{"title":"Derek Johns","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the insightful works of Derek Johns, a master of historical narrative and biography. Journey through meticulously researched accounts, perfect for history enthusiasts and those seeking deeper understanding.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"ariel-book-derek-johns-9780571331635","title":"Ariel","description":"Jan Morris is one of the great British writers of the post-war era.  Soldier, journalist, writer about places (rather than 'travel writer'), elegist of the British Empire, novelist, she has fashioned a distinctive prose style that is elegant, fastidious, supple, and sometimes gloriously gaudy.  For many readers she is best known for her candid memoir Conundrum, which described the gender reassignment operation she underwent in 1972.   But as Ariel demonstrates, this is just one of the many remarkable facts about her life.  As James Morris she was the journalist who brought back the story of the conquest of Everest in 1953 and who discovered incontrovertible evidence of British involvement in the Suez Crisis of 1956.  She has been described by Rebecca West as the finest prose stylist of her time, and her essays span the entire urban world.  Her many books include a classic on Venice, a 1,600 page history of the British Empire, and a homage to what is perhaps her favourite city, Trieste.  Her writings on Wales represent the most thorough literary investigation of that mysterious land.  Derek Johns was Jan Morris's literary agent for twenty years.  Ariel is not a conventional biography, but rather an appreciation of the work and life of someone who besides being a delightful writer is known to many people as a generous, affectionate, witty and irreverent friend.   It is published to coincide with her 90th birthday.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49517650018577,"sku":"GOR007814337","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49604328915217,"sku":"GOR007968909","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50624103088401,"sku":"GOR009665680","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53201235443985,"sku":"GOR014804799","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571331637.jpg?v=1751104464"},{"product_id":"wintering-book-derek-johns-9781846270239","title":"Wintering","description":"With the exquisite magic of Laurie Lee, Wintering captures the fragile moment between innocence and maturity in an entrancing story about growing up - a father's and a son's. This work is suitable for readers of Margaret Forster, Bertie, May \u0026amp; Mrs Fish, Melvyn Bragg, and J.L. Carr. The pitch-perfect period and place detail, evoking a world of Dinky toys and Dansette record players, also has nostalgic appeal for a silver readership. Arriving at harvest-time in a sleepy rural village on the outskirts of Wells, the Palmer family are making a fresh start - with a new job for recently bankrupt Jim, and a new kind of life for Margaret and the children, Billy and Sarah. At first, this smaller, slower world seems to offer few distractions, but even before winter has arrived, the open fields, cobbled streets, and steamy coffee shops begin to yield opportunities - especially for Jim with his eye for easy money and a pretty face. 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Derek Johns was Jan Morris's literary agent for twenty years, and Ariel is a literary life, an appreciation of the work and achievements of someone who besides being a delightful writer is known to many as a generous, affectionate, witty and irreverent friend.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49581795541265,"sku":"GOR008903389","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50354565513489,"sku":"CIN0571331645A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356612595985,"sku":"CIN0571331645G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52591919628561,"sku":"NLS9780571331642","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53176758337809,"sku":"GOR009184489","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571331645.jpg?v=1759230893"},{"product_id":"wakening-book-derek-johns-9781846271342","title":"Wakening","description":"It is 1968, and Billy Palmer has dropped out of university and left the West Country behind. He is determined to go to Marrakesh and find himself, but his first stop must be London. When he arrives, Billy takes a cramped room in a boarding house and talks his way into a job at a bookshop, and then begins to explore the streets of Soho, where the political protests and pretty girls swirl about him. But even as he is caught up in the music and the parties, Billy is dreaming of a bigger adventure and plotting his escape to Morocco, with its snake charmers and story tellers and its vast golden deserts, where anything is possible and where his life will really begin.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49601016693009,"sku":"GOR012223918","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846271347.jpg?v=1750963857"},{"product_id":"wintering-book-derek-johns-9781846270222","title":"Wintering","description":"Set against the backdrop of Somerset in the 1950s, this is a tenderly controlled story about growing up - for both father and son.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49636157391121,"sku":"GOR013752963","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49964470829329,"sku":"GOR004578619","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846270227.jpg?v=1751249436"},{"product_id":"beatrice-mystery-rare-book-derek-johns-1675889116bdt","title":"Beatrice Mystery","description":"1980. first published in GB. 152 pages. 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