Gyari died in 2018 after a decade as chief negotiator with China over the status of Tibet. His account will be indispensable to anyone wishing to understand that country's modern history.
Ostensibly about the life of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, this beautifully illustrated volume examines the idea that harmony and beauty are not only inherent in the wo... read more
LCW's 1947 memoir of her life as a gallerist; at the Wertheim Gallery she showed a swathe of English Modernist artists - Alfred Wallis, Christopher Wood, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Cedri... read more
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.
From the library of Marguerite Littman.
Skelton’s first volume of memoirs covers her youth, war years in Cairo and Athens and marriage to Cyril Connolly; full of gossip and insights int... read more
Rewarding as a study on Bacon - it gets closer to understanding his enigma than anything has since - this memoir is also a tribute to Sylvester's clarity and verve. A re-issue, this was firs... read more
A thorough, readable biography of the Queen's grandfather that seeks to understand how this supposedly dull man navigated the monarchy successfully through a succession of crises.
A panorama spanning 150 years and three generations of 'the Rothschilds of the East', written with full access to family documents. Emerging as Jewish refugees from Ottoman Baghdad, their em... read more
One of the great patrons of the Renaissance, creator of perhaps the most remarkable library outside the Vatican, the Duke of Urbino was also the most successful and feared mercenary of the a... read more
Born in Dublin in 1934, McGahern has corresponded with all his contemporary Irish writers. The letters are wonderful, and form a snapshot of late C20 Irish literature.
Beautifully attuned to her subject, CA unravels Sebald's work from his life with subtlety and sympathy. She has previously written a marvellous biography of Primo Levi.
Better remembered now as Vanessa Bell's husband, CB's 1914 'Art' was a ground-breaking re-evaluation that stood at the centre of early C20th art. This fine biography reclaims his significanc... read more
A biography of the man so vividly presented in Robert Edric's 2008 novel 'In Zodiac Light': the poet and composer who, following his experiences as a soldier in WW1, was confined to an asylu... read more