The Assassin's Cloak

Name: The Assassin's Cloak
Brand: Allen & Unwin
SKU: 9781786899118
Price: 65.0 NZD
Availability: InStock

An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists

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4.18

( 354 ratings, 75 reviews)

Summary

The Assassin's Cloak is a captivating anthology that brings together diary entries from a diverse range of writers across centuries and cultures, including Queen Victoria, Andy Warhol, Samuel Pepys, and Adrian Mole. This collection showcases diaries as both a personal refuge and a public literary form, capturing everyday thoughts, special occasions, private fears, and hopeful dreams. The updated edition celebrates the twentieth anniversary of this unique tribute to the intimate art of diary writing.
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Format: Hardback

$65⁰⁰

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The Assassin's Cloak

$65⁰⁰

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in arts and culture, lovers of personal memoirs, and anyone fascinated by historical and contemporary diary writing. Perfect for those who appreciate a blend of the intimate and public in literature.

A beautiful and updated edition of this collection of the world's greatest diarists on its twentieth anniversary.

Description

'A diary is an assassin's cloak which we wear when we stab a comrade in the back with a pen', wrote William Soutar in 1934. But a diary is also a place for recording everyday thoughts and special occasions, private fears and hopeful dreams. The Assassin's Cloak gathers together some of the most entertaining and inspiring entries for each day of the year, as writers ranging from Queen Victoria to Andy Warhol, Samuel Pepys to Adrian Mole, pen their musings on the historic and the mundane.

Spanning centuries and international in scope, this peerless anthology pays tribute to a genre that is at once the most intimate and public of all literary forms.

This new updated edition is published to mark the twentieth anniversary of the book's original publication.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised as "triumphantly eclectic and entertaining" (Observer), this delightful book reveals the extraordinary nature of everyday life. It is described as "utterly compulsive" due to excellent editing that balances the commonplace with the profound (The Times). The anthology is hailed as "wonderful" with an impressive range of diarists and themes, making it a volume to revisit frequently (Sunday Times). Also called the "ultimate bedside book" for a delicious daily read (Daily Mail), it offers diverse, gossipy, funny, and perceptive insights that make every dip-in a pleasure (Observer).

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781786899118

Publisher: Canongate Books

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 05 November 2020

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Canongate Books

Edition: Main - New edition

Contributors:

Edited by Alan Taylor
Edited by Irene Taylor

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 58.0mm

Width: 162.0mm

Height: 240.0mm

Weight: 1003g

Pages: 720

Collections

Arts & Culture Biography & Memoir Non-Fiction

About the Author

Alan Taylor has been a journalist for over thirty years. He was deputy editor of the Scotsman, managing editor of Scotsman Publications, and writer-at-large for the Sunday Herald. He has edited several acclaimed anthologies, most recently Glasgow: The Autobiography (2016). He is the author of Appointment in Arezzo: A Friendship with Muriel Spark and, in 2018, series editor of the centenary edition of Spark's novels. He is the co-founder and editor of the Scottish Review of Books.

Irene Taylor was born and brought up in Edinburgh. For many years she worked in public libraries. She has a degree in history from Edinburgh University and she now works for the National Trust for Scotland.