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Queens and Emperors, artists and poets, priests and politicians: all are subject to G. K. Chesterton’s collected biographies. ‘Varied Types’ spans the streets of London, travels to the edges of the British empire and doubles back into the depths of history.

In a series of essays, Chesterton paints the portraits of England’s most influential figures, from Walter Scott to Lord Tennyson, and favours each with his authoritative wit.

This continuation of the collection ‘Twelve Types’ adds eight spectacular essays, featuring Queen Victoria, Alfred the Great, John Ruskin, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and many more.

A superb collection for readers of Chesterton which dives deep into the history of classic English literature.



Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936) was an English writer, journalist, philosopher, and literary critic. An unparalleled essayist, he produced over four thousand essays during his lifetime, alongside eighty novels and two hundred short stories.

Tackling topics of politics, history, philosophy, and theology with tenacious wit and humour, G. K. Chesterton was often considered a master of the paradox. Himself both a modernist and devout Catholic, he is remembered best for his priest-detective short stories ‘Father Brown’, and his metaphysical thriller ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’.

In his lifetime, Chesterton befriended and debated some of the greatest thinkers of the age, such as George Bernard Shore, H. G. Wells, and Bertrand Russell, while his works went on to inspire figures including T. S. Eliot, Michael Collins, and Mahatma Gandhi.