A selection of the Venerable Blythe's columns, with contributions by Rowan Williams, Richard Mabey, Julia Blackburn, Ian Collins et al. Inquisitive, gentle and modest, but surprising and fun... read more
A survey of this pioneering and serene colourist (1885-1965), who eschewed '-isms' and quietly got on with his work - much of it plein air. Early impressionistic impastos quickly give way to... read more
Amongst the plethora of recent books on the threats facing liberal democracy, this one stands out for the author's talent for making complex subjects comprehensible. He sees the danger comin... read more
Reframes an unruly passage of Lawrence's life - from Cornwall in 1915, to Italy and Central America - into a neat Dantean triptych: Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. Whether you loathe or ado... read more
"John seemed only to float in a current of pleasure as reflected in his pictures. But hedonism, always a sturdy attribute, acquires a heroic quality with age...": Ian Collins' biography of C... read more
A memoir by the artist who had a decade-long relationship with Lucian Freud; full of insights, sometimes discomfortingly so. CP has a fine, clear voice - Freud's gestures and movements as ... read more
A short catalogue of the small but perfectly formed Freud exhibition at the Garden Museum. Drawings, oil sketches, paintings, of flowers, leaves, his Zimmerlinde, tatty buddleia-filled back ... read more
A new translation of this fabulous C16th Chinese work - a wild epic, an outrageous satire, and surely one of the most exuberant works of literature the world has ever known. Based on the mon... read more
Written during lockdown, this is a book by a writer on top of his game. The ostensible subject is endings, last things, work produced in 'late style'... But, this being Geoff Dyer, it's abou... read more
The remarkable story of the author's Jewish grandmother, whose bestselling Viennese cookbook was expropriated by the Nazis after the Anschluss in 1938 and republished for decades under a fal... read more
A deeply affecting memoir of coming of age in Albania - the last outpost of Stalinism in Europe. Tracing the transition in 1990 from repression, food shortages and political executions to po... read more
This extraordinary book is much, much more than a simple analysis of Britain's relationship and future with oil. It is a travel book and social commentary that takes us from Milford Haven to... read more
An illustrated book examining our fascination with islands. Interweaving his own travels with psychology, philosophy and literary voyages, the author explores our contradictory needs for con... read more
This marvellous memoir of her youth in Tottenham ends when her theatrical career takes off: forthright, transparent, dry, funny - there is nothing remotely precious about Dame Eileen's accou... read more
A no-holds-barred revenge thriller set in Virginia. Two anti-hero fathers try and make up for their poor parenthood and prejudices by avenging the murders of their two sons. Hold on to your ... read more
Shortlisted for both the Women's Fiction Prize (2022) and the Booker (2021), this stirring novel pulls together the lives of a fictional female aviator in the 1950s aiming to circumnavigate ... read more
By extraordinary chance, the author discovered an address book in the inner pocket of a vintage diary dating back to 1951. It disclosed an amazing list of luminaries from the European avant-... read more
A large format biography of the Bloomsbury pair, and their houses, commissioned by the National Trust. An entertaining introduction with handsome colour pics.
In this magnificently madcap adventure, SR pursues rumours of old pianos into all corners of Siberia: Arctic, Altai, Kamchatka, Princess Volkonsky in Irkutsk... She writes well, has a lovely... read more
A lovely hardback reissue of Mabey's book about beech trees, prompted by the great storm of 1987 when so many blew down. It's a wonderful stroll through the history of Fagus sylvatica, inclu... read more