Difference between revisions of "Newest Art Reviews"

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[[Category:New Reviews|Art]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Art]] [[Category:Art|*]]__NOTOC__ <!-- remove -->
[[Category:Art|*]]
+
{{Frontpage
__NOTOC__
+
|isbn=0957181167
{{newreview
+
|title=Blue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis
|title=The First Bohemians: Life and Art in London's Golden Age
+
|author=Alan Marshall
|author=Vic Gatrell
+
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=There are few positive things which can be said about a substandard apartment when you’re on holiday but this time, in trying to avoid looking at a problem I found myself looking more closely at a couple of pictures on the walls - and was completely taken by the work of Brian Lewis.  I searched online and could only find ‘used’ versions of this book and the print I wanted was ‘not available’.  Oh, dear - then a few doors down from the apartment, I found a gift shop with a stack of brand new books - and a framed print of the picture I wanted.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)
 +
|title=Red is My Heart
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Literary Fiction
 +
|summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read in my house. And so was this one, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this one was, and is, black and white and red. Yes, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece, and I think it's possible to say not one page lacks the influence of some striking visual ideas.
 +
|isbn=1913547183
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1912242052
 +
|title=O Joy for me!
 +
|author=Keir Davidson
 +
|rating=3
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure.  His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the world''.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1980891117
 +
|title=G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of George Engleheart
 +
|author=John Webley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
+
|genre=Art
|summary=It was in the eighteenth century that an area of London consisting of about half a square mile, from Soho and Leicester Square across Covent Garden’s Piazza to Drury Lane, and down from Long Acre to the Strand, with Covent Garden at the very centre, became what has in modern times been recognised as the world’s first creative ‘bohemia’. This was where the cream of Britain’s significant artists, actors, poets, novelists, and dramatists of the age lived and worked, side by side with the city’s chief market traders, craftsmen, shopkeepers, rakes, pickpockets and prostitutes. One might say that all human life was here.
+
|summary=George Engleheart was one of the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, with a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. He was also one of the most prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846146771</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hewitt_Renoir
|title=Sea Monsters: The Lore and Legacy of Olaus Magnus's Marine Map
+
|title=Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon
|author=Joseph Nigg
+
|author=Catherine Hewitt
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
+
|genre=Art
|summary=A confession.  When reading hardbacks I take the paper cover, if there is one, off, to keep it pristine.  Sometimes there's a second benefit, with [[Longbourn by Jo Baker]] as an example of having an embossed illustration underneath, or suchlike. But with this book I won't be alone, for the cover folds out into an amazing artwork, such as has only two extant original copies. It's a coloured replica of a large map of the northern seas and Scandinavia, dating from 1539, and is in a category of three major artful scientific papers from where the whole 'here be dragons' cliché about maps comes from. Its creator, Olaus Magnus, followed it up years later with a commentary of all the sea creatures he drew on it, but Magnus has waited centuries for this delicious volume to commentate on both together, in such a lovely fashion.
+
|summary=Deep in the rural parts of France in the 1860s, you would never really expect to find someone who would come to embody a full artistic period – and not just a movement at that, but a full generation of both creative and societal change. And if you were to expect that someone, they would like as not be male. But almost stumbling into the hedonistic culture of Montmartre came Marie-Clementine Valadon. She started in the circus that first caught her teenaged eye, although her gymnastic career was short-lived. But what she did have from that was the poise to be an appealing model for some seriously important painters and a natural beauty and figure to appeal to both them and their audiences. And what she also had, much to the surprise of many and the distaste of some, was artistic talent of her own…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782400435</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Murakami_Music
|author=Judith Kerr
+
|title=Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa
|title=Judith Kerr's Creatures: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Judith Kerr
+
|author=Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=Murakami loves music, any reader of his could tell you as much. Norwegian Wood was named after a Beatles song (albeit one not very well known) and After Dark is framed by a music soundtrack in a brilliant display of atmospheric setting. With this, all that love is here. And like all who have a good taste in music, Murakami's is eclectic and very well considered. I found myself looking up musicians after reading this because I found many of his opinions quite convincing.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Ravilious_Recent
 +
|title=The Recent Past
 +
|author=James Ravilious
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Art
|summary=In children's literature there are some authors whom you know are not just reliable, but always impressive. One of those names is [[:Category:Judith Kerr|Judith Kerr]]. For decades she's been delighting our children (and grandchildren) but it still came as something of a surprise to discover that she would be ninety in June 2013. To celebrate this, Harper Collins have published ''Creatures'' in which Judith tells not just her own story but that of the ''creatures'' - the characters in her books and her family - who have contributed to her inspirational life.  It is, though, far more than just an autobiography with a marvellous collection of paintings, drawings and memorabilia.
+
|summary=James, son of the war artist Eric Ravilious, inherited his father's artistic talents. Although he was a gifted painter, his main career was to be as a photographer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007513216</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Wood_Gothic
 +
|title=American Gothic: The Life of Grant Wood
 +
|author=Susan Wood and Ross MacDonald
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=Who won a national prize for a crayon drawing of three oak leaves before he was properly in his teens? Who sought acclaim as an artist and came to Europe to study from the greats, only to reject all they had to offer? Who instinctively knew a picture of his dentist (yes, his dentist) would be more appealing and say more to people than floating water lilies and frilly ballet dancers? The answer in all cases was Grant Wood, practically the most well-known painter in America at one time, and still the best, alongside Edward Hopper, at presenting his world minus any Modernist trappings.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=V&A_Patchwork
 +
|title=Patchwork and Quilting: A Maker's Guide
 +
|author=Victoria and Albert Museum
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=Patchwork is a magical craft: you can take relatively small pieces of material and turn them into another piece of material with an entirely different pattern. Quilting converts a topper and a backing fabric with some wadding in between into a fabric of an entirely different weight. Combine the two crafts and you have something more than magical, occasionally fashionable but always deeply satisfying. But where to start, when there are so many different styles of both crafts? One answer is to read ''Patchwork and Quilting: A Maker's Guide'' which looks - as the cover says - at styles from Italian trapunto to Korean jogakbo and then delivers fifteen projects inspired by the V&A collections.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Rutherford_Landscape
 +
|title=Landscape Gardens
 +
|author=Sarah Rutherford
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=My first experience of a ''big'' garden was Versailles as a teenager and whilst I was impressed, I didn't really like it.  I felt stifled and strangely underwhelmed by the flatness of it all.  As luck would have it I then saw Hampton Court and it was official: I was off big gardens.  It would be many years before I revised my opinion.  On a trip to Harewood House, it was too hot a day to be corralled into the house, so I wandered the gardens and found they were delightful.  I felt uplifted.  Then a cricket match at Stowe gave me the opportunity to walk the grounds for over an hour.  I was completely won over and a devotee of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.  Sarah Rutherford's ''Landscape Gardens'' was an opportunity to put him in context.
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Barrie_Peter
|author=Rick Gekoski
+
|title=Peter Pan and Wendy
|title=Lost, Stolen or Shredded: Stories of missing works of art and literature
+
|author=J M Barrie and Robert Ingpen
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Art
 
|genre=Art
|summary=Over the centuries, many works of art have disappeared and then come back, or been returned almost as if they had never been away. Others, less fortunate, were simply destroyed.  A very few never really existed at all.  That is the basis of this unusual and very intriguing read from rare book dealer, writer and broadcaster Rick Gekoski.
+
|summary=It's a childhood staple - the story of Wendy, John and Michael Darling and their beloved nurse, Nana the Newfoundland dog who took them to school each day. It's George Darling, their father, who makes the mistake when he locks Nana in the yard and the children are whisked away to Neverland by Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. There's a wonderful mix of characters, from Peter Pan, the boy who never wants to grow up, Tinkerbell, the rather unpleasant fairy, Captain Hook, Tiger Lily, the lost boys and - of course - Wendy, but then it wouldn't have been a classic since the original stage production in 1904 and the novel of 1911 if it were otherwise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684919</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Grahame_Wind
|author=Rosy Sherry
+
|title=The Wind in The Willows
|title=Boobadoodle
+
|author=Kenneth Grahame and Robert Ingpen
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=Kenneth Grahame's ''The Wind in the Willows'' was one of the defining books of my childhood and more than sixty years after I first read the book I've just recently passed it onto another young reader.  Since the book was first published in 1908 there have been some notable illustrators: Paul Bransom provided illustrations for the 1913 edition, Ernest H Shepard (perhaps better known for his illustrations of ''Winnie the Pooh'') in 1933, Arthur Rackham (possibly the leading illustrator from the golden age of book illustration) in 1940 and Robert Ingpen who illustrated the centenary edition of ''The Wind in the Willows''.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Jenkins_100
 +
|title=Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations
 +
|author=Simon Jenkins
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Humour
+
|genre=Art
|summary=Boobadoodle is a book of doodles. On boobs. Fifty doodles on a variety of boobs, some belonging to the author, some to her friends. Quite good friends, I imagine.
+
|summary=In the mid-twentieth century, the railway was something which harked back to the Victorian age with trains being supplanted by cars and planes, but steam was being replaced by oil, even then and in the twenty-first-century oil is giving way to electricity. It's cleaner, more environmentally friendly and the stations which we'd all rushed through as quickly as possible, keen to escape their grime, were restored and became places to be admired, possibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stations.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846059267</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hurst_Norfolk
|author=Christopher Simon Sykes
+
|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks
|title=Hockney: The Biography, Volume 1, 1937-1975
+
|author=John Hurst
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures.  I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Blackburn_Threads
 +
|title=Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske
 +
|author=Julia Blackburn
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=John Craske was a fisherman, from a family of fishermen, who became too ill to go to sea. He was born in Sheringham on the north Norfolk coast in 1881 and would eventually die in the Norwich hospital in 1943 after a life which could have been defined by ill health. There were various explanations for what ailed him, what caused him to sink into a stupor, sometimes for years at a time and he was on occasions described as 'an imbecile'. But John had a natural artistic talent, albeit that his work had to be done on the available surfaces in his home. Chair seats, window sills, the backs of doors all carried his wonderful pictures of the sea. Then he moved on to embroidery, producing wonderful pictures of the Norfolk coast - and, most famously, of the evacuation at Dunkirk.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Bray Titania
 +
|title=Titania and Oberon
 +
|author=Jo Manton, Phyllis Bray and David Buckman
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=''Equus, Waiting for Godot and A Mid-summer Night's Dream'' – three very distinctive plays, and my favourite three, out of which you won't often get me choosing just one. But were I to do so, it might actually be the last, for the simple reason that I would delight in playing any and all characters from it. Yes, I know Hermia and Helena look a bit implausible now – but I put it to you stranger things happen on stage… Some of the strangest things involve a player himself, a lowly actor who gets given an ass's head and is forced to be enamoured of a fairy queen. It's this section of the play that this book concentrates on, in quite stunning form.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=BM_Origami
 +
|title=Origami, Poems and Pictures
 +
|author=The British Museum
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Art
 
|genre=Art
|summary=As one of the major names of British twentieth century art, David Hockney has always been a larger than life figure. Published to coincide with his 75th birthday, this is the first volume of a biography which tells his story up to 1975.
+
|summary=Sometimes you find a delight of a book. On an afternoon when it was unseasonably cold and decidedly wet I discovered ''Origami, Poems and Pictures'' and I was transported to Japan. As the title suggests we're looking at three celebrated arts and crafts: the ancient art of paper folding, haiku poetry and painting. I'll confess that it was the origami which caught my attention, but I was surprised by the extent to which the rest of the book caught my imagination. We begin with something very simple: a boat and in case you're worried, all the entries have a degree of difficulty (from 'simple' through to 'tricky') and this one is at the lowest level.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846057086</amazonuk>
+
}}'
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Foreman_Travel
 +
|title=Travels With My Sketchbook
 +
|author=Michael Foreman
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Art
 +
|summary=I guess the best children's literature can do away with complete veracity, as long as it has something about it that is recognisable – a little of the spirit, heart and character of the real thing, whatever it may be.  And if that's the case then it definitely applies to children's literature illustrations, such as those provided close on two hundred times by [[:Category:Michael Foreman|Michael Foreman]].  This prolific artist leapt at a scholarship in the US when he'd completed his official, formal studies, and it would appear – huge credits list regardless – that he's never stopped moving since, as this book takes us to all corners of the world, and back home again.
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Biesty Trains
|author=Carola Hicks
+
|title=Stephen Biesty's Trains
|title=Girl in a Green Gown: The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait
+
|author=Ian Graham and Stephen Biesty
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre=History
+
|genre=Art
|summary=The Arnolfini marriage portrait, as it is generally if perhaps inaccurately known, painted by Flemish artist Jan van Eyck, signed and dated 1434, has long been one of the most popular and enigmatic paintings of its time. Of modest size, a little less than three feet high, it is one of the oldest surviving panel pictures to be painted in oils rather than tempera. It is also regarded as the first work of art which simultaneously celebrates both middle-class comfort and monogamous marriage.
+
|summary=Trains look imposing, but true fans (little boys, usually from about three years old and upwards) want to know what lies beneath the skin which you can see. They want to know how it works. Getting to grips with one in real life is quite a big ask, but the next best thing is ''Stephen Biesty's Trains'' which features trains from all over the world and spanning the early steam train (complete with cowcatcher) right through to the trains of the future which can reach a speed of 430 kph and don't even run on rails. Once the train reaches a speed of 150 kph the wheels are raised and the train is held up by magnetic forces alone.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099526891</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
Move on to [[Newest Autobiography Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 12:49, 2 June 2023

0957181167.jpg

Review of

Blue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis by Alan Marshall

5star.jpg Art

There are few positive things which can be said about a substandard apartment when you’re on holiday but this time, in trying to avoid looking at a problem I found myself looking more closely at a couple of pictures on the walls - and was completely taken by the work of Brian Lewis. I searched online and could only find ‘used’ versions of this book and the print I wanted was ‘not available’. Oh, dear - then a few doors down from the apartment, I found a gift shop with a stack of brand new books - and a framed print of the picture I wanted. Full Review

1913547183.jpg

Review of

Red is My Heart by Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)

3.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Antoine Laurain books have always been black and white and read in my house. And so was this one, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this one was, and is, black and white and red. Yes, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece, and I think it's possible to say not one page lacks the influence of some striking visual ideas. Full Review

1912242052.jpg

Review of

O Joy for me! by Keir Davidson

3star.jpg Art

Oh Joy for me! gives Coleridge credit for being the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the world. Full Review

1980891117.jpg

Review of

G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of George Engleheart by John Webley

4.5star.jpg Art

George Engleheart was one of the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, with a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. He was also one of the most prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book. Full Review

Hewitt Renoir.jpg

Review of

Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon by Catherine Hewitt

4.5star.jpg Art

Deep in the rural parts of France in the 1860s, you would never really expect to find someone who would come to embody a full artistic period – and not just a movement at that, but a full generation of both creative and societal change. And if you were to expect that someone, they would like as not be male. But almost stumbling into the hedonistic culture of Montmartre came Marie-Clementine Valadon. She started in the circus that first caught her teenaged eye, although her gymnastic career was short-lived. But what she did have from that was the poise to be an appealing model for some seriously important painters and a natural beauty and figure to appeal to both them and their audiences. And what she also had, much to the surprise of many and the distaste of some, was artistic talent of her own… Full Review

Murakami Music.jpg

Review of

Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa

3.5star.jpg Art

Murakami loves music, any reader of his could tell you as much. Norwegian Wood was named after a Beatles song (albeit one not very well known) and After Dark is framed by a music soundtrack in a brilliant display of atmospheric setting. With this, all that love is here. And like all who have a good taste in music, Murakami's is eclectic and very well considered. I found myself looking up musicians after reading this because I found many of his opinions quite convincing. Full Review

Ravilious Recent.jpg

Review of

The Recent Past by James Ravilious

5star.jpg Art

James, son of the war artist Eric Ravilious, inherited his father's artistic talents. Although he was a gifted painter, his main career was to be as a photographer. Full Review

Wood Gothic.jpg

Review of

American Gothic: The Life of Grant Wood by Susan Wood and Ross MacDonald

4.5star.jpg Art

Who won a national prize for a crayon drawing of three oak leaves before he was properly in his teens? Who sought acclaim as an artist and came to Europe to study from the greats, only to reject all they had to offer? Who instinctively knew a picture of his dentist (yes, his dentist) would be more appealing and say more to people than floating water lilies and frilly ballet dancers? The answer in all cases was Grant Wood, practically the most well-known painter in America at one time, and still the best, alongside Edward Hopper, at presenting his world minus any Modernist trappings. Full Review

V&A Patchwork.jpg

Review of

Patchwork and Quilting: A Maker's Guide by Victoria and Albert Museum

4.5star.jpg Art

Patchwork is a magical craft: you can take relatively small pieces of material and turn them into another piece of material with an entirely different pattern. Quilting converts a topper and a backing fabric with some wadding in between into a fabric of an entirely different weight. Combine the two crafts and you have something more than magical, occasionally fashionable but always deeply satisfying. But where to start, when there are so many different styles of both crafts? One answer is to read Patchwork and Quilting: A Maker's Guide which looks - as the cover says - at styles from Italian trapunto to Korean jogakbo and then delivers fifteen projects inspired by the V&A collections. Full Review

Rutherford Landscape.jpg

Review of

Landscape Gardens by Sarah Rutherford

4star.jpg Art

My first experience of a big garden was Versailles as a teenager and whilst I was impressed, I didn't really like it. I felt stifled and strangely underwhelmed by the flatness of it all. As luck would have it I then saw Hampton Court and it was official: I was off big gardens. It would be many years before I revised my opinion. On a trip to Harewood House, it was too hot a day to be corralled into the house, so I wandered the gardens and found they were delightful. I felt uplifted. Then a cricket match at Stowe gave me the opportunity to walk the grounds for over an hour. I was completely won over and a devotee of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. Sarah Rutherford's Landscape Gardens was an opportunity to put him in context. Full Review

Barrie Peter.jpg

Review of

Peter Pan and Wendy by J M Barrie and Robert Ingpen

4star.jpg Art

It's a childhood staple - the story of Wendy, John and Michael Darling and their beloved nurse, Nana the Newfoundland dog who took them to school each day. It's George Darling, their father, who makes the mistake when he locks Nana in the yard and the children are whisked away to Neverland by Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. There's a wonderful mix of characters, from Peter Pan, the boy who never wants to grow up, Tinkerbell, the rather unpleasant fairy, Captain Hook, Tiger Lily, the lost boys and - of course - Wendy, but then it wouldn't have been a classic since the original stage production in 1904 and the novel of 1911 if it were otherwise. Full Review

Grahame Wind.jpg

Review of

The Wind in The Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Robert Ingpen

4star.jpg Art

Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows was one of the defining books of my childhood and more than sixty years after I first read the book I've just recently passed it onto another young reader. Since the book was first published in 1908 there have been some notable illustrators: Paul Bransom provided illustrations for the 1913 edition, Ernest H Shepard (perhaps better known for his illustrations of Winnie the Pooh) in 1933, Arthur Rackham (possibly the leading illustrator from the golden age of book illustration) in 1940 and Robert Ingpen who illustrated the centenary edition of The Wind in the Willows. Full Review

Jenkins 100.jpg

Review of

Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins

5star.jpg Art

In the mid-twentieth century, the railway was something which harked back to the Victorian age with trains being supplanted by cars and planes, but steam was being replaced by oil, even then and in the twenty-first-century oil is giving way to electricity. It's cleaner, more environmentally friendly and the stations which we'd all rushed through as quickly as possible, keen to escape their grime, were restored and became places to be admired, possibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stations. Full Review

Hurst Norfolk.jpg

Review of

On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks by John Hurst

4star.jpg Art

It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks and I couldn't resist buying it. Full Review

Blackburn Threads.jpg

Review of

Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske by Julia Blackburn

4star.jpg Art

John Craske was a fisherman, from a family of fishermen, who became too ill to go to sea. He was born in Sheringham on the north Norfolk coast in 1881 and would eventually die in the Norwich hospital in 1943 after a life which could have been defined by ill health. There were various explanations for what ailed him, what caused him to sink into a stupor, sometimes for years at a time and he was on occasions described as 'an imbecile'. But John had a natural artistic talent, albeit that his work had to be done on the available surfaces in his home. Chair seats, window sills, the backs of doors all carried his wonderful pictures of the sea. Then he moved on to embroidery, producing wonderful pictures of the Norfolk coast - and, most famously, of the evacuation at Dunkirk. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Bray Titania/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

Titania and Oberon by Jo Manton, Phyllis Bray and David Buckman

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Equus, Waiting for Godot and A Mid-summer Night's Dream – three very distinctive plays, and my favourite three, out of which you won't often get me choosing just one. But were I to do so, it might actually be the last, for the simple reason that I would delight in playing any and all characters from it. Yes, I know Hermia and Helena look a bit implausible now – but I put it to you stranger things happen on stage… Some of the strangest things involve a player himself, a lowly actor who gets given an ass's head and is forced to be enamoured of a fairy queen. It's this section of the play that this book concentrates on, in quite stunning form. Full Review

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Review of

Origami, Poems and Pictures by The British Museum

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Sometimes you find a delight of a book. On an afternoon when it was unseasonably cold and decidedly wet I discovered Origami, Poems and Pictures and I was transported to Japan. As the title suggests we're looking at three celebrated arts and crafts: the ancient art of paper folding, haiku poetry and painting. I'll confess that it was the origami which caught my attention, but I was surprised by the extent to which the rest of the book caught my imagination. We begin with something very simple: a boat and in case you're worried, all the entries have a degree of difficulty (from 'simple' through to 'tricky') and this one is at the lowest level. Full Review

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Review of

Travels With My Sketchbook by Michael Foreman

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I guess the best children's literature can do away with complete veracity, as long as it has something about it that is recognisable – a little of the spirit, heart and character of the real thing, whatever it may be. And if that's the case then it definitely applies to children's literature illustrations, such as those provided close on two hundred times by Michael Foreman. This prolific artist leapt at a scholarship in the US when he'd completed his official, formal studies, and it would appear – huge credits list regardless – that he's never stopped moving since, as this book takes us to all corners of the world, and back home again. Full Review

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Review of

Stephen Biesty's Trains by Ian Graham and Stephen Biesty

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Trains look imposing, but true fans (little boys, usually from about three years old and upwards) want to know what lies beneath the skin which you can see. They want to know how it works. Getting to grips with one in real life is quite a big ask, but the next best thing is Stephen Biesty's Trains which features trains from all over the world and spanning the early steam train (complete with cowcatcher) right through to the trains of the future which can reach a speed of 430 kph and don't even run on rails. Once the train reaches a speed of 150 kph the wheels are raised and the train is held up by magnetic forces alone. Full Review

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