In the early 20th century an easily overlooked square in Bloomsbury was the home, at one time or another, of the modernist poet H.D., Dorothy L Sayers, the classicist Jane Harrison, the hist... read more
An incisive post-mortem on the state of the Victorian union, told (with a gossipy thrill) through the lives of five couples - Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh, John Ruskin and Effie Gray, Charl... read more
A curator of fashion at the V&A for most of her working life, CW uses her experience and sensitivity to clothes to explore how, in her own family's life, the secrets of clothes measure out t... read more
Long anticipated voyage through the overlapping currents of nature, life and art. PH won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Leviathan, or The Whale; here he attempts to answer why Durer's art endu... read more
There are seven exceptionally talented siblings in this family of musicians, and they went to a state comprehensive in Nottingham before all moving to the Royal Academy of Music. This is the... read more
This magnificent book - which takes its title from a remark of the singer Josephine Baker - gives us the cultural landscape of black genius from the mid C20th to the present. We are in extr... read more
An exploration of the art, personalities and politics of Baroque Rome seen through the lens of Bernini's elephant carrying an obelisk. Lively, anecdotal and well illustrated.
The first full biography (with access to his papers given by his family) to this Indian cultural icon and significant C20th musician, who influenced the Beatles, Coltrane, Glass, Menuhin.
From the author of 'Ma'am Darling' and other hoots, a ragbag of tales and thoughts about the Beatles and their circle which somehow adds up to a wonderful account of their charisma and influ... read more
An exploration of the friendship and rivalry of these two poets, who met weekly at the Ritz (for a while) to discuss sex, suicide, mental health and other mutual preoccupations.
Raised in Nazi Germany, at 18, Wulff Scherchen was Britten's muse and lover. When the composer went to the USA during the war, Wulff was interned as an enemy alien and transported to Canada,... read more
She was B-J's muse for the last 25 years of his life, but, unlike most of the other Pre-Raphaelite women, she survived into a self-determining life and was friendly with Wilde, Einstein, Asq... read more
The story of London's notorious drinking den, the realm of the great and foul-mouthed Muriel Belcher. Constructed from interviews with many of its principal players.
An exuberant account of the importance to Modernism of what Truman Capote called "the all-time ultimate gallery of famous dykes" in Paris between the wars.