Search results for ""author phil baker""

City of cities, the modern world's first great metropolis, London has shaped everything from clothing to youth culture. It has a unique place in the world's memory, even as its role has changed from the capital of the planet to its playground, and as its lived history has mutated into the heritage industry. Londoner Phil Baker explores the city's history, and the London of today, balancing well-known major events with more curious and eccentric details. He reveals a city of almost unmatched historical density and richness. For Baker, London turns out to be Gothic in all senses of the word, enjoyably haunted by its own often bloody past. And despite extensive redevelopment, as he shows in this engaging and insightful book, some of the magic remains.

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and essays on Austin Osman Spare by Phil Baker, on Stephen Tennant by Philip Hoare and on Voodoo in Coastal Benin by Dr. Louise Fenton. Stephen Pochin of Jerusalem Press has curated a special selection of Spare’s singular art featuring animals. From cats and dogs, to eagles, owls, horses, and satyrs we have corralled a rich cross-section of fauna. From early drawings to late pastels in colour, this themed survey spans 50 years of this visionary London artist’s uncanny art. “Forgotten and famous at the same time, Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) is now a cult figure, much mythologized since his death. Controversial enfant terrible of the Edwardian art world, Spare was hailed as a genius and a new Aubrey Beardsley, but instead, he fell out of the West End art scene and went underground, living in poverty and obscurity in South London. Absorbed in occultism and sorcery, voyaging into inner dimensions and surrounding himself with cats and familiar spirits, he continued to produce extraordinary art while developing a magical philosophy of pleasure, obsession, and the subjective nature of reality.” – Phil Baker

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