Heads and Straights

From Lucy Wadham, the bestselling author of The Secret Life of France, Heads and Straights is an autobiographical tale of bohemians, punk, the King's Road in the 1970s and family - part of a series of twelve books tied to the twelve lines of the London Underground, as Tfl celebrates 150 years of the Tube with Penguin

'A rich, vital family saga, and a feat of narrative compression' The Times

'Authors include the masterly John Lanchester, the children of Kids Company, comic John O'Farrell and social geographer Danny Dorling. Ranging from the polemical to the fantastical, the personal to the societal, they offer something for every taste. All experience the city as a cultural phenomenon and notice its nature and its people. Read individually they're delightful small reads, pulled together they offer a particular portrait of a global city' Evening Standard

'Exquisitely diverse' The Times

'Eclectic and broad-minded ... beautifully designed' Tom Cox, Observer

'A fascinating collection with a wide range of styles and themes. The design qualities are excellent, as you might expect from Penguin with a consistent look and feel while allowing distinctive covers for each book. This is a very pleasing set of books' A Common Reader blog

'The contrasts and transitions between books are as stirring as the books themselves ... A multidimensional literary jigsaw' Londonist

'A series of short, sharp, city-based vignettes - some personal, some political and some pictorial ... each inimitable author finds that our city is complicated but ultimately connected, full of wit, and just the right amount of grit' Fabric Magazine

'A collection of beautiful books' Grazia

[Praise for Lucy Wadham]:

'Penetrating insight and dry observation' Independent

'Beautifully clever and intellectually challenging' Good Housekeeping

'Effortless wit and keen intelligence' New Statesman

Lucy Wadham was born in London and has lived in France for the past twenty years. She is the author of Lost, shortlisted for the Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction. Her most recent book is The Secret Life of France.