She grew up in Chelsea (indeed her father was a John Sandoe customer); she was a deb in 1958. Then she devoted herself to the IRA and became a terrorist.
The range of Blackburn's books testifies to her profound curiosity about the world. This account of her journey (imaginative as well as physical) among the little-known South African people ... read more
An ambitious book that traces the collapse of empires and their ramifications in contemporary Eurasian geopolitics - in particular Iran, China, Turkey and Russia.
Born in Russia, Poplavsky fled to Paris in the Revolution, where he become a literary and artistic enfant terrible of the emigré circles of Montparnasse. This novel, translated into English... read more
A substantial illustrated biography from the former chief curator at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag - home to the world's largest collection of Mondrian works.
Looks at Jane's contribution too in this extraordinary personal and creative partnership. SFC's earlier book To See Clearly: Why Ruskin Matters was excellent.
A very clever debut from a distinguished hand in the art world: a Cambridge don rather stuck in his ways is repelled by an outbreak of modern art in his quad. Wafted on a cloud of academic d... read more
A splendid return to Ibbotson's adored Amazonian world, this time with Rosa, a Kinderstransport child. Many characters from Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea make an appearance too. Carrol... read more
This long interview, recorded with the Swiss critic Pierre Courthion when the artist was recovering from an operation in bed during the Nazi Occupation, was never published - until now.
Follows up his Young Eliot (2015, pbk £14.99). Draws on all correspondence including the archive with his lover Emily Hale, which remained sealed until 2020.
A beguiling work of auto-fiction - a juggling act that Carrère refined in Limonov, The Kingdom etc. He begins a ten-day retreat, lit by the sun of literary success, but desperate matters in... read more
A new novel by the author of The Heavens which recalls Usula le Guin's flawed Utopia in which one person's constant suffering pays for the perpetual bliss of all others.
A memorable and delightful old woman - who could have been a fifth columnist in Montypython's Hell's Grannies - takes on the education of an edgy granddaughter.