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Splendours and Miseries: The Roy Strong Diaries, 1967-87
'The Alan Clark diaries of cultural politics' Sunday Times 'At every word a reputation dies' A. N. Wilson Roy Strong is best known as the flamboyant former director of two great cultural institutions - the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum. In his first volume of diaries, he takes the reader into the heart of his career, revealing himself to be not just a mercurial and brilliant administrator, but also a shrewd observer of the glittering and political milieu into which he was drawn. We encounter David Hockney in his studio, the poignant figure of Cecil Beaton in decline, Nureyev fizzing with ideas and the Philistine Mrs Thatcher among many others, including a bevy of the Royal Family. And throughout the diaries runs the thread of an exceptional marriage, following his elopement with the designer Julia Trevelyan Oman. Splendours and Miseries provides a unique panorama of the world of the arts, fashion and society, taking us from the outrageous Swinging Sixties to the hard-edged glitz of Thatcher's Britain.
A Country Life
Roy Strong and his wife, the designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, have lived in the country for nearly thirty years. In 1987 he was asked to write an occasional column reflecting this quintessentially English way of life. A Country Life brings these popular pieces together, portraying the passing of the seasons in what the author describes as his 'beloved adopted county' of Herefordshire. A Country Life is a wide-ranging kaleidoscope of memories and observations, embracing the countryside, gardens, cooking and remembrances of things both long gone and only yesterday. The author writes lyrically of the arrival of the bright green tarragon shoots in spring; of the delights of eating al fresco; of making sorbets from medlar, blackberry and quince; and of the russet beech hedges in winter. Quinquagesima sees the arrival of Lent lilies; a bad winter is signalled by frantic bee activity among the drones; and Christmas brings a winding down before the New Year. The keynote of A Country Life is delight - a portrait of life in the English countryside which seems as old as time itself.
Sir Portrait
How does the former Director of the nation's greatest collection of portraits celebrate his 80th birthday? The distinguished photographer John Swannell and Roy Strong have devised a series of thirty portraits that transport Roy through time, inventing and reinventing him as an array of historical characters. With a sharp eye for period style and dress, and flashes of a tongue-in-cheek wit, Roy and John spent five years on a project in which he takes on the characters of Henry VIII, Toulouse Lautrec, Rasputin, President Lincoln and many more. The results, together with Roy's diary relating the stories behind the sittings, make a remarkable photographic essay of a man rightly dubbed 'Sir Portrait'. Sir Portrait is an enchanting book, a work of playful connoisseurship, and a celebration of a life in portraits.
The Spirit of Britain
"The Spirit of Britain" is a masterly survey of the country s artsliterature, music, poetry, painting, architecture, theater, and all the related subjects that, over the centuries, have given British intellectual and cultural life its unique character and vitality. Presented to the reader as a single unfolding narrative, from the Celts to the present day, the arts are set within a vivid panorama of the social, economic, political, and ideological forces that shaped them. 400 gorgeous photographs and works of art add immensely to the dramatic impact of this landmark work of cultural history."
The Story of Britain
THE CLASSIC HISTORY OF BRITAIN, FULLY UPDATED Roy Strong has written an exemplary introduction to the history of Britain, as first designated by the Romans. It is a brilliant and balanced account of successive ages bound together by a compelling narrative which answers the questions: 'Where do we come from?' and 'Where are we going?' Beginning with the earliest recorded Celtic times, and ending with the present day of Brexit Britain, it is a remarkable achievement. With his passion, enthusiasm and wide-ranging knowledge, he is the ideal narrator. His book should be read by anyone, anywhere, who cares about Britain's national past, national identity and national prospects.
Roy Strong
For nearly half a century, Sir Roy Strong has enjoyed a high public profile in the arts world in Britain. Yet remarkably little is known about his life before the Swinging Sixties when he burst upon the scene as the revolutionary trendy young director of the National Portrait Gallery, aged thirty-one. In this book he recounts for the first time the story of his social origins and the roots of his life-long passion for the culture and history of England. He describes his childhood home in a suburban North London terrace, revealing himself to have been a shy solitary child of melancholy temperament, painting Elizabethan miniatures and Shakespearean set designs in his teens. It follows him thro...
Scenes and Apparitions
'Viper wit from the gardener, writer and Knight of exquisite taste' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Funny, barbed and moving ... magnificently readable' THE TIMES Scenes and Apparitions covers a period of Roy Strong's life from 1988 to 2003. A sequel to Splendours and Miseries, it is an unmissable record of how a citizen at the close of the second Elizabethan age observed and chronicled his own world at the turn of the century. Although it is not without tragedy - the murder of his friend Gianni Versace, and the death of his beloved wife Julia Trevelyan Oman - there is plenty to enjoy from his descriptions of Elton John's fiftieth birthday party, to a concert for the Queen Mother, and his portraits of marriage, friendship, work and his celebrated garden, The Laskett.
The Laskett
The Laskett is an intimate history of the garden Roy Strong made with his wife, Julia Trevelyan Oman--the largest formal garden created in the country since 1945. This personal book is the tale of a marriage as much as the tale of a garden, as into the Laskett they etched their own biographies, including many of the people who have crossed their lives and are commemorated within it.
Visions of England
Free from nationalism, chauvinism and political bias, Roy Strong offers a vision of England that is inclusive and relevant for everybody living in the country - an appreciation of the beauty of the English countryside, a love of nature and gardening, and a celebration of the dramas of Shakespeare.
Coronation: A History of the British Monarchy
The definitive history of coronations and the Royal Family, from acclaimed writer Roy Strong.
