublished novel.Set in an unspecified but eerily familiar time and landscape, Guilty is narrated by Mark. He begins the novel as a young boy whose father has just returned from war. In spite of being garlanded as a hero, Mark's father declares himself a pacifist and is immediately reviled in a country still suffering from the divisions of war. When his father is forced into exile Mark meets Mr Spector, a shady figure who from then on is a dominant force in Mark's life, seeing him through his schooling, employment and even finding him accommodation. When Mark tries to break off with Mr Spector in order to pursue an engagement with the beautiful but docile Carla his life begins to unravel. Thwarted at every turn by a Kafkaesque bureaucracy he begins to fall prey to the machinations and insecurities of his guilt-ridden mind.

'A new light in the European galaxy' - Peter Levi, Independent. 'The Same River' is considered poet and essayist Jaan Kaplinski's most significant work of prose to date and is one of the most widely read Estonian novels of recent years. This work of fiction, thirteen years in the making, has many autobiographical undertones. It describes a young man's life, dominated by oriental studies, poetry and love, in Tartu in the 1960's and, for the first time, gives English language readers insight into the formidable talent of this courageous writer who has produced many acclaimed works of fiction, poetry, philosophy and cultural studies in the midst of challenging and dramatically changing political and social times.

Oscar Nemon (1906-1985) is one of the 20th century's greatest sculptors, as testified by his iconic portraits of elder statesmen and major figures displayed all over the world. His flamboyant personality charmed those who came in contact with him, including Winston Churchill, Sigmund Freud and Queen Elizabeth II. His daughter Aurelia reveals the stories behind his artistic and personal encounters with presidents, prime ministers, royalty and others. She chronicles her father's life from humble origins as a Jew in modern-day Croatia to his refuge from the Nazis in southern England and the life and career he made for himself in and around London. The result is an intimate biography of an artist, husband and father.