June 21, 2022 Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul Reviewed by Karen Langley In recent years, artist Gwen John’s star has risen, with her work nowadays receiving much more acclaim than that of…
April 15, 2021 Circles and Squares: The Lives and Loves of the Hampstead Modernists by Caroline Maclean Review by Karen Langley The early part of the 20th century was a period when modern art was flourishing. New ways of living were…
March 2, 2021 Grayson’s Art Club: The Exhibition (Manchester Art Gallery, 2020) Reviewed by Liz Dexter Back at the beginning of the first lockdown, Grayson Perry, potter and tapestry maker extraordinaire and no stranger to intimate…
October 6, 2020 Knitting From Fair Isle by Mati Ventrillon Reviewed by Hayley Anderton There are a few new knitting books, annuals, or journals in the offing that deal with Fair Isle or Shetland…
August 11, 2020 Cover by Peter Mendelsund Reviewed by Harriet Ed’s Note: Six years after its publication in hardback, Mendelsund’s Cover gets a paperback release, so we are reposting Harriet’s original…
July 30, 2020 Grayson Perry by Jacky Klein & Grayson Perry Reviewed by Liz Dexter This sumptuous book, that has a lot of content, in terms of both text and image, is a real treat…
June 4, 2020 Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years, ed. Catrin Jones and Chris Stephens Review by Liz Dexter Grayson Perry has achieved the status of National Treasure in the hearts and minds of a large proportion of the…
May 28, 2020 Tracks: Walking the Ancient Landscapes of Britain by Philip Hughes Softback review by Liz Dexter This quietly stunning book will appeal to anyone interested in art, landscape, walking, geology, geography, maps and ancient monuments….
April 7, 2020 A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen by Martin Gayford and David Hockney Reviewed by Liz Dexter This is a new ‘compact’ edition of this book, with a revised final chapter bringing it all up to date,…
January 28, 2020 Art Essentials: Impressionism by Ralph Skea Review by Liz Dexter Another volume in the excellently done Art Essentials series, this volume on Impressionism is written by Ralph Skea, an artist…
October 22, 2019 How to Read a Photograph: Understanding, Interpreting and Enjoying the Great Photographers by Ian Jeffrey Review by Liz Dexter Of course, reading a photograph is subjective – there are not really any rules for what makes a photograph great…
October 8, 2019 Art Essentials: Street Art by Simon Armstrong Review by Liz Dexter The Art Essentials series aims to be engaging, accessible, authoritative, richly illustrated and expertly written and conceived, and with a…
September 26, 2019 The Pursuit of Art: Travels, Encounters and Revelations by Martin Gayford Review by Liz Dexter “The pursuit of art is a journey that never stops: the more you see, the more you want to see.”…
September 17, 2019 Futurekind: Design by and for the People by Robert Phillips Review by Liz Dexter Robert Phillips is a senior tutor on the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art, as well as…
June 11, 2019 Chromatopia: An Illustrated History of Colour by David Coles Review by Liz Dexter This truly spectacular book would grace any coffee table with ease, but it’s more than just a pretty face, with…
May 7, 2019 So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch by Karl Ove Knausgaard Translated by Ingvild Burkey Reviewed by Jean Morris This is a book for fans of Karl Ove Knausgaard who also love the work of…
April 2, 2019 Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus by Fiona MacCarthy Review by Rob Spence It probably doesn’t occur to many people as they struggle to fix bolt B to batten F of the Ikea…
March 28, 2019 Forms of Enchantment: Writings on Art & Artists by Marina Warner Review by Helen Parry Although Marina Warner is perhaps best known (and deservedly) for her magnificent work on fairy tales, she has long been…
December 6, 2018 The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons, edited by Bob Mankoff Foreword by David Remnick Review by Hayley Anderton I’m old enough to remember encyclopedias, and lucky to have grown up in a house that…
October 23, 2018 Books do furnish a Painting by Jamie Camplin & Maria Ranauro Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Thames and Hudson have got form for publishing tempting books that combine art and literature – Eric Karpeles Paintings in…
April 24, 2018 The Vintage Shetland Project by Susan Crawford Reviewed by Hayley Anderton The Vintage Shetland Project has had quite a journey into print, one that I’ve followed with interest for the last…
January 23, 2018 Unaccompanied Minor by Alexander Newley Review by Annabel The children of celebrity couples inevitably have a hard time growing up, especially when their parents split. You need only think…
October 31, 2017 Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller Review by Hayley Anderton Sharon Miller’s ‘Heirloom Knitting: A Shetland Lace Pattern Book’ had become almost a book of legend before this reprint made…
October 31, 2017 A Forger’s Tale by Shaun Greenhalgh Reviewed by Harriet The subtitle of this fascinating book is ‘Confessions of the Bolton Forger’. Does that ring any bells? If you were keeping…
May 9, 2017 The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington by Joanna Moorhead Reviewed by Karen Langley This year is the centenary of the birth of author and artist Leonora Carrington, and we’re being treated to a…
