Like many of Marina’s essay and poems, ‘Letter to the Amazon’ is addressed to another writer, in this case Natalie Clifford Barney, a wealthy American expatriate in Paris. Though written in 1932, Marina’s letter was in response to what Natalie said about lesbian relationships and motherhood in her 1920 ‘Pensées dune Amazone’ (Thoughts of an Amazon).
An intimate, one-of-a-kind photographic journey that documents Liam Wong’s nocturnal wanderings through the world’s most captivating cities.
In this singular photographic publication, Liam Wong weaves together a series of cinematic images that reveal the people and places, the slivers of life, that inhabit the mysterious space of night-time cities. Through his previous work as a videogame designer, Wong learned that ‘real life is just as potent, bizarre and interesting as things we can imagine’. From Hong Kong and Seoul to London and Edinburgh, After Dark reveals shadowy cityscapes through the eyes of the insomniac artist.
For centuries, artists have found both solace and fruitfulness in solitude. Through sleepless and solitary nights, After Dark explores the phenomenon of loneliness in city life, capturing urban interstices between dusk and dawn: the eerie emptiness of London’s Piccadilly Circus at 4:00 a.m., Seoul’s late-night taxi drivers moving along hushed roads and birds sharing the warmth of a neon sign in Hong Kong’s TSM District – mysterious silhouettes representing lives lived in shadow, portrayed as intricate cinematic visions, all before the sun rises.
Building on the success of his first monograph, TO:KY:OO , Wong widens his lens to capture the night in the world’s most exciting cities. From workers leaving their night shifts to empty streets illuminated by neon signs, Wong charts the hours of darkness as populated scenes become deserted ones. The book’s photography – framed to specific film ratios – is imbued with a cinematic intensity underscored by Wong’s interest in film, while its themes are amplified through specially commissioned Chinese characters that pay homage to the works of celebrated Chinese director Wong Kar Wai.
On 11 January 2016, the world was stunned to wake up to the news that David Bowie had died the day before. A genuine icon, he left behind a body of work among the most important in music history. But only a lucky few were privileged to know the man behind that mystique, and know him well. Sean Mayes was one of them.
In 1978, Sean toured the world with David Bowie, in what was one of the most important periods in the artist’s history. Travelling first class and performing each night with one of the world’s greatest rock stars at the height of his fame was an amazing experience – fortunately, Sean had the foresight to document it.
An anthology of writing and art works that simply respond to the work “listen” – through poems, paintings, photos, stories, songs, gardens and much more – all about listening and the importance of silence.
The artwork and writing in this anthology explore different perspectives on what it means to listen: from listening to music and the environment with one ear to listening to people with the other.
Literary Lives is a book of decidedly unauthorised biographies by the acclaimed caricaturist Edward Sorel, who has long believed, that next to composers, writers are the craziest people in the world. The ten writers he has used to prove this thesis are Norman Mailer, George Eliot, Marcel Proust, Jean-Paul Sartre, Lillian Hellman, Leo Tolstoy, Bertolt Brecht, William Butler Yeats, Carl Jung and Ayn Rand. Although these comic strips are clearly meant to amuse, and the facts uncovered are sometimes hard to believe, each and every statement is absolutely true.
Reproductions of the young Lucian Freud’s letters alongside insightful context and commentary reveal the foundations of the artist’s personality and creative practice.
The young Lucian Freud was described by his friend Stephen Spender as ‘totally alive, like something not entirely human, a leprechaun, a changeling child, or, if there is a male opposite, a witch.’ All that magnetism and brilliance is displayed in the letters assembled here. Ranging from schoolboy messages to his parents, through letters and carefully-chosen, often embellished postcards to friends, lovers and confidants, to correspondence with patrons and associates. They are peppered with wit, affection and irreverence.
Alongside rarely seen photographs and Freud’s extraordinary works, each chapter charts Freud’s evolving art alongside intimate accounts of his life. We trace Freud’s early friendships with Stephen Spender, John Craxton, his wild days at art school in East Anglia, and a stint as a merchant seaman. Among the highlights are Freud’s accounts of his first trip to Paris in 1946 and encounters with Picasso, Alexander Calder and Giacometti (who, he thought, looked like Harpo Marx). Equally revealing are letters to and from his first love, Lorna Wishart and second wife, Caroline Blackwood. Among his friends and confidantes were Sonia Orwell and Ann Fleming: remarkable, hitherto unknown letters to both of whom are included. To Ann Fleming he wrote a richly-comic, six-page description of a high society fancy dress ball which took place at Biarritz in 1953. He also went to stay with Ann and her husband Ian in their house in Jamaica, Goldeneye. From there, he sent a stream of letters, plus a telegram to his colleagues at the Slade School of Fine Art (where he was supposed to be teaching): “PLEASE SEND TEN SHEETS GREY GREEN INGRES PAPER”. The volume ends in early 1954 with his inclusion at the age of 31, as one of the artists representing Britain at the Venice Biennale – the high point of his early career.
Co-authored by David Dawson and Martin Gayford, this is the first published collection of Freud’s correspondence, many brought to light for the first time. Reproduced in facsimile alongside reproductions of Freud’s artwork, the letters are linked by a narrative that weaves them into the story of his life and relationships through his formative first three decades. Collectively, they provide a powerful insight into his early life and art.
Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields:
A history of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields – one of the most celebrated chamber orchestras in he world.
‘This honest, engaging memoir shares such gems . . . the perfect read for anyone who dreams big’ The Times and Sunday Times , Books of the Year
The powerful, urgent memoir and manifesto on never giving up from Booker prize-winning trailblazer, Bernardine Evaristo
In 2019, Bernardine Evaristo became the first black woman to win the Booker Prize since its inception fifty years earlier – a revolutionary landmark for Britain. Her journey was a long one, but she made it, and she made history.
Manifesto is her intimate and fearless account of how she did it. From a childhood steeped in racism from neighbours, priests and even some white members of her own family, to discovering the arts through her local youth theatre; from stuffing her belongings into bin bags, always on the move between temporary homes, to exploring many romantic partners both toxic and loving, male and female, and eventually finding her soulmate; from setting up Britain’s first theatre company for Black women in the eighties to growing into the trailblazing writer, theatre-maker, teacher, mentor and activist we see today – Bernardine charts her rebellion against the mainstream and her life-long commitment to community and creativity. And, through the prism of her extraordinary experiences, she offers vital insights into the nature of race, class, feminism, sexuality and ageing in modern Britain.
Bernardine Evaristo’s life story is a manifesto for courage, integrity, optimism, resourcefulness and tenacity. It’s a manifesto for anyone who has ever stood on the margins, and anyone who wants to make their mark on history. It’s a manifesto for being unstoppable.
‘Raw and emotive . . . a powerful account of how Evaristo got to the top of her game – it’s moving, but there’s also much humour and joy’ Independent
‘Bernardine Evaristo is one of those writers who should be read by everyone, everywhere’Elif Shafak
‘Bernardine Evaristo is one of Britain’s best writers , an iconic and unique voice, filled with warmth, subtlety and humanity. Exceptional’ Nikesh Shukla
This book shows the birth and rise of the monster known as Metallica and will link the band and the American metal scene with the famed New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement in the UK and metal originators such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest.
Metallica’s early success was built on strong live performances and fierce thrash metal riffs. With the remarkable passion and drive of drummer/founder Lars Ulrich, Metallica became the biggest American metal band in the world and the legacy of those first four albums lives on to this day. This book tells the story of how that remarkable global triumph started, with interviews with people who were there, saw those early gigs and numerous other eye-witnesses to the incredible story.
This is the first book to explore the early years of Metallica, containing exclusive and original interviews with key players and the journalists that brought Metallica to the UK. Plus, in-depth insights into Metallica’s groundbreaking first four albums and an exploration of the San Fran Bay Area thrash scene of the 1980s
Mick Ronson was a lot more than just the guitarist for Ziggy Stardust. This fully updated biography is full of first-hand recollections by those who were closest to him, including a foreword by his wife Suzi and a hand-written speech by his daughter Lisa.
Who is Mike Hodges? One of the great maverick British film-makers. A director who is uncompromising and willing to fight his corner, he has made films over the last three decades that mark him out as a rare and unusual talent.
He is a difficult film-maker to define. His work includes crime drama (Get Carter, Croupier and Pulp), science-fiction (Flash Gordon and The Terminal Man) and even comedy (Morons from Outer Space), but he has also made watchable oddities such as A Prayer for the Dying (Mickey Rourke courting controversy as an IRA killer seeking redemption) and Black Rainbow (a surreal fantasy drama little seen, but much acclaimed).
He started his career in television in the 1960s, but hit the big screen with the violent crime drama Get Carter, a film that has now achieved cult status (recently voted the best British film ever in Hotdog magazine) and continues to be the benchmark any British crime film sets itself against. Though hardly prolific- just eight feature films in 30 years – Mike Hodges makes fascinating movies that just won’t go away. What is in it? As well as an introductory essay, each of Hodges film and television work is reviewed and analysed. There is also an article looking at the impact and continuing influence of Get Carter and a section listing any other information about Hodges and his films.
These publications are compiled similarly to a traveler’s scrapbook and they are essential reminders to all who have been traveling or only encourage the desire to travel may it be either the historical, architectural and religious aspects, or travel to discover the world. The photographs and illustrations convey the reality of everyday life without any pretension but have been put together as a travelogue which each and everyone one of us could have compiled. Local authenticity, the visitor’s point of view, colors and more colors, curious tourists, experienced travelers. And above all passionately original photographers, creators of ambience, visual artists!
With a signed bookplate
This extraordinary retelling of Black British history will dazzle readers of all ages.
Showcases some of the most compelling parts of the J. A. Baker Archive, containing previously unknown details of Baker’s life as well as extracts from his own personal writing. It provides an invaluable new insight into both the sensitive, passionate character of J. A. Baker, and the state of late twentieth-century Britain, a country experiencing the throes of agricultural and environmental revolutions.
Hetty Saunders was first introduced to J. A. Baker and the Baker Archive as a literature postgraduate at the University of Cambridge. She was instantly captivated by the astounding prose of Baker’s first book, The Peregrine, and the mysterious life of its author.
Over 100 healthy and inspiring recipes for pregnant women designed to supply the nutrients unborn babies need for optimal growth and development and cater for changing tastes during pregnancy.
Maria, a trans woman in her thirties, is going nowhere. She spends her aimless days working in a New York bookstore, trying to remain true to a punk ethos while drinking herself into a stupor and having a variety of listless and confusing sexual encounters.
After her girlfriend cheats on her, Maria steals her car and heads for the Pacific, embarking on her version of the Great American Road Trip.
Along the way she stops in Reno, Nevada, and meets James, a young man who works in the local Wal-Mart. Maria recognizes elements of her younger self in James and the pair quickly form an unlikely but powerful connection, one that will have big implications for them both.
Nevada is a hilarious, groundbreaking cult classic from Imogen Binnie that inspired a whole literary movement, and is now published in the UK for the very first time.
Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.
Nobody Told Me is a collection of poems and stories: Hollie’s thoughts on raising a child in modern Britain, of becoming a parent in modern Britain, of sex, commercialism, gender and of finding secret places to scream once in a while.
A unique look into the mind and craft of a master storyteller.
Haruki Murakami’s myriad fans will be delighted by this unique look into the mind of a master storyteller. In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author and famously reclusive writer shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.
Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his strangely surreal worlds will be fascinated by this highly personal look at the craft of writing.
‘The world’s most popular cult novelist’ Guardian
‘A master storyteller’ Sunday Times
‘Murakami is like a magician who explains what he’s doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers’ New York Times Book Review
Oda Jaune was born Michaela Danowska in Sofia, Bulgaria. From 1998 to 2003, she studied in the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the class of Jörg Immendorff, who she later married. She currently lives and works in Paris. Her art focuses on the biomorphic, the collaged, the abnormal, which ensure that her work continually evades the viewers grasp. Her work plays with the themes of ambivalence, attraction and withdrawal. Internal organs and emotional states blend together in imaginative, unreal, and occasionally gruesome ways, resulting in disturbing yet poetic works. Deformities, masks, and phallic-like growths distort the subject being portrayed and elude the viewers search for clarification.
Her high-profile and controversial marriage thrust Oda into the public eye. This book strips back her celebrity and allows her unique talent to speak for itself. In 2012, she won the Pierre Cardin Prize in the Best Painter category. She is represented by Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris.
‘James Hetfield is a guitarist of otherworldly ability… this book tries to understand, de-mystify and even humanise a rock legend who, for most of his career, has remained impenetrable.’
Metallica’s ascension from thrash metal obscurity to becoming arguably one of the greatest rock bands the world has ever known, can be directly attributed to its lead singer and guitarist, James Hetfield. Having sold 110 million records worldwide and with an impressive eight Grammy Awards to their name, Metallica is undoubtedly a commercial triumph, but what of the man behind the music?
Of Metal and Man is the newly revised biography of this rock legend, offering an exclusive insight into the life and career of one of Metallica’s founding members. Author Mark Eglinton charts the hidden complexities of the relationships within the band, exploring the effects that global fame has had on Hetfield and his cohorts. Eglinton sheds light on both the highs of worldwide success and the lows of addiction and alcohol abuse, giving details of exclusive first-hand interviews with key figures from the band’s inner circle.
Dramatic and compelling, and now with newly updated material, this is the definitive biography of James Hetfield – singer-songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of a band which has changed the face of rock, the world over.
How can we narrate grief? Can we really rationalise death? Pain cannot be told in the present, only in the past; however, Mella chooses to narrate it in the future, as if everything bad is about to happen further down the line, until something reminds him that the future actually arrived a long time ago.
During the summer of 2014, on one of the stormiest days on record to hit the coast of Uruguay, 31-year old Alejandro, lifeguard and younger brother of our protagonist, dies after being hit by lightning. Combining memoir and fiction, this novel is the urgent exploration of the brotherly bond, and the effects that death has on our inner circles. An exploration that takes the author back into his past, and right into the centre of his obsessions.
‘If I can t be free in my writing, I cannot be free anywhere else’, admits the narrator towards the end of this fascinating book that interweaves fiction with brotherhood and grief at the centre of family relations.
‘One of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation’ OLIVIA LAING
What can freedom really mean? In this invigorating, essential book, Maggie Nelson explores how we might think, experience or talk about the concept in ways that are responsive to our divided world. Drawing on pop culture, theory and the intimacies and plain exchanges of daily life, she follows freedom – with all its complexities – through four realms: art, sex, drugs and climate. On Freedom offers a bold new perspective on the challenging times in which we live.
‘Tremendously energising’ Guardian
‘This provocative meditation…shows Nelson at her most original and brilliant’ New York Times
‘Nelson is such a friend to her reader, such brilliant company… Exhilarating’ Literary Review
* A New York Times Notable Book *
* A Guardian and TLS ‘Books of 2021’ Pick *
Richard Hammond is one of our most in-demand and best-loved television presenters. On September 20, 2006, he suffered a serious brain injury following a high-speed car crash, and the nation held its breath. On the Edge is his compelling account of life before and after the accident and an honest description of his year of recovery, full of drama and incident. It is also, perhaps, his explanation of why, as a married man and father of two young daughters, he was prepared to risk all by strapping himself to the front of a jet engine with the power of eleven Formula One cars.
This is one of the most accessible of Nietzsche’s works. It was published in 1887, a year after Beyond Good and Evil, and he intended it to be a continuation of the investigation into the theme of morality. In the first work, Nietzsche attacked the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalised weakness, and he criticised past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts. In On the Genealogy of Morals, subtitled ‘A Polemic’, Nietzsche furthers his pursuit of a clarity that is less tainted by imposed prejudices. He looks at the way attitudes towards ‘morality’ evolved and the way congenital ideas of morality were heavily coloured by the Judaic and Christian traditions.
“Paris Escapades” is a beautiful book of Paris collages by Sir Peter Blake. Blake demonstrates his unerring sense of felicitous and unexpected juxtapositions, a gift for visual story-telling and an eye no less acute for having a permanent twinkle. As with the Venice images that preceded them, Blake features many familiar monuments in his Paris pictures but submerges them in extraordinary events that turn them into the stuff of dreams. There is enough air of reality in some pictures, such as the Seine freezing over, to entrap the unwary spectator. But as elephants are hoisted above Notre Dame cathedral and crowds gather for a charabanc outing or for a mass kiss-in that even festival-going hippies would have found a bit extreme, the beauty and allure of Paris becomes populated by the overactive mind of one of the great imaginative artists of our time.
Each of the 28 images in” Paris Escapades” is accompanied by the artist’s wry commentaries, and the book is preceded by an interview with Marco Livingstone in which Blake discusses his lifelong involvement with collage. Hugely entertaining as a visual voyage of discovery, “Paris Escapades” ends up a window into the methods and thought processes of a much loved artist.
Featuring lyrics from Paul Simon’s ten solo albums, four collaborations with Art Garfunkel, and his ‘Songs from the Capeman’, Lyrics is a landmark collection of folk history.
An accessible introduction to the life and work of this trailblazing pioneer of early modernism, published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Royal Academy, London.
Paula Modersohn-Becker is today hailed as one of the great pioneers of modernism. When she died in 1907 at the age of just 31, she had completed more than 700 paintings and 1,000 drawings and prints. Despite selling only a few paintings during her lifetime, her distinct style, daring subject matter and perseverance in overcoming barriers to women left a significant artistic mark on the brief epoch between the old and the new, and paved the way for the German avant-garde.
Uwe M. Schneede, one of the foremost experts on Modersohn-Becker’s work, shows how the artist translated her life’s experiences into her own, very distinctive, pictorial language. He focuses in particular on her time in Paris, where she absorbed the luminous palette and expressive brushwork of the French avantgarde, and which so strongly impacted her ambitions and artistic trajectory. Schneede’s lively narrative is supported by some 120 illustrations, and peppered throughout with quotations from Modersohn’s letters and diaries.
POCKET GUIDES TO THE PRIMARY CURRICULUM provide the essential background knowledge needed to teach the primary curriculum with confidence and to achieve the targets set by the Teacher Training Agency. Books in the series include: * subject facts and common fallacies * language support * answers to some of the common yet challenging questions that children ask * top tips – including memory tips and golden rules * teaching ideas * comprehensive index * useful resources lists * helpful diagrams and illustrations where appropriate. PHYSICAL PROCESSES covers the physical processes element of the science curriculum. Areas include: electricity; forces and motion, energy; sound; light; and the earth and beyond. Straightforward explanations are accompanied by diagrams where appropriate and specialist vocabulary relating to the curriculum is explained.
The first book dedicated to Picasso’s self-portraits, many held in private collections and published here for the first time.
Much has been said and written about Picasso’s life and art, but until now his self-portraits have never been studied and presented in a single book, perhaps because the artist always left many doubts about his work. However, there is no doubt that Picasso represented himself ceaselessly, whether in a dashed-off pencil sketch, as a flourish at the bottom of a letter, or on a giant canvas.
At the suggestion of Picasso’s widow Jacqueline, the distinguished art historian Pascal Bonafoux began researching Picasso’s self-portraits more than forty years ago. This meticulously researched book presents the fruits of his decades-long project. From the first attributed painting in 1894 as a thirteen-year-old boy, until Picasso’s final self-portrait in 1972, a year before his death, Bonafoux charts the evolution of the artist’s life and art. Here is Picasso as a student; as a young bohemian; an impetuous artist in Paris; as harlequin; as lover, husband and father; and finally, as an old man confronting his mortality. The book comprises about 170 drawings, paintings and photographs, some from private collections and previously unpublished, bringing together for the first time the attributed self-portraits of this genius of 20th-century art.
Pickles and fermented foods have been considered a health food for centuries. Not only do they help improve digestion but they also strengthen the immune system, promote growth of healthy bacteria in the gut and curb those pesky sugar cravings. And of all fermented foods, drinks are some of the most versatile and tasty!
In Pickle Juice, Florence Cherruault showcases over 50 stunning and innovative cocktails and health drinks for you to try at home and enjoy all year long. Start with the basics and master the art of making the perfect shrubs and pickle juices then learn how to incorporate these into your very own delicious elixir. Take the lip-smacking Pickled Bloody Mary, the best cure for any hangover, or the crowd-pleasing Dirty Pickled Martini, a refreshing (and healthier) twist on the classic favourite. With a whole section dedicated to non-alcoholic drinks, such as detoxing juices and shrub sodas, you’ll also find fun ideas for chasers, bloody Marys, drinking vinegars as well as other inventive ways you can serve-up your homemade tipples.
Naughty but nice all at the same time, Pickle Juice will revolutionise your home bar and transform the way you drink forever!
Provides a basic introduction for all individuals and groups wishing to undertake the production of a play. It is aimed at the amateur enthusiast and anyone intending to pursue their interest further and undertake professional training. The author, who has over 30 years of experience in drama, takes the reader through the production of a play step by step, from setting up a drama group to the first night and entire run. The book can be read straight through or consulted as a handy reference work.
A timely re-examination of European engagements with indigenous art and the presence of indigenous art in the contemporary art world.
The arts of Africa, Oceania and native America famously inspired twentieth-century modernist artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Ernst. The politics of such stimulus, however, have long been highly contentious: was this a cross-cultural discovery to be celebrated, or just one more example of Western colonial appropriation?
This revelatory book explores cross-cultural art through the lens of settler societies such as Australia and New Zealand, where Europeans made new nations, displacing and outnumbering but never eclipsing native peoples. In this dynamic of dispossession and resistance, visual art has loomed large. Settler artists and designers drew upon Indigenous motifs and styles in their search for distinctive identities. Yet powerful Indigenous art traditions have asserted the presence of First Nations peoples and their claims to place, history and sovereignty. Cultural exchange has been a two-way process, and an unpredictable one: contemporary Indigenous art draws on global contemporary practice, but moves beyond a bland affirmation of hybrid identities to insist on the enduring values and attachment to place of Indigenous peoples.
