An evacuee moves to his aunt's house in Devon, loves life on the farm and the new friends he makes there. But this rural idyll is jarred by rumours of an ancient ritual, set amongst the stan... read more
A beguiling approach to the relationship of artists to the sea, looking in detail at single works by ten artists: from Vanessa Bell's Studland Beach and Paul Nash's Winter Sea, via Alfred Wa... read more
A collection of his journalism and essays on literature and writing, getting his typewriter fixed (presumably all modernists use typewriters, the better to make modernist metajokes), etc.
Pinfold is a remarkable illustrator and storyteller: here he conjures a palace in the desert where a girl strikes a mystical bargain with 'the Teller' to save her friends. Sharing elements w... read more
The blue-haired and dauntless girl moves from the wilderness to the city, where her encounters with the fantastical continue: two graphic stories in one volume (Hilda and the Bird Parade and... read more
Once upon a time there were many stories, but slowly these are being eaten up by a story suffering from over-importance. Illustrated with ogham, cuneiform, hieroglyphs etc by this gifted art... read more
The first violinist of the Takacs Quartet ruminates on the work of Bartók, Britten, Dvořák and Elgar in relation to ideas of home, exile, nostalgia and place, the hope and even dread of r... read more
Born in Victorian Sydney, she was presented at Court to Queen Victoria and then married a Prussian count. The marriage was unhappy, and her subsequent marriage to Bertrand Russell's brother ... read more
75 years of Englishness in this state-of-the-nation tale, passed through Coe's comic and prismatic imagination. Like the protagonist of his new novel, Coe was born and brought up near the Bo... read more
A long novel in which an artist watches versions of himself slip away into alcohol and loneliness. (Previously published as three separate paperbacks).
Moore's second commission as a war artist was to draw the miners of Wheldale colliery - as the son of a coal miner himself, this commision must have had particular resonance for him.
With terraces overlooking the Severn estuary, water gardens and an enormous pillared pergola, the house was an Edwardian dream that fell into decay. Luckily it has been restored, and its gar... read more
This early C19th disabled artist excelled as a miniaturist, having taught herself how to paint by holding a brush in her teeth. Contracted to a travelling showman at the age of thirteen as a... read more
England still has a greater concentration of ancient oaks than the rest of Europe combined. The Dutch dendrologist's explanation and historical survey is compelling.