"'Judith Mackrell has done an incredible job in bringing to life the stories of these two great artists' - Anthony D'Offay
'This is a must read . . . a deeply moving account of a family bursting with talent' - Anne Sebba
In Artists, Siblings, Visionaries, acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell turns her attention to British brother and sister artists Gwen and Augustus John.
In many ways they were polar opposites.
Augustus was the larger of the two; vivid, volatile and promiscuous, he was a hero among romantics and bohemians, celebrated as one of the great British talents of his generation.
As a woman, Gwen's place in the art world was much smaller, and her private way of working and reserved nature meant it was only long after her death that her tremendous gifts were fully acknowledged. But her temperament was as turbulent as her brother's. She formed passionate attachments to men and woman, including a long affair with the sculptor Rodin.
And there were other ways in which the two Johns were remarkably alike, as Mackrell vividly reveals. The result is a powerful portrait of two prodigiously talented artists and visionaries, whose experiments with form and colour created some of the most memorable work of the early twentieth century."
"'They were not just reporters; they were also pioneers, and Judith Mackrell has done them proud.' Spectator
'This is a book that manages to be thoughtful and edge-of-your-seat thrilling.' Mail on Sunday
'Like the copy filed by her subjects, it is an essential read.' BBC History Magazine
On the front lines of the Second World War, a contingent of female journalists were bravely waging their own battle. Barred from combat zones and faced with entrenched prejudice and bureaucratic restrictions, these women were forced to fight for the right to work on equal terms as men.
Going with the Boys follows six remarkable women as their lives and careers intertwined: Martha Gellhorn, who out-scooped her husband Ernest Hemingway on D-Day by traveling to Normandy as a stowaway on a hospital ship; Lee Miller, who went from being a Vogue cover model to the magazine’s official war correspondent; Sigrid Schultz, who hid her Jewish identity and risked her life by reporting on the Nazi regime; Virginia Cowles, a 'society girl columnist' turned combat reporter; Clare Hollingworth, the first journalist to report the outbreak of war; and Helen Kirkpatrick, the first woman to report from an Allied war zone with equal privileges to men.
This intricately layered account captures both the adversity and the vibrancy of the women’s lives as they chased down sources and narrowly dodged gunfire, as they mixed with artists and politicians like Picasso, Cocteau, and Churchill, and conducted their own tumultuous love affairs. In her gripping, intimate, and nuanced portrait, Judith Mackrell celebrates these courageous reporters who risked their lives for a story and who changed the rules of war reporting for ever."
"Commissioned in 1750, the Palazzo Venier was planned as a testimony to the power and wealth of a great Venetian family, but the fortunes of the Venier family waned and the project was left abandoned and unfinished. Yet in the early 20th century it attracted three fascinating women: Luisa Casati, Doris Castlerosse and Peggy Guggenheim. Luisa held parties as extravagant as Renaissance court operas. Doris hosted film stars and royalty at glittering gatherings. And for Peggy, the Palazzo served as a home for her exquisite collection of modern art."
"Glamorised, mythologised and demonised - the women of the 1920s prefigured the 1960s in their determination to reinvent the way they lived. Flappers is in part a biography of that restless generation: it focuses on six women who between them exemplified the range and daring of that generation’s spirit. Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Tamara de Lempicka were far from typical flappers. Talented, reckless and wilful, with personalities that transcended their class and background, they re-wrote their destinies in remarkable, entertaining and tragic ways.
‘Flappers is all good, dirty fun… Mackrell is an engaging storyteller with a deceptively light touch’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH"
