Jonathan Miles
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Jonathan Miles

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After a nomadic childhood in America, Canada and the UK, Jonathan Miles took a first class degree from University College, London and his doctorate from Jesus College, Oxford. He has written, lectured and broadcast on cultural history all over the world. Reviews of - Medusa - The Shipwreck, The Scandal, The Masterpiece include 'thrilling' (The Guardian), 'enthralling ... virtuoso' (The Telegraph), 'compelling' (Independent on Sunday), 'an incredibly gripping book - Miles's masterful work is a powerful read' (Irish Times), 'compulsive, page-turning stuff' (Bloomberg News) 'grippingly recounted - the narrative is brilliantly meted out' (New York Times).'The Medusa' is published by Jonathan Cape Penguin/Random House in the UK; Grove Atlantic in the US; by Nutrimenti in Italy; by Zeraq in France and is under option for a full-length feature film. The Sunday Times said of 'The Nine Lives of Otto Katz', 'This irresistible biography exposes a man by turns showy and shadowy... Miles conjures the spy-game atmospherics of the era wonderfully. Using recently opened MI5 files, he tracks the intelligence service's struggle to comprehend the man.' The Canada Post calls the book 'a fascinating, fast-moving and frequently witty portrait of a man of such charisma and cunning'. In Metro UK, Alan Chadwick, calls The Nine Lives of Otto Katz 'Enthralling ... This portrait has all the hallmarks of a thrilling detective story as Katz sets about coordinating his hydra-headed fronts for Soviet propaganda and profit.' American reviews include 'unique' (Los Angeles Times), Miles's 'portrait of Katz is masterful' (Chicago Sun Times) and 'biography at its readable best' (The Washington Times). Otto Katz is published by Transworld in the UK; Bloomsbury in the USA; Denoël in France; and Paseka in the Czech Republic. Reviews of - St Petersburg : Three Centuries of Murderous Desire: ‘This extraordinary book brings to life an astonishing place. Beautiful prose renders brutaly vivid’ … ‘delightful style and an acute sense of absurdity’ Gerard DeGroot The Times - BOOK OF THE WEEK/ A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘His history has a substantial foundation, but what makes it special is the sheer inescapable momentum of Miles’s prose, powered by the captivating intensity of his attachment to his subject. This is a story told by a writer enthralled … His overwhelming concatenation of fact, observation and opinion is a dazzling history of a dazzling city’ – Marina Vaizey, ‘The Arts Desk’‘lively and entertaining biography … full of sparkling storytelling and well drawn characters … a delight’ Victor Sebestyen The Sunday Times 'Of all cities St Petersburg is most like a novel … Miles tells the tale magnificently.' – Peter Pomeranzev .'a brilliant history...So fluent, so textured is Jonathan Miles's ease with prose and argument that his vivid dissection of 300 years of St. Petersburg history should be devoured in captive sittings ... This is a storyteller entranced with his subject, who makes its brilliant portrayal look deliriously easy.' - Susan Sheahan, The Observer St Petersburg is published in the UK by Hutchinson Penguin Random House; in the US in by Pegasus Books; in Estonia by Tanapaev Publishers; in Taiwan by the Marco Polo Press; in China by Horizon Media and in Poland by Bellona publishing. Seren Press published earlier books on David Jones and Eric Gill:- The Maker Unmade - 'The best book on David Jones' - Julian Mitchell, The Spectator; 'authoritative, massively researched … a sophisticated acquaintance with the cultural context and many vivid details of biography', The Times Literary Supplement; 'Succeeds in being readily comprehensible while also being scholarly' ,The Literary Review. - Try the Wilderness First (a new edition of Eric Gill & David Jones at Capel-y-Ffin) - 'Scholarly, rigorous and remarkably comprehensive … Miles’s skill in placing this period in its artistic and historical contexts is admirable and illuminating', Book New From Wales Backgrounds to David Jones (University of Wales Press) 'It is a pleasure to welcome this distinctive book … Miles puts Jones into a bigger context and better perspective than most' - Michael Alexander, Modern Language Review. Atlantic Books is publishing Once Upon a Time World - The Dark and Sparkling Story of the French Riviera. U.K. in May 2023. The first review is a SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK: ‘as fascinating in its historical sweep as its devotion to gossip and misbehaviour. … the book becomes a delirious chronicle of excess … Once Upon a Time World is a phenomenal work of research across hundreds of histories, biographies, memoirs and letters. It shifts with masterly control across a dozen arenas from high art to low scandal, taking in fashion, sport, ballet and motor racing. It’s utterly absorbing, indelicate to a shocking degree and I devoured every page of it.’ - John Walsh Website - https//:www.jonathanmiles.net
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