Conspirator is the compelling story of Lenin's exile: the years in which he and his polical collaborators plotted a revolution that would change 20th-century history.

It sells the story of Lenin in the long and difficult years leading up to the Russian Revolution - years that were spent constantly on the move in and around Europe in the company of his loyal and longsuffering wifr Nadezhda Krupskaya.

Conspirator strips away the arid politics of Lenin's offical life and reveals the real man, as well as describing his many conflicts - personal and political - with those who shared his exile. It presents in researched detail an accessible side to the traditional story which puts his personal struggle for change in Russia into the wider context of the movement as a whole.

It also looks at the loyal circle of women who unquestioningly supported Lenin, at Russian emigre lives in the enclaves of the cities in they lived and the risks taken in support of Lenin's vision by the wider network of Russian revolutionaries in the underground movement, both at home and abroad.

Helen Rappaport is an historian and Russianist with a specialism in the Victorians and revolutionary Russia. Her books include Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs and No Place fo Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War. She lives in Oxford. For more information, you can visit her website at http://www.helenrappaport.com

David Waller's The Magnificent Mrs Tennant, a biography of Gertrude Tennant, Victorian grande dame par excellence, , will be published in late May by Yale University Press. Born in 1819 ,Mrs Tennant's remarkable life spanned almost a hundred years -- from genteel poverty in Restoration Paris,to Victorian London, where she established a literary and political salon at her home in Whitehall. A cosmopolitan mix of late Victorian luminaries including Gladstone,Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Arthur Balfour, Robert Browning, John Everett Millais and visiting celebrities such as Mark Twain all attended her "at homes". Her final incarnation was as live-in mother-in-law to Henry Morton Stanley..; Gertrude, it was said with little irony, was the only person on the planet of whom the great explorer was afraid..

Waller's book starts with the discovery of two dozen original letters from the great French novelist Gustave Flaubert to Gertrude. This correspondence sheds light on the forgotten details of a deep a poignant friendship between Gustave and Gertrude, which started with a youthful flirtation, and continued via intermittent correspondence before being revived as a sincere friendship decades later when the great novelist was coming to the end of his life.

David Waller will be talking about the book at the Savile Club on June 20th, tickets can be order from the Savile on 0207 629 5462 at £10 just for the talk and a glass of wine or £27.50 for dinner. 'The talk will be chaired by Kate Williams, author of England's Mistress and Becoming Queen'. The book meanwhile can be pre-ordered at Amazon by following the link below:

David Waller's The Magnificent Mrs Tennant

Author of five NYT bestsellers about the Kennedy family, Edward Klein's TED KENNEDY: The Dream That Never Died, a balanced and ultimately redemptive portrait of the ailing Senator, promising revelations about Kennedy's relations with the Kopechne family; internal Kennedy family friction, and niece Caroline's abrupt withdrawal from consideration for the New York senatorial slot, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a major deal, for publication in May 2009 (tying in with a Vanity Fair excerpt), by Dan Strone at Trident Media Group (world). Rights: kschulze@randomhouse.com

Dean Nelson and Karl Giberson's QUANTUM LEAP, an examination of the life and influence of John Polkinghorne, a British particle physicist who, after 25 years of research in academia, resigned his post to become an Anglican priest and theologian, to Tony Collins at Lion Hudson Books, by Chip MacGregor at MacGregor Literary

Roughing it with Will If you’ve ever panicked at the mere thought of reading – much less studying Shakespeare – or that you might be too old to cope with the Elizabethan language as a student of life-long learning, fear no more. The Rough Guide to Shakespeare has come to the rescue. This compact reference book by the ultimate purveyors of travel, takes us effortlessly through our seminal journey into the world of William Shakespeare.

Covering the key facts and characters of each of the 39 surviving plays, The Rough Guide to Shakespeare gives us approximate dates when most scholars believe each play was written, possible sources, and what original texts survive. From there, the play is briefly interpreted and followed up with a list of the main characters and an act-by-act synopsis. But that’s not all. In quoting key speeches from the play, The Rough Guide to Shakespeare succinctly puts its finger on the subplots. For example, Richard’s ‘deformity’ in Richard III is explained by a quote from 3 Henry VI, [3.4.183-195] where the usurping villain is described as ‘disproportioned’ and ‘like to a chaos’:

Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry ‘Content!’ to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions…
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down.

By showing the common theme between the plays, The Rough Guide to Shakespeare excels at its task, challenging us to read on in a multi-layered way. But that new way of looking at the relationship between the plays doesn’t stop there. Through the easy-to-read format, similarities and differences between the main characters and themes of the plays are relatively easy to pick up, giving us a unique perspective on what Shakespeare was trying to convey. Comparing and contrasting lovers like Beatrice and Benedick with Juliet and her Romeo or Cleopatra and Antony opens new horizons and a truly Shakespearean perspective on life and love.

But as if that weren’t enough, The Rough Guide to Shakespeare completes its analysis with each play’s individual Stage History and Adaptations – on stage, screen, or other formats. And it’s the little asides that bring these vignettes to life – for example, the fact that when Paul Robeson played Othello opposite a young Peggy Ashcroft’s Desdemona in the 1930’s production at the London Savoy Theatre, the audiences gasped with shock when the inter-racial lovers kissed. That didn’t stop Robeson though – he continued to play Othello, and it was his Othello still retains the record for the longest run on Broadway.

And our voyage doesn’t end there. The Rough Guide to Shakespeare takes on the poems – the epic narratives A Lover’s Complaint, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece as well as the sonnets. In this four hundredth anniversary year of the publication of the sonnets – probably the most hotly debated and least understood of Shakespeare’s work – The Rough Guide to Shakespeare presents us with a simple, user-friendly format that doesn’t talk down to its reader but rather ‘unpacks’ the hidden meanings. It gives the background to sonnets as an art form, and their controversy as a potential autobiographical testament. As the book points out, ‘they [the sonnets] reward patient and careful reading… it seems impossible ever to exhaust their brilliance…’ Having helped us unpack the baggage inherited from others, the guide invites us to stay a while and enjoy any one of these fourteen line treasures at our leisure.

What I find so compelling about this particular book – above and beyond many other excellent reference books groaning on my bookshelf about Shakespeare – is that it is dedicated to helping us see and understand a three-dimensional Shakespeare – plays that were staged and read by people who breathed and acted naturally in their world. The contexts of ‘then’ and ‘now’ are artfully represented in the third part of The Rough Guide to Shakespeare by presenting snapshots about Shakespeare’s life, stage, language and cannon, friends and rivals, and how that all fits into our world today through books, websites, and what Shakespeare means to actors and directors we know and love. It encourages us all to explore – like any good guidebook – on our own. It gives reviews of the best films and audio recordings while never neglecting technology with an up-to-date coverage of the best internet downloads. Above all, it guides us on an exceptional journey irrespective of age – from younger children and recommended reading of Shakespeare in graphic novels to DVDs of animated tales or feature-length films for every age group – enriching our understanding of our greatest poet and playwright.

So if you have ever hidden behind the sofa in fear of your life when faced with a play by Shakespeare (as my mother did when I came home with my first Shakespeare play), you can sit down on the sofa instead and relax. Enjoy thumbing through this as you would any guidebook: it’s approachable, fun, and thought-provoking... You won’t be disappointed if you allow Rough Guide to Shakespeare to take you effortlessly on one of the greatest journeys of your life.

Susan Ronald's The Pirate Queen: Dubbed the “pirate queen” by the Vatican and Spain’s Philip II, Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. But her visionary accomplishments could not have been possible without her daring merchants, gifted rapscallion adventurers, and her stalwart Privy Council, including Sir William Cecil, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Nicholas Bacon.

Professor at Wilkes University, J. Michael Lennon's authorized biography of Norman Mailer, by this longtime friend of the late author, personally chosen by him as official biographer (he co-authored On God: An Uncommon Conversation with Mailer and is president of The Norman Mailer Society), working with the cooperation of the Mailer estate, and based in part on extensive interviews with Mailer over the past several years, as well as access to Mailer's unpublished archives and correspondence at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, to David Rosenthal at Simon & Schuster, with Bob Bender editing, in a major deal, for high-six-figures, by John Taylor "Ike" Williams at Kneerim & Williams (world).

Senior research fellow at London's Science Museum Graham Farmelo's THE STRANGEST MAN, a biography of Paul Dirac, revealing the previously unknown story of the pathologically reticent genius who became the youngest theoretician to ever win the Nobel Prize in Physics, to Lara Heimert at Basic, by Jason Cooper at Faber (NA).

W.C. Jameson's BILLY THE KID: The Lost Interviews, sequel to Billy the Kid: Beyond the Grave, suggesting that Billy the Kid was never shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett and that he survived for another sixty-nine years, outliving the sheriff and virtually everyone else involved in New Mexico's Lincoln County War and its aftermath, to Susan Stoltz at Rockin SR Publishing.

George Carlin's daughter Kelly Carlin-McCall's oral history of her father's life, promising to cover both the ups and the downs, his career triumphs as well as his struggles with drugs and alcohol, to Hyperion, for publication in fall 2009.

Poet, biographer, playwright, and author of THE LINCOLNS, Daniel Mark Epstein's THE BALLAD OF BOB DYLAN, an in-depth look at the greatest and most influential songwriter of the 20th century, focusing on the pivotal 60s, 70s and 80s, to Elisabeth Dyssegaard at Collins, by Neil Olson at Donadio & Olson (World English).