An intimate account of the life of Francisco de Goya from 1792 when he was 47 and contracted a serious illness which left him totally deaf. Through a time of political turmoil, war, violence and confusion, Goya continued to work, transforming the scenes he witnessed into his visionary paintings, drawings and etchings. Also detailed are Goya's lovers - the Duchess of Alba and Leocadia who was with him at the end. This is ultimately a tale of the ferocious energy, passion and genius of this great artist.

During the 1970s a young woman called Linda Kuehl, planning to write a biography of Billie, recorded interviews with more than 150 people. Kuehl died in 1978 and her book never came out, but her recordings survived to provide the raw material for this extraordinary account of the life of America's First Lady of Jazz.

This memoir is the story of three people: Julia Blackburn, her father Thomas and her mother Rosalie. Theirs was a difficult relationship: Thomas was an alcoholic, and Julia and Rosalie were more like sisters, later becoming sexual rivals. Ultimately, the book is a tale of redemption, a love story.

The author and her husband moved to a little house in the mountains of northern Italy in 1999. She arrived as a stranger but a series of events brought her close to the old people of the village and they began to tell her their stories.

A study of the tiny tropical island of St Helena and the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte who lived there in exile for the final six years of his life. It follows him through the eyes of those who lived with him, who guarded him, who managed only to catch a brief glimpse of him, alive or dead.

Congo the bush baby, from the jungles of Madagascar and the tropical fish, tortoises, chickens, guinea pigs, foxes, pigs, and two dogs. This book recalls the animals in the authors' life and in so doing gives us a sidelong glance at the human members of her family, her painter mother and poet father.