Unicorn Publishing Group

Book SynopsisThe invasion of Normandy was the most significant victory of the Allies in the Second World War. By 1944, over 2 million troops from over 12 countries were in Britain in preparation for the invasion. These forces consisted primarily of American, British and Canadian troops but also included Australian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, New Zealand, Norwegian, Rhodesian and Polish naval, air or ground support. The operation was codenamed "Overlord" which saw the largest invasion fleet ever assembled, before or since, landing 156,000 Allied troops on five beach-heads on D-Day 6 June 1944. These forces established a foothold on the shores of Northern France, and broke out into the French interior to begin a headlong advance. D-Day was originally set for June 5 but had to be postponed for 24 hours because of bad weather. The forecast was so bad that the German commander in Normandy, Erwin Rommel, went home to give his wife a pair of shoes on her birthday. He was in Germany when the news came. British factories increased production and in the first half of 1944 approximately 9 million tonnes of supplies and equipment crossed the Atlantic from North America to Britain. Bagpiper, Bill Millin struck up ‘Hieland Laddie’ as soon as he jumped into the shallows and then walked up and down the beach playing the pipes. German prisoners later admitted that they had not attempted to shoot him because they thought he had lost his mind. The British infantryman was paid £3 15s a month, the Americans got £12. A naval bombardment from seven battleships, 18 cruisers, and 43 destroyers began at 5am and went on until 6.25am. On the night of the invasion only around 15% of paratroopers landed in the right place. New gadgets designed for D-Day included a “swimming tank” and a flame throwing tank called “the crocodile”. There were even collapsible motorbikes. The morning after D-day the police raided a brothel, which French women had set up in a wrecked landing craft. 1,900 Allied bombers attacked German lines before the invasion began. Seven million pounds of bombs were dropped that day. A total of 10,521 combat aircraft flew a total of 15,000 sorties on D-Day. All this and much more is uncovered in a range of informative and detailed events spanning this most significant event in military history; biographies, fun facts, myth busters and illustrated throughout with infographics and contemporary photographs.

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Book SynopsisPeter Sellers was one of the biggest stars of the 1960s and 70s. His career began with characters such as Bluebottle on BBC radio’s The Goon Show and he achieved global fame as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series. What is less well known is that he served in the Royal Air Force Entertainment Units (known as Gang Shows) for over three years. Now, for the first time, this story can be told, a tale of the formation and education of his remarkable talents, as well as a small corner of Second World War history that seems uniquely British (groups of servicemen and women sent around the world with hampers full of theatrical props and costumes, to rally the troops in distant outposts of Empire). This book reveals previously unknown film footage, photos, performances, broadcasts and recordings, from the very beginning of Sellers’ career.Trade Review"This new book reveals previously unknown film footage, recordings and radio broadcasts, as well as records of more than 100 performances across two continents. It charts [Sellers's] progress from raw recruit to gang show veteran, a journey full of colour and inspiration." -- Chortle (UK)

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Book SynopsisBorn in London in 1890, Angela Thirkell was Sir Edward Burne-Jones’s granddaughter, J.M. Barrie’s goddaughter and a cousin of Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. John Collier painted her portrait and she was drawn by John Singer Sargent and Thea Proctor. Between 1931 and her death in 1961, Angela published more than thirty books in a variety of genres. She began with the acclaimed family memoir Three Houses and later settled on her amusing Barsetshire series, inspired by Anthony Trollope but set in the present day. Angela Thirkell: A Writer’s Life tells the author’s story from her Kensington childhood to her two marriages and the birth of three sons, Graham McInnes, Colin MacInnes and Lance Thirkell, all of whom also entered the literary world. The book traces her decade in Australia where she wrote for magazines and newspapers and made radio broadcasts, followed by her return to London and her fortuitous meeting with a young publisher called Jamie Hamilton, which lead to her bestselling Barsetshire novels.Trade Review"[A] careful and sympathetic biography." * Times Literary Supplement *“[A] concise yet lavishly illustrated biography.” * New Criterion *"This is the book all Angela Thirkell enthusiasts have been wishing for. It illustrates so many instances of how she translated her own life into the fictional world of Barsetshire, and for those who haven't yet discovered her it will make them want to make that journey for themselves." -- Penny Alred, former chair of the Angela Thirkell Society"Hall's new biography of Angela Thirkell is detailed, highly readable, and revealing. Her wide-ranging research and a gallery of illustrations not seen before thoroughly revise our understanding of the formative influences on Thirkell's writing and life." -- Kate Macdonald, author of Novelists Against Social Change: Conservative Popular Fiction, 1920-1960

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Book SynopsisWhite Blood is a history of human milk and tells the story of how babies have been fed from antiquity to modern times and why it matters. 'Breast is Best' is the popular mantra, but there is a perennial debate about the pros and cons of 'breast and bottle'. White Blood explores this vital question, which has implications for the health and wellbeing of mothers, their young, families, communities and even countries. Starting in Ancient Greece and Rome, where human milk was thought to be blood diverted from the womb to the breast and there whitened and vivified, it lets the voices of those concerned with the care of newborn infants, and those who followed them, speak across the centuries of how they were, and should best be, nourished.Trade Review"[Weaver] takes readers on a detailed, 2000-year journey through the biology, technology, medicalization, and truth of the distribution of human milk to babies and young children. The book reads much like a well-thought-out article in the New Yorker, cumulatively building reader interest, every turn of the page revealing more new information. . . . The volume includes a variety of visual enhancements including color photographs and medical drawings that support the surrounding content. . . . This is definitely a source not to be overlooked by readers who want a comprehensive historical depiction of human milk as the vital nutritional resource for babies worldwide. . . . Recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface 1 Human Milk – Miraculous Fluid 2 Humours – White Blood 3 Alchemy – Soft Sweet Subtil Substance 4 Science – Corpuscular Fluid 5 Nature – Nature's Bountiful Urn 6 Paediatrics – Medicalisation of Infant Feeding 7 Puericulture – Maternal and Child Welfare 8 Biology and Technology – Breast and Bottle Acknowledgments and Sources Bibliography Picture Credits Index

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Book SynopsisA History of Dangerous Assumptions features over two hundred illuminating and intriguing case-studies of this fascinating subject, including some of the most disastrous assumptions ever foisted upon the human race. This book began as an experiment, to discover if acting on assumptions could be discerned through the ages. In fact, this matter of assuming… of jumping to conclusions… of lacking sufficient evidence… of taking things for granted… seems to have caused far more problems for civilisation than expected. From Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps, to Bonaparte’s march on Moscow; from the hubris of Icarus and Phaeton, to the toppling towers of the Tay Bridge; from the maddening phantoms of a Northwest Passage, to the sinking of the Titanic; from the Schlieffen Plan of the First World War, to the creation of assumptions in the approach to D-Day; from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Sherlock Holmes, here lies a highly contrasted trove of stories, episodes and anecdotes, their common link the mysterious mischief of assumption.

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Book SynopsisPunch featured Winston Churchill in more than 600 cartoons between 1899 to 1988. Some were laudatory, some were critical, and others, like the man himself, usually humorous. For the first time this book catalogues all the cartoons and provides a context of the events and people being satirised and places them in historical perspective. Early on Punch often made Churchill into a caricature of himself, promoting exaggerated images of his physical characteristics such as his forward leaning gait, his prominent jutting jaw, his cigar, and his hands on hips when speaking. His hobbies were frequently caricatured such as his love of polo, painting, writing skills and brick-laying. This book is not just for fans of Churchill, but for anyone interested in history, British life over the past 120 years, media and their response to government and politicians, cartoon aficionados and general society. It is an easy and fun read for the casual reader but also the academic who wants more depth through the appendices and an analysis of major world events through the eye of Punch.

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Book SynopsisIn 1976, Argentina is governed by a military junta bankrolled by former Nazis. It is the anniversary of a mysterious village fire in the jungle. The lone survivor, a Guarani boy, is now a Jesuit priest. A Jewish journalist, Ariel Guzman, interviews him at his mission. The man claims Adolf Hitler escaped from Berlin with Eva Braun and made a secret camp near the Iguacu Falls. The Fuhrer ordered the village's destruction, but the priest refuses to say why. He mentions the codename Edelweiss and will only reveal the person's identity if he dies. Argentina's most powerful man is billionaire and Waffen-SS veteran Tiago Hecht. He is searching for Edelweiss so that he can establish a Fourth Reich. Hecht now has confirmation Hitler's son is alive. But so does the Mossad and they have sent an agent to eliminate him. The only sanctuary for 'Edelweiss' is at the Vatican, but time is running out. The hunt is on...Trade Review“The author has created a totally plausible, clever plot, with a well-paced story that flows beautifully between the characters, locations and timeframes.” Tig’s Bookcase “This is one for those who enjoy a proper action and adventure style read with conspiracies, secrets, and mysteries that need to be revealed.” Me and My Books “What a great read. There have always been conspiracy theories about whether Hitler really died in the Führerbunker and this book makes the assumption that he did in fact escape. So well written this was one of those book where it was ‘ just one more chapter’ I was totally engrossed from the start. Well written and fast paced with threads that weave themselves together seamlessly to the unexpected conclusion.” Lynda’s Book Reviews “Justin Kerr-Smiley writes this story so well that I could really believe this happened. There are so many theories around and this story is more realistic than most theories that I have heard….Codename Edelweiss is a book that I found a riveting read. It’s based on historical fact, then, brilliantly woven together with fiction, unexpected twists and an ending that fitted perfectly.” Beyond The Books

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Book Synopsis‘In this wide ranging and comprehensive survey of the designed landscapes of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, James Bartos argues convincingly that ornamental wildernesses should be viewed as distinctive design features which, when linked across an extensive terrain, took on the character of the whole landscape. As a result of this striking analysis, our understanding of the celebrated layouts at Wrest Park, Chiswick and Stowe, and many more besides, must be revised. Contrary to the received wisdom that wildernesses led inexorably to the more informal parkscapes associated with William Kent and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, it was only when they were dismantled in the mid-eighteenth century to provide more loosely controlled, open glades and greensward that the English Landscape Style emerged. This ground-breaking study ranges in its literary compass from classical authors through contemporary writers on gardens and gardening to modern critical authorities, while its visual focus on design manuals and individual gardens and landscapes is presented through a wealth of engraved prints, maps and present day photographs. Bartos considers the making, planting and maintenance of wildernesses, their continental precedents, thematic resonances – Classical, Biblical, Druidic, Patriotic – and the eventual development of these often numinous spaces into mature gardens followed by their inevitable demise. The book has all the attributes of a true wilderness – surprise, variety and, above all, delight – is engagingly written and a tour de force of meticulous scholarship.’ Professor Timothy Mowl FSA The Ornamental Wilderness in the English Garden reinterprets the English formal garden of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries through the perspective of a typical feature of those gardens, the ornamental grove, called a wilderness. In its mature form, the wilderness constituted most of the garden, shady and private, a place for retreat as well as social activity, with a seeming naturalness achieved through artifice, where cultural incident and nature were equally appreciated.Trade Review‘James Bartos, a proper garden historian, leads us along these sanded [wilderness] paths. He has done his homework and discusses various types of wilderness, accompanied by the plans and bird’s eye views that make the study of past gardens such a pleasure … there remain places where we can still experience them, now armed with fresh understanding thanks to this excellent book.’ Steven Desmond, Country Life “A poignant read that details how the concept of wilderness helped shape the formal English garden during the 17th and 18th centuries." Gardens Illustrated ‘For inspiration on wilderness layout, read The Ornamental Wilderness in the English Garden by James Bartos, a scholarly work crammed with maps, plans and bird’s-eye views of historical wildernesses.’ Tilly Ware, Country Life “This handsome and well-illustrated volume offers a detailed appraisal of the ornamental wilderness in England, principally from c.1680 to 1750. This is the first book-length treatment of the wilderness as an important garden feature and presents a highly readable and detailed account of their evolution and eventual decline. … This is a rich and engaging study, which has much to offer garden, landscape and environmental historians as well as the general reader.” Sarah Spooner, Garden History

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Book SynopsisOn 27 January 1945 Otto Frank was liberated from Auschwitz by Russian soldiers. At that point not only his journey home started, but also his long quest to find out what had happened to his wife Edith, his daughters Margot and Anne and the four other people with whom he had been in hiding in the Annex at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam: Herman and Auguste van Pels, their son Peter and dentist Fritz Pfeffer. In the months after his liberation Otto Frank would discover that he is the only survivor out of these eight people. After the Annex continues the journey that Otto began. It is the ultimate attempt, based on thorough research in archives and available eye witness accounts, to reconstruct as precisely as possible what happened to the eight people in hiding after their arrest.Trade Review"Author Bas von Benda-Beckmann has pieced together rare accounts from camp survivors who met Anne to build a moving picture of her final days." Daily Mirror "a haunting new book reveals her life in Auschwitz and Belson - and how her indomitable spirit survived to the very end" Daily Mail "Clearly written and superbly researched ... descriptions of the last days of Edith Frank in Auschwitz and of Anne in Bergen-Belsen, desperately ill, naked, wrapped in a blanket, are unbearable." David Herman, The Jewish Chronicle

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Architectural Book Awards 2020 Architectural History Book of the Year. Cameron Mackintosh is the world’s leading theatrical producer of musicals such as Cats, Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera. He is also a significant theatre owner and has completed a two-decade campaign of refurbishment and rebuilding of eight London theatres that has set the tempo for maintaining one of Britain’s greatest cultural heritages for the next century. Master of the House charts the stories of these eight historic London buildings – their origins, their iconic shows and productions, the stars and the glamour. Lavishly illustrated with images from the Delfont Mackintosh archive, the book also contains original architect drawings, specially-commissioned photographs of the refurbishment, show posters and other theatre ephemera, and many sweeping panoramas of the exquisitely finished spaces.

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Book SynopsisWe all consume architecture – it’s the one artform we can’t avoid. So it’s hardly surprising that the finest writers have applied their minds to it. Most of them aren’t architects, but their powers of perception are such that what they say gets under the skin of a building – and gives us a lesson in how to look at architecture. You’ll be entertained and enlightened as you find out why Goethe went from being dismissive of Strasbourg Cathedral to being an awed admirer; why Ruskin was offended by decorated shopfronts; why D.H. Lawrence loved Etruscan temples; why Tom Wolfe ridiculed the Seagram Building; why Vita Sackville-West saw Chatsworth as an alien interloper; why Rose Macaulay was passionate about ruins; And what Evelyn Waugh thought of Gaudí. The answers, and plenty more, are all here. Knowing them will transform the way you see buildings and deepen your understanding of architecture.

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Book SynopsisMonemvasia is a unique Byzantine city located on a rock in the southern Peloponnese; the central fortified area is known as the Castro. Poul Rasmussen, a Danish photographer, captured a period of physical and social change between 1968-1992. The local families were deserting the old buildings of the Castro, and moving to the mainland for work and for a more modern way of life. Throughout this period, the Castro maintained the role as the heart of the community.Poul Rasmussen (1929 1993) was a world famous Danish photographer. He became a permanent resident in the area in 1966. As a renowned international photographer, he photographed Monemvasia's community life during a period of significant change. His portraits are a remarkable record.He captured the changing face of the mainland village as the Castro was increasingly abandoned. Importantly, he shows the institutions of community life, the church and national and local festivals, were still taking place on the Rock,

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive monograph on Susan Ryders work.

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Book SynopsisThe life of Scottish watercolourist William Alister Macdonald (1861-1956) contained more mystery and intrigue than a novel by the authors he knew as friends. Mid-life in the early 1900s he painted widely across Britain, Europe and North Africa. Aged sixty, abandoning his wife and son in London, he settled in Tahiti, where he befriended authors Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall and Zane Grey. Critical acclaim of his work peaked in 1935 with the discovery of over 120 watercolours capturing London streets and lost panoramas from the Thames, its river life and trade at the turn of the last century, now part of the Wakefield Collection at London's Guildhall. Yet in Tahiti his reputation has endured with appreciation of his timeless, exquisite landscapes and studies of paradise. This first fully illustrated biography of Macdonald's life provides a long-overdue opportunity for his European and Polynesian work to be reappraised and his story told.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first comprehensive study of Coinneach Odhar Mackenzie, the celebrated Highland Seer, and is the result of years of first-hand research surrounding the author's own family history. Andrew McKenzie argues that this figure was the product of a patchwork of oral storytelling traditions that thrived in the Highlands, but was initially based on Michael Scot, the Borders born mathematician and astrologer who moved to Sicily in the early 1200s and became scientific adviser to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. The Battle of Culloden, the Highland Clearances, mass-emigration and industrialisation all those major changes that the Brahan Seer was purported to have predicted had a huge impact in society in the same way that modern conspiracy theories have had around more recent disasters.

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Book SynopsisBetter known as Lizzie Siddal', the model who posed for John Everett Millais's painting Ophelia, Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti is now finally recognised as a Pre-Raphaelite artist in her own right, working alongside her male colleagues on equal terms. Elizabeth's designs were truly original, the creation of her own imagination. They embodied the essence of Pre-Raphaelitism that her husband Gabriel and other members of the circle were striving to achieve. The male members of the group shamelessly copied the ideas from Elizabeth's small sketches to create their own large masterpieces which have since become the epitome of Pre-Raphaelite art. The exclusion of women from the narrative has had a major impact in creating the perception of the Pre-Raphaelites as a predominantly male artistic movement; in Beyond Ophelia Dr Glenda Youde shows Elizabeth not to be a pathetic drowning figure, but as the initiator of a directional change in the visual development of Pre-Raphaelite art. Featuring a unique collection of photographs of Elizabeth's work commissioned by her husband after her death, this book highlights the critical importance of her role within the Pre-Raphaelite circle, and one which ultimately led to the evolution of the Aesthetic Movement.

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Book SynopsisThe beautiful Anglo-Italian artist Maria Cosway was one of the most talented and dynamic women active in Regency England, but one whose achievements have been largely overlooked. Born in Florence in 1760, she was acclaimed at an early age as both a painter and a musician. She exhibited forty-one paintings at the Royal Academy summer exhibition between 1781 and 1801, and hosted regular musical soirees at the Pall Mall house she shared with her husband, Richard Cosway. They were attended by the political and cultural elite of London. Maria's extraordinary network of connections to the great and the good of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, included friendships with, among others, Thomas Jefferson, the Prince of Wales, Pasquale Paoli, the artist Jacques-Louis David, the opera singer Luigi Marchesi, the Duchess of Devonshire, the actress and writer Mary Robinson, and members of the Bonaparte family. Estranged from her husband by 1801, Maria Cosway largely gave up painting and reinvented herself as a progressive educator, founding schools for young women: first in Lyon, later in Lodi, Italy. In recognition of her achievements at Lodi, the Emperor of Austria made her a baroness.

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Book SynopsisJoshua Hagler's Nihil explores in an absolutely unique way the realisation and consummation of the mind, process and application of an artist's life and work. Hagler defi ned for himself nine key tenets to guide his artistic vision and then utilised and inhabited nine spaces in New Mexico to articulate this vision. His site-specific installations and interventions in lost and forgotten buildings, schools, churches and post offices create ghostly imaginative spaces that integrate many times and places hovering within a single moment. This extraordinary and unique sequence of work is documented and recorded in this important publication of a singular artistic vision. The law of the conservation of mass states that nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed. Here lies the pathos to Joshua Hagler's convoluted mental and pictorial universe.' David Anfam, Art Historian & Curator

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Book SynopsisThe Entrepreneur Within is an innovator's playbook to help ideas gain traction, scale quickly and keep an entrepreneurial mindset alive within any organisation. Large companies often lose the creative spark that brought them success and get weighed down by the complex systems built up within them. Start-up companies often get bloated with too many disparate ideas and get blocked by a lack of basic systems and infrastructure. The proprietary FORGE Methodology shows how businesses of all stages and sizes can develop creative and viable innovation that makes a difference.

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Book SynopsisWriters and poets, academics and art critics, mathematicians and experimental scientists, churchmen and politicians, women of strong opinions gather for a summer weekend in the 1870s. Is it real, or is it a fantasy?One thing's sure: their debates about life's aims, rural and urban living, love and money, civilization and belief, the social framework, the past, the present and the future take us to the heart of the Victorian dream and its reality: the idea that their society exemplified Progress'. What did Progress' mean? Were things (and which things) getting better? What did better' mean? And for whom?The history of the world before the Victorians, from Aberdeen to Africa, showed a particular form of equality for almost everyone: an equality of poverty and no prospects, with kindness often in short supply. Victorians wanted to change that world, thought they were changing it, did change it. They did it in a human way: a melange of muddle, vision, certainty, doubt, too slow for many, too fast for some. Yet their changes were decisive both for creating the modern world, but also for revealing the dilemmas attached to mass living in urban, technological societies, as well as the moral flaws in imposing one civilization's or one person's beliefs on another. Most remarkably of all, the upheaval in making major transitions in every area of life, which produced revolutions and violence across Europe, in the Americas and in Asia, was carried out at least in Britain itself almost entirely peacefully. The past will always be a foreign country for those unwilling to engage with its people. Whether viewing the lives of rulers or the ruled, 'Being Victorian' corrects innumerable preconceptions.

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Book SynopsisDiamond Cuts in Historic Jewellery 13811910 explores the evolution of historical diamond cutt ing styles. Richly illustrated with stunning colour photographs, it guides the reader through centuries of craftsmanship, from medieval table cuts and hogbacks to the baroque and rococo rose cuts. This indispensable resource assists collectors, jewellery historians and enthusiasts recognise rare and lesser-known diamond cuts. The book features images of exceptional Renaissance jewellery from prestigious museum collections, alongside photographs of famous diamonds such as the Dresden Green, the Hortensia and Le Beau Sancy. Informative drawings further illustrate the technical intricacies of historical cutting techniques, offering a deeper understanding of their development. With its expert analysis and breathtaking visuals, this book is an essential reference for anyone passionate about antique jewellery and diamond history.

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Book SynopsisIn Reading Design, noted architect Craig Hodgetts sorts through the myriad of things that surround us with an eye trained by years of teaching at UCLA's world class School of Architecture. Since the success of the precedent-setting Blueprints for Modern Living exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Hodgetts has been immersed in the selection and appreciation of objects that are not only outstanding examples of contemporary design, but that exude an emotional connection to evolving lifestyles attributes that range from the sublime to the brutal. Consisting of over two hundred hand drawn sketches illuminating themes and bold departures from the norm, this book can change the way we look at things, and break down the barriers that markets and tastemakers erect by their recommendations.

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Book SynopsisForty years ago, London’s Docklands had become 6,000 acres of forgotten wasteland after over a century as the busiest port in the world. Now these once-derelict docks are again filled with ships and boats, forming homes and businesses for an extraordinary range of people. Whether millionaires visiting on their superyachts, country house executives needing a London base, young tech workers wanting a cheaper place to live, jobbing craftsmen keeping ancient marine trades alive or homeless people finding refuge, these are varied and dynamic communities. Highly acclaimed London photographer Niki Gorick focuses on St Katharine Docks, the Surrey Docks and the Isle of Dogs to illustrate the rich mix of personalities and activities in these converted commercial docks. They enjoy central London locations but as floating communities with their own nautical customs and rules, they are a world apart from their land-based neighbours. These images reveal the amazingly diverse modern-day life within these urban marinas.Trade Review"so beautiful that words will not do justice to the work ... Niki Gorick has a good eye for detail and can touch the soul of an area and its community through her photographs and text." London Society "Gorick has snapped some wonderful images" Londonist "Niki Gorick has a keen eye for fascinating subjects. The book is clearly a love affair with the people and waterborne activities around the area where she lives." London Historians

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Book SynopsisThis story began a hundred years ago when a child became the inspiration for his famous father, A. A. Milne, who created one of the best known children's characters in recent history. His parents wanted a girl and to begin with treated him as one. They were initially quite distant from him and his upbringing was left to a loyal and loving nanny. Unfortunately, this left Christopher Robin Milne terminally shy and lacking in self-confidence. Unable to escape from the shadow of his fictional self, he became an object of continued interest from a non-understanding public. His salvation started with being sent away to Stowe School, going to Cambridge and joining the Army in the Second World War as a sapper. After an unhappy and directionless time immediately post-war in London, he eventually married and, very successfully, ran a bookshop in the South West for twenty-one years. His life was dominated by a love of the countryside, learned at his parents' country home, Cotchford Farm in Hartfield, East Sussex, and much later in Devon. How he turned his life round, against the odds, is the subject of this biography.

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Book SynopsisExotic lair, freezing garret or convivial rendezvous, artists’ studios reflect their personalities, the way they work, their dreams and obsessions. Some are battlegrounds where hopes are dashed and original concepts fail dismally in their execution. A few artists became celebrities and flaunted their success by furnishing huge studios with exotic objects, while others lived in a haze of opium in squalid tenements in Montmartre. Spanning 500 years of Western art history from 1400 to 1900, and accompanied by glorious images, Caroline Chapman describes the skilful techniques employed in a Renaissance workshop; Michelangelo’s agony and ecstasy while painting the Sistine Chapel; the murky world of the artist’s model; the looting by Napoleon of Veronese’s masterpiece; Van Gogh’s wretched first studio; how Géricault painted his Raft of the Medusa; the way Rodin worked in his plaster-spattered environment and the ateliers of the Impressionists in Paris.Trade Review“a judicious and entertaining guide through these artists’ numerous eccentricities — this is a book of some brilliance.” Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisFrom 2015, this Chinese photographer has been dedicated to shooting the best portraits possible of international masters of photography. Through his lens he has captured the faces of many of the world's contemporary photographers: Sebastião Salgado, William Klein, Robert Frank, Bruno Barbey, Bernard Faucon. At present, there are more than 60 portraits included in Zhong Weixing’s ‘Contemporary Photography Masters’, and the programme is still ongoing. Jean-Luc Monterosso, former director of the world-renowned Maison Européenne de la Photographie, describes these works by Zhong Weixing as a ‘pantheon of photography masters’. The well-known photographer Bruno Barbey has praised them as representing a ‘Bible of photographic history’.

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Book SynopsisChelsea and Westminster Hospital and its charity CW+ have been pioneers in the Arts and Health field for over 25 years. By bringing music, performance and the visual arts into the hospital, they have created an extraordinary environment and transformed the experience of countless patients, visitors and members of staff . In this collection of essays, we delve into the story of the arts at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, from the installation of daring sculpture before the hospital opened its doors, to the exciting future of the programme. The Healing Arts discusses the impact of the arts on patients’ recovery, in some cases shortening their stay or reducing their need for pain medication. From drawing to music to creative digital technology, this volume looks at how integrating the arts into the day-to-day life of the hospital has changed its patients’ experience of care.

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Book SynopsisDiscovering painting at the age of 40, Sir Winston Churchill revelled in his new pastime. He went on to produce over 550 paintings, with over 130 of them on the French Riviera. The fellow artist and Riviera resident Paul Rafferty has tracked down many of the locations Churchill used in Provence, an area the great man so aptly called 'paintatious'. Many of these locations are newly discovered and his 'fearless impressions' stand alongside to illustrate how Churchill captured them on canvas.Trade Review'Paul Rafferty's excellent book, Winston Churchill: Paintings on the French Riviera, is like a well-curated exhibition. Sir Winston Churchill loved the Riviera, he was at home there and it clearly inspired him to paint at this best.' - H.R.H The Prince of Wales

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Book SynopsisIn 1937 aged just 19, Edmund Murray left his family and a comfortable job in London, caught the boat train to France and signed up for the minimum of five years’ service with the French Foreign Legion. Armed with little more than school-boy French and a desire for a life of adventure, Murray travelled through France and on to the Legion’s headquarters in Algeria where he completed a gruelling three-month basic training programme. He went on to serve in Morocco and Indochina (now Vietnam) where towards the end of the War, his regiment were forced to retreat from invading Japanese forces into China where his service ended after eight years as a Legionnaire. Throughout the Second World War, Murray’s overwhelming sense of duty compelled him to try to leave the Legion and join the Allied forces, but he was thwarted at every attempt. He was an Englishman, in a French organisation, by definition a home for ‘the men with no names’, during a time of global conflict where battle lines and countries’ boundaries changed almost daily. He was an anomaly, a diplomatic puzzle. But as such, his was an extraordinary war-time experience. This book, which borrows heavily from Murray’s earlier book, Churchill’s Bodyguard, includes rare personal insights into Legion life from drills and manoeuvres, to feast-days and festivals as well as accounts of friendships forged in exceptional circumstances and which would last a lifetime. It also documents a unique war-time experience of the man whose sense of duty never faltered and led him, in later life, to become bodyguard to Sir Winston Churchill. Edited by his son Bill Murray, this is the story in his own words of Edmund Murray, Churchill’s Legionnaire, and his service in the French Foreign Legion from 1937 to 1945.Trade Review"A quite entertaining adventure story." * Winston Churchill Blog *

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Book SynopsisCountless dollars of art are stolen or looted every year, yet governments often consider art theft a luxury problem. With limited public law enforcement, what prevents thieves, looters and organised criminal gangs from flooding the market with stolen art? How can theft victims get justice – even decades after their loss? What happens if the legal definition of a good title is at odds with what is morally right? Enter the Art Loss Register, a private database dedicated to tracking down stolen artworks. Blocking the sale of disputed artworks creates a space for private resolutions – often amicable and sometimes entertainingly adversarial. This book is based on ten cases from the Art Loss Register’s archive, showing how restitutions were negotiated, how priceless objects were retrieved from the economic underworld and how thieves and fences end up in court and behind bars. A fascinating guide to the dark side of the global art market.

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Book SynopsisThe Ypres Times was the journal of the remembrance movement, the Ypres League. Founded in 1921, the League was the creation of Henry Beckles Willson and Beatrix Brice. Both Brice and Beckles Willson understood the crucial significance of Ypres to the British Empire, and believed it their sacred duty to maintain the memory of those who had fought and fell in its defence. As the League’s journal, the Ypres Times published a huge range of material. It carried reminiscences of veterans, discussions about the rebuilding of Ypres, the developing work of the Imperial War Graves Commission in the salient, and the erection and unveiling of unit memorials. The Ypres Times reproduced for the first time, in facsimile format and bound in three volumes provides a fascinating insight into the way the British Empire’s central commemorative site was understood and imagined in the twenties and thirties.

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Book SynopsisThere is surprisingly little, and certainly nothing comprehensive, written about the contemporary Russian scene now. What appear in the West are mostly reports about so-called ‘dissidents’, not about what is happening in this vast culture, taken as a whole. Too often, these reports seem to be primarily inspired by a desire to demonstrate Western cultural and political superiority. The aim of Russian Art in the New Millennium is not to support any one cause, but to look at the situation as it now exists objectively and to give as wide and truthful a view as possible. Russian art during the period under review – the last two decades – has been evolving rapidly and in many directions. Hence there are sections on digital art, landscape paintings, graffiti, religious art and others. Furthermore, in addition to the continuing influence of the traditional centres for art – Moscow and St Petersburg – a number of provincial Russian cities have developed distinctive art worlds of their own. Russian Art in the New Millennium attempts to discover this terra incognita and to encompass this extremely various, but also intensely national art scene in Russia in one volume.

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Book SynopsisIn 1986, Susan Campbell made the chance discovery of a hitherto unknown garden diary. She spent the next 35 years researching its background before writing this book. The diary was written between 1838 and 1865 by the father of Charles Darwin, Doctor Robert Darwin and after his death in 1848 it was continued by his sister, Susan. It describes the horticultural and domestic activities at The Mount, a large house with extensive, beautiful gardens and pastures on the banks of the River Severn, in Shrewsbury. It was the home of the Darwin family from 1800 until Susan's death in 1866 and, in 1809, it was Charles's birthplace. Apart from revealing that Doctor Darwin made his garden available for several of Charles's early horticultural experiments (1838-1841) the diary describes all the plants that grew in this garden, whether ornamental and exotic, utilitarian or edible, as well as the keeping of cows and pigs, the exchanges of plants with neighbours and family, and occasional events of local importance.

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Book SynopsisThe significant influence of the periodical Signature on fine art has long been overlooked. While few people nowadays will have read it, no journal has greater claim to have stimulated the taste that became British neo-romanticism in the mid-20th century. Oliver Simon, its editor, publisher, patron and printer was something of an enigma. Although shy, he somehow knew 'everyone' in the London literary and arts scene during the 1930s and 40s. So outwardly conservative to be dubbed 'the archbishop' by Ben Nicholson, Oliver elicited adventurous art from his artist contributors to Signature. The Signature artists were fellow travellers on a journey: young artists working in commercial art to pay the bills. Having mastered graphic techniques for applied purposes they then began to apply what they learned to their own artwork. Then they went off to War... Those interested in the work of Paul Nash, John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Edward Bawden, and Barnett Freedman will enjoy the story of the influence and fellowship of Oliver Simon, Signature, and the Curwen Press, on their art.Trade Review"Neil Wells' fascinating Accidental Alchemy brings to life the story of Signature and its quietly pioneering impresario, Oliver Simon. Backed by prodigious research and replete with insights into aesthetic connections and artists' lives, this entertaining, handsomely illustrated book deepens our understanding of a key strand in mid-century English Modernism." Andy Friend, Author of Ravilious & Co: The Pattern of Friendship (Thames & Hudson, 2017) and John Nash: the Landscape of Love and Solace (Thames & Hudson 2020). "A rarity - an author who combines aesthetic sensitivity, with technical understanding and psychological insight. No other books in this subject area quite weave the threads to make such an original carpet as in this text. Here is a rich mind, obsessively researching, wandering imaginatively ... just relax and bask in the originality of it all." Ruth Artmonsky, Author Art for Everyone: Contemporary Lithographs Ltd. "Neil Wells charmingly and informatively relays the story of Oliver Simon and his championing of Neo-Romantic artists via Signature magazine. The seminal art and writings Simon elicited from artists such as Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland and John Piper warrant revisiting to understand how they came about. The book is a triumph - original, full of human rationale and therefore very readable, carrying a time capsule of images and ideas that still resonate creatively today." Hugh Fowler-Wright, Co-Author The Art of John Piper (Unicorn).

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Book SynopsisEvery pier, from the grandest to the most modest, has its own story. In this collection of one hundred beautiful paintings, Paul Tracey combines his skill as a draughtsman with his creative flair as an artist to capture the very essence of these structures and to provide snapshots of their individual stories. Many piers were originally built as wharfs for ships to load and unload goods. Then, as the railways expanded and people were able to travel further afield for trips and holidays, they became destinations in their own right: places to promenade, to meet and to be entertained. Innovative Victorian engineering created piers that could better withstand the vigours of the sea yet still provided elegant spaces to be enjoyed. This historical development was mirrored around the world. Researched and executed over five years, 100 Piers includes historic postcards, concert programmes and newspaper articles about the piers. Many piers are no longer in their prime, some have gone completely, lost to the tides of time. But through the paintings, with their dynamic lines, varying perspectives and bold colour combinations, Tracey successfully captures the vibrancy and vitality of these structures. His work ensures their place in history is not forgotten and that the many piers which remain may continue to be cherished as much as ever.

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Book SynopsisIn 1903, after a fire completely destroyed her family home in Norfolk, UK, the 27- year-old Constance helped her mother redesign their house and recreate the garden. It was an experience from which she never looked back, going on to become an internationally recognised garden expert and connoisseur. A rich woman herself, she was attracted to the most spectacular and extravagant gardens in the world. From Shalimar Bagh, Lahore, to Nishat Bagh, Srinagar, to La Granja near Madrid, Constance earned her reputation studying Mughal and Moorish gardens as well as those in Great Britain, France, Italy and northern Europe. Between 1910 and 1955 she wrote about them, painted and photographed them and lectured on them. She produced two successful illustrated books, and numerous articles for magazines, including Country Life, Vogue, The Burlington Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, and The Times. When she died in 1966, she left paintings, photographs, diaries, press cuttings and scrapbooks to her grandchildren. It is upon this fascinating and hitherto unseen archive of memorabilia that Constance Villiers Stuart: In Pursuit of Paradise is based.

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Book SynopsisDuring his 1920s heyday, Arnold Bennett was one of Britain’s most celebrated writers. As the author of The Old Wives’ Tale and Clayhanger he was a household name, writing just as much for the common man as London’s literati. His face was plastered over theatre hoardings and the sides of West End omnibuses. His life represents the ultimate rags-to-riches story of a man who ‘banged on the door of Fortune like a weekly debt collector’ as one of his obituaries so vividly put it. Yet for all his success, few were aware how cursed Bennett felt by his life-long stutter and other debilitating character traits. In the years running up to his death in 1931, his affairs were close to collapse as he fought a losing battle on three fronts: with his estranged wife; with his disenchanted mistress; and from a literary perspective with Virginia Woolf. As the first full length biography of Bennett since 1974, the work draws on a wealth of unpublished diaries and letters to shed new light on a personality who can be considered a ‘Lost Icon’ of early Twentieth Century Britain.Trade Review“Hated by Woolf, but this life of Arnold Bennett proves the literary snobs wrong” The Sunday Times “Excellent book” A.N Wilson, The Spectator "First-rate biography" Roger Lewis, Daily Mail "sheds new light" Margaret Drabble, The Times Literary Supplement "This excellent book puts Bennett back on the map" Simon Heffer, The Telegraph "absorbing biography" D J Taylor, Literary Review "a work that must now displace [Margaret Drabble's] as the standard account of the novelist's life" Revd Dr John Pridmore, Church Times

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Book SynopsisA woman lies unconscious on the carpet of a smart Westminster apartment, one red high-heeled shoe has fallen off... A younger woman lies with her eyes closed, half-hidden under a drinks cabinet... Her fingers clutch an empty bottle... What happens when a mother withholds her love? When she has no love to withhold? When she sees her three daughters as obstacles to her own formidable career? This is the story of three sisters, Millie, Di and Cleo. They are the war babies. Growing up in a world still in turmoil, hungover from war, the sisters struggle to leave behind their mother and build their own lives. Each sister is lost in her own world where extreme need leads to extreme behaviour. Then a tragic event forces Cleo, the youngest and wildest, to become the catalyst to smash the pattern. Who will adapt and survive in this new world? Who will find peace? From London to New York and to Vietnam, the focus shifts from one sister to the next, putting human nature, its flaws and its virtues, under the spotlight. With elements of a psychological thriller, Rachel Billington observes her characters with clinical detachment, but also with wit and understanding. Yet there is hope at the heart of this story which will leave the reader wondering long after the final twist is revealed.Trade Review"This clever story of three clever sisters had me gripped from start to finish. ... Billington is a brilliantly sharp writer and this is an absolute tour de force." Daily Mail “I couldn’t put this book down until the last page. This book has a bit of everything love and hate, truth and lies, life and death, war and peace - a great read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️” Lynda’s Book Reviews “I loved reading from each sisters perspective and their different relationships with each other and their parents. This book shows a fantastic insight into family dynamics.” Mrs Book Burnee “This is a brilliantly plotted book…Billington has used her skill at capturing a moment, a point in time, and making so much depend on it, while making sure that her characters also move on, change and develop. It is a balancing act which she achieves, setting out a significant incident, then moving her characters on.” Northern Reader “At its heart this is a book about human nature, warts and all. It is a story of survival and ultimately of hope.” Dems Book Den “a poignant look at family dynamics and how trauma can reverberate across the years. I found this book to be utterly fascinating as it weaves its way across three sisters lives, their loves intertwined but yet so separate and how their relationship with their mother shapes their destinies. I was hooked by this book from the prologue to the last page.” Books by Bindu “reminded me of a more modern version of little women” Rory Reads “This exceptional novel is a delectable, dark, dramatic delve into a family’s damaged dynamics, elegantly and excitingly written. …I admired and adored this book; its intimate intensity, its imaginative nuances, its intelligent intricacy all bound up in the characters of this story and their lives we experience vicariously.” The Fallen Librarian “It’s a book that I really got invested in. This family became addictive to read about. ... This is a story that shows there is always hope, no matter what circumstances there are.” Beyond the Book “I really enjoyed the way that this book is told from the alternative views of the three sisters – it felt like you could get to know each one quite well. The structure also made it quite addictive to read as each chapter is short and I kept thinking that I would read just one more. This is a great book that reads like a saga and covers a bit of everything – love, loss, marriage, war and the dynamic of families.” A Cottage Full of Books “The characters were excellent. I loved the three sisters and how we were taken on a journey through their ultimately tragic lives. …It was an emotional rollercoaster right through to the end.” Budget Tales Book Blog “The book starts with a fantastic prologue that draws you in … I really enjoyed it and I think anyone who enjoys books set after the Second World War and that cover family relationships and how society began to change then, will want this on their bookshelves.” Book n Banter “I found Millie frustrating but accepted that she was of her time, and loved defiant, independent Di and flawed, brilliant Cleo. The relationships were difficult, stemming from problematic relationships with their unloving mother and mainly absent father, and I liked that these reflected troubled families in real life with strained love.” We’ll All Become Stories

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Book SynopsisThese memoirs reflect the momentous changes that have taken place over the last century through the prism of Flavia Ormond’s experiences: first as an evacuee in Canada during the Second World War, then as a returned exile travelling and working in unusual circumstances in Egypt and Italy, where she lived for many years; and finally her love affair with art which led to a rewarding career as an art dealer in London, New York and Paris, moving amongst leading collectors and museums. Early chapters are profiles of Flavia Ormond’s forebears, John Lubbock, an acolyte of Charles Darwin, Augustus Pitt Rivers, founder of the eponymous museum in Oxford, George Agnew of the notable art dealing firm in Bond Street, and the Grant Duffs, her immediate family. The author pursued her passion for cultural history and travel during a long marriage to John Ormond, great nephew of John Singer Sargent.

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