Biography & Autobiography

2025 Recipient of THE ANNE FRANK AWARD FOR HUMAN DIGNITY AND TOLERANCE, from the Dutch Government

2024 Recipient of THE OFFICER'S CROSS OF THE ORDER OF MERIT of the Federal Republic of Germany, Germany's highest civilian medal

NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST

“Irene Butter’s book is a triumph of clarity and concision, written with a passionate intent to inform and with not a shred of self-pity. It is by turns profound and intimate, and bears witness to the resilience of a family who drew strength from one another even through the darkness of the Holocaust. It is a shockingly honest and hopeful book.” Andrew Solomon, National Book Award Winning Author of The Noonday Demon and author of Far From The Tree Parent's Children, And The Search For Identity

“Irene Butter’s story is not your standard holocaust memoir. Instead, it recounts what happened to one family both during and after the war, and captures vividly the time from release from concentration camp to greeting a life back. It is compelling reading, and makes one realise how what happened in the immediate aftermath may have overshadowed the rest of Irene Butter’s life..” Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger

Irene Butter’s memoir of her experiences before, during and after the Holocaust is not a recounting of misery and tragedy; rather it is the genuine story of a girl coming to terms with a terrible event and choosing to view herself as a survivor instead of a victim. When the Dutch police knock on their door, Irene and her family are forced to leave their home and board trains meant for cattle. They are taken to Nazi-controlled prison camps and finally to Bergen-Belsen, where Irene is a fellow prisoner with Anne Frank. 

With limited access to food, shelter, and warm clothing, Irene’s family needs nothing short of a miracle to survive. Irene’s memoir tells the story of her experiences as a young girl before, during, and after the Holocaust, highlighting how her family came to terms with the catastrophe and how she, over time, came to view herself as a survivor rather than a victim. Throughout the book, her first-person account celebrates the love and empathy that can persist even in the most inhumane conditions.

Whether you re an absolute beginner or an aficionado, Paul Kent has captured the essence of what made Wodehouse tick without spoiling all the fun; and makes a compelling case for why we owe it to our collective sanity to keep on reading him. P.G. Wodehouse 1881-1975 Humourist, Novelist, Lyricist, Playwright So reads the simple inscription on the memorial stone unveiled in London s Westminster Abbey in September 2019, honouring the greatest comic writer of the 20th century. It takes a steady hand and a steely nerve to insist that sweetness and light can prevail in a world that seems hell-bent on proving the opposite, and over 40 years after his death, Wodehouse is not just surviving but thriving all over the world. Young Indian professionals can t get enough of him; he s hugely popular in Japan; his books have been translated into more than 30 languages, from Azerbaijani to Ukrainian via Hebrew, Italian, Swedish and Chinese; and there are established Wodehouse societies in the UK, the USA, Belgium, Holland and Russia. His books are demonstrating the staying power of true classics, and are all currently in print, making him as relevant and funny - as he ever was.

In Reading Claudius, Caroline Heller does what Rilke called the “heart-work,” exploring moral accountability and the toll exacted by the fact of survival. Her family story begins in pre-war Czechoslovakia, passes through the Nazi holocaust, and continues on in postwar America, affirming that events may end but repercussions never do. A searching and humane memoir. —Sven Birkerts, author of The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again

In this unforgettable dual memoir of her parents’ lives and her own, Caroline Heller brings to life the lost world of European café culture, and reminds us of the sustaining power of literature in the most challenging of times.

Heller vividly evokes prewar Prague, where her parents lived, loved, and studied. Her mother, Liese Florsheim, was a young German refugee initially drawn to Erich Heller, a bright but detached intellectual, rather than to his brother, Paul. As Hitler’s power spreads and World War II becomes inevitable, their world is destroyed and they must flee the country and continent. Paul, who will eventually become the author’s father, is trapped and sent to Buchenwald, where he survives under hellish conditions.

Though Paul’s life nearly ends in Europe, he reunites with Liese in the United States, where they marry. Their daughter Caroline, restless and insecure, carries the trauma of her parents’ story with her, but her quest to make peace with her heritage is eased by her love of books and writers, part of her family legacy. Through the darkest years of Hitler’s rule, Caroline’s parents and uncle had turned time and time again to literature to help them survive—and so she does as well.

Written with sensitivity and grace, Reading Claudius is a profound meditation on the ways we strive to solve the mysteries of our pasts, and a window into understanding the ones we love.

“We read Wodehouse because he was a master of words. We can read Kent for the same reason”. Wooster Sauce, journal of The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK)

 

A TOUR OF THE COMIC IMAGINATION OF P.G. WODEHOUSE

 

P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) is widely acknowledged as the greatest English comic writer of the 20th century. The creator of Jeeves & Wooster, Lord Emsworth and Blandings, Ukridge, Mr. Mulliner, the Oldest Member and the Eggs, Beans and Crumpets of the Drones Club, the consistently upbeat tone of his 100 or so books represents one of the largest-ever literary bequests to human happiness by one man. Indeed, Wodehouse was not just a writer for his time, but for all time, and in 2019, a memorial commemorating his life and work was dedicated in Westminster Abbey, London, the only one to honour an out-and-out humourist. 

 

In this concluding volume of his groundbreaking trilogy, lifelong enthusiast Paul Kent sets out to explain the enduring, global appeal of PGW’s comic world from the U.K. to Japan via India and Russia. Granted unprecedented access to Wodehouse’s papers and library, it contains a wealth of fresh insight and scholarship that gets right to the heart of Wodehouse’s comic vision and is a must for both casual fan and devotee alike.

 

“Paul Kent has added his joy and light while giving us new insights into Wodehouse . . . Your time with his books will breeze by, and you will clamor for more. Hear that distant sound? That’s me already clamoring”.

 

GARY HALL, PLUM LINES, THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE WODEHOUSE SOCIETY (US)

 

“Kent is forging the new path in the way I hope writing about Wodehouse will go”.

 

TIM ANDREW, CHAIRMAN, THE P.G. WODEHOUSE SOCIETY (UK)

Whether you re an absolute beginner or an aficionado, Paul Kent has captured the essence of what made Wodehouse tick without spoiling all the fun; and makes a compelling case for why we owe it to our collective sanity to keep on reading him. P.G. Wodehouse 1881-1975 Humourist, Novelist, Lyricist, Playwright So reads the simple inscription on the memorial stone unveiled in London s Westminster Abbey in September 2019, honouring the greatest comic writer of the 20th century. It takes a steady hand and a steely nerve to insist that sweetness and light can prevail in a world that seems hell-bent on proving the opposite, and over 40 years after his death, Wodehouse is not just surviving but thriving all over the world. Young Indian professionals can t get enough of him; he s hugely popular in Japan; his books have been translated into more than 30 languages, from Azerbaijani to Ukrainian via Hebrew, Italian, Swedish and Chinese; and there are established Wodehouse societies in the UK, the USA, Belgium, Holland and Russia. His books are demonstrating the staying power of true classics, and are all currently in print, making him as relevant and funny - as he ever was.

In 1915, and for the next decade or so, P.G. Wodehouse’s fictional world mushroomed within his imagination. His best-known creations, Jeeves and Bertie, arrived in that year, as did Lord Emsworth and many of the Blandings circle; the Oldest Member teed off in 1919; the Drones Club threw open its doors in 1921; a new, thoroughly improved Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge returned to the fold in 1923, and Mr Mulliner sipped his first hot scotch and lemon at the bar parlour of the Angler’s Rest in 1926. 

Plum would steadily re-visit these characters and locations for another half-century, interspersing his tales with one off novels, stories and further, less voluminous sub series until his death in 1975. These were truly golden years, with Plum at the height of what he called his “mid-season form”. 

Paul Kent continues his groundbreaking study of Wodehouse’s imagination by casting a fresh eye over his created world, whose characters and stories have made our world feel better about itself for well over a century.

“We read Wodehouse because he was a master of words. We can read Kent for the same reason”. Wooster Sauce, journal of The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK)

A TOUR OF THE COMIC IMAGINATION OF P.G. WODEHOUSE

P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) is widely acknowledged as the greatest English comic writer of the 20th century. The creator of Jeeves & Wooster, Lord Emsworth and Blandings, Ukridge, Mr. Mulliner, the Oldest Member and the Eggs, Beans and Crumpets of the Drones Club, the consistently upbeat tone of his 100 or so books represents one of the largest-ever literary bequests to human happiness by one man. Indeed, Wodehouse was not just a writer for his time, but for all time, and in 2019, a memorial commemorating his life and work was dedicated in Westminster Abbey, London, the only one to honour an out-and-out humourist. 

In this concluding volume of his groundbreaking trilogy, lifelong enthusiast Paul Kent sets out to explain the enduring, global appeal of PGW’s comic world from the U.K. to Japan via India and Russia. Granted unprecedented access to Wodehouse’s papers and library, it contains a wealth of fresh insight and scholarship that gets right to the heart of Wodehouse’s comic vision and is a must for both casual fan and devotee alike.

“Paul Kent has added his joy and light while giving us new insights into Wodehouse . . . Your time with his books will breeze by, and you will clamor for more. Hear that distant sound? That’s me already clamoring”.--GARY HALL, PLUM LINES, THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE WODEHOUSE SOCIETY (US)

“Kent is forging the new path in the way I hope writing about Wodehouse will go”.--TIM ANDREW, CHAIRMAN, THE P.G. WODEHOUSE SOCIETY (UK)

In 1915, and for the next decade or so, P.G. Wodehouse’s fictional world mushroomed within his imagination. His best-known creations, Jeeves and Bertie, arrived in that year, as did Lord Emsworth and many of the Blandings circle; the Oldest Member teed off in 1919; the Drones Club threw open its doors in 1921; a new, thoroughly improved Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge returned to the fold in 1923, and Mr Mulliner sipped his first hot scotch and lemon at the bar parlour of the Angler’s Rest in 1926. Plum would steadily re-visit these characters and locations for another half-century, interspersing his tales with one off novels, stories and further, less voluminous sub series until his death in 1975. These were truly golden years, with Plum at the height of what he called his “mid-season form”.Paul Kent continues his groundbreaking study of Wodehouse’s imagination by casting a fresh eye over his created world, whose characters and stories have made our world feel better about itself for well over a century.

Desmond may have given me an insight into human behaviour, but he’s given me lots of laughs, too. We think the same things are funny, and he’s a brilliant raconteur. —Sir David Attenborough

This is a book about the joys of watching the world.

It is autobiographical, but it is not about me; it is about what I have observed. There is no agonised soul-searching, no sneaky kiss-and-tell, no pretentious journey to find the ‘real me’. I am not interested in myself. But I am fascinated by the world around me and what I have been able to see and record over a period of six decades of professional observation, first as a student of animal behaviour, and then as a student of human behaviour.

Desmond Morris was born in 1928. Educated at Birmingham and Oxford universities, he became the Curator of Mammals at London Zoo in 1959, a post he held for eight years.

In 1967 he published The Naked Ape which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and has changed the way we view our own species forever.

An accomplished artist, TV presenter, film maker and writer, Desmond Morris's books have been published in over thirty-six countries.