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Claude Monet's water lily paintings are among the most iconic and beloved works of art of the past century. Yet these entrancing images were created at a time of terrible private turmoil and sadness for the artist. The dramatic history behind these paintings is little known; Ross King's Mad Enchantment tells the full story for the first time and, in the process, presents a compelling and original portrait of one of our most popular and cherished artists. By the outbreak of war in 1914, Monet, then in his mid-seventies, was one of the world's most famous and successful painters, with a large house in the country, a fleet of automobiles and a colossal reputation. However, he had virtually give...
Milan, 1496 and forty-four-year-old Leonardo da Vinci has a reputation for taking on commissions and failing to complete them. He is in a state of professional uncertainty and financial difficulty. For eighteen months he has been painting murals in both the Sforza Castle in Milan and the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The latter project will become the Last Supper, a complex mural that took a full three years to complete on a surface fifteen feet high by twenty feet wide. Not only had he never attempted a painting of such size, but he had no experience whatsoever in painting in the physically demanding medium of fresco.For more than five centuries the Last Supper has b...
The New York Times bestselling, award winning story of the construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and the Renaissance genius who reinvented architecture to build it. On August 19, 1418, a competition concerning Florence's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore was announced: "Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome....shall do so before the end of the month of September." The proposed dome was regarded far and wide as all but impossible to build: not only would it be enormous, but its original and sacrosanct design shunned the flying buttresses that supported cathedrals all over Europe. The dome would literally need to be...
'A marvel of storytelling and a masterclass in the history of the book' WALL STREET JOURNAL The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings - the dazzling handiwork of the city's artists and architects. But equally important were geniuses of another kind: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars and booksellers. At a time where all books were made by hand, these people helped imagine a new and enlightened world. At the heart of this activity was a remarkable bookseller: Vespasiano da Bisticci. His books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. With a client list that included popes and royalty, Vespasiano became the 'king of the world's booksellers'. But by 1480 a new invention had appeared: the printed book, and Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge faced a formidable new challenge. 'A spectacular life of the book trade's Renaissance man' JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMES
A lively collection of essays from scholars from across Europe, North America and Australia. The book ranges from Shakespeare's use of manuals on war written for the sixteenth-century English public by an English mercenary, to reflections on the ways in which Shakespeare has been represented in Nazi Germany, wartime Denmark, or cold war Romania.
A celebration of the achievements of womankind, this book honours fifty amazing women and the incredible impact they have had on our world. From empire builders and healers to daring explorers and iconoclastic thinkers, these are moving stories of dedication, conflict, tragedy and triumph, as dramatic as any fiction. Each will both inspire readers and provide a greater understanding of the crucial role these women played in shaping our culture and history, and the debt we owe them. Presented chronologically, from antiquity to the modern day, each of these remarkable women's stories is told with a complete biography, a time-line setting their achievement in its historical context, and a selec...
When Savannah Stephens returns to her hometown Sydney after a stint as a music journalist in London, she is thrown into the burgeoning world of society parties and the excesses of the eighties social scene. Savannah's first job back on home soil is as the editor of the newly created Social Diary. Her days are spent battling old fashioned newspaper colleagues, who frown upon the so-called 'women's pages' and tut when her stories make front page splashes. By night she is awash in a sea of expensive champagne at the biggest and best parties the city has to offer. It is there that she collides with the unbelievable characters and larger-than-life personalities who are fast becoming legendary for their jaw-dropping antics. Will Savannah manage to prove her critics wrong or will she be distracted by a very handsome yet mysterious man? Funny and satirical, The Social Diary reads at times like an extended version of Ros Reines' real-life gossip column feature Guess Who Don't Sue, and is written by someone who has been through it all and lived to tell the tale.
Dear Reader, This book is all about me and the cruel world that I inhabit. Ever since the reception class, I've stood out. I'd like to think this was because I am exceptionally funny, clever and stylish, but others say that it's down to my CRAZY hair and big mouth. Whatever it is, I am definitely not to blame. A LOT of people are jealous of me and that is why going to high school will be brilliant. I will meet much better people there who don't wear pink leg warmers and glitter. If it wasn't for my best friend Frances and my she-hamster, Trevor, I don't know how I'd put up with the madness. Frances gets me, even if she still wants to play princesses-get-chased-by-witch, and that's a lot more than I can say for my stupid parents who insist on ruining my life with their stupid feuds. If only I can stop being such a loser whenever Milo Costigan is around, perhaps it'll all work out okay... See you on the other side, Ginger Mclean
Nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2023 Dylan was six when The End came, back in 2018; when the electricity went off for good, and the 'normal' 21st-century world he knew disappeared. Now he's 14 and he and his mam have survived in their isolated hilltop house above the village of Nebo in north-west Wales, learning new skills, and returning to old ways of living. Despite their close understanding, the relationship between mother and son changes subtly as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities. And they each have their own secrets, which emerge as, in turn, they jot down their thoughts and memories win a found notebook - the Blue Book of Nebo.