‘There’s something of F. Scott Fitzgerald about the way Cahill writes about the very rich’
DAILY MAIL

‘A biting satire of the art world’s glamour, pomp and greed . . . lucid and evocative’
DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘I really loved The Violet Hour . . . On one level it functions as a highbrow whodunnit, and grippingly so, but it’s much more than that, building into a meditation on mortality and the unreliable consolations of art, love and materialism’
PATRICK GALE, author of Mother’s Boy

‘A thrilling story told in seductive, shimmering prose. Beauty, money, power, seduction, betrayal. It’s all here in this bewitching and all too often troubling backstage pass to the commercial art world’
CHLOË ASHBY, author of Wet Paint

‘I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of James Cahill’s writing and storytelling’
SANTANU BHATTACHARYA, author of Deviants

‘Artists are slaves to their vanity. But in the end, in time, they see things as they really are.’

Thomas Haller has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of: shows in London and New York, paintings sold for a fortune. The vision he presents to the world is one of an untouchable genius at the top of his game. It is also a lie.

Who is the real Thomas Haller? His oldest friend and former dealer, Lorna, might once have known – before Thomas traded their early intimacy for international fame. Between his ruthless new dealer and a property mogul obsessed with his work, the appetite for Thomas and his art is all-consuming.

On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But the sudden death of a young man has put everyone on edge, and a chain of events begins that will lead the friends back into the past, to confront who they have become.

A story of deception, power play and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking: who is granted admission to a world that only seems to glitter and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass?

PRAISE FOR TIEPOLO BLUE

‘The best novel I have read for ages . . . masterly’
STEPHEN FRY

‘An exhilarating, erudite read’
VOGUE.COM

‘Electric’
GUARDIAN

‘Startlingly impressive’
DAILY MAIL

‘Divine . . . the smart, sexy read you need’ Evening Standard

‘Startlingly impressive’ Daily Mail

‘Exhilarating’ Vogue.com

‘An electric new novel’ Guardian

AN EXQUISITE DEBUT NOVEL. A MID-LIFE COMING-OF-AGE STORY CHARTING ONE MAN’S SEXUAL AWAKENING AND HIS SPECTACULAR FALL FROM GRACE IN 1990S LONDON. FOR FANS OF ALAN HOLLINGHURST AND EDWARD ST AUBYN.

Exiled from his university position for an inexcusable blunder, art historian Don Lamb flees to London, a city alive with sex and creativity. There, over the course of a long, hot summer, as he is immersed in the anarchic art and gay scenes of the mid-90s, Don sees his carefully curated life irrevocably changed. But his epiphany is also a reckoning, as his unexamined past is revealed to him in a devastating new light.

Intense and atmospheric, Tiepolo Blue traces Don’s turbulent awakening, and his desperate flight from art into life.

‘Wildly enjoyable . . . A novel that combines formal elegance with gripping storytelling’ Financial Times

‘Dizzying and exciting and unsettling, and beautifully told’ Reverend Richard Coles, Daily Mail

Cambridge, 1994. Professor Don Lamb is a revered art historian at the height of his powers, consumed by the book he is writing about the skies of the Venetian master Tiepolo. However, his academic brilliance belies a deep inexperience of life and love.

When an explosive piece of contemporary art is installed on the lawn of his college, it sets in motion Don’s abrupt departure from Cambridge to take up a role at a south London museum. There he befriends Ben, a young artist who draws him into the anarchic 1990s British art scene and the nightlife of Soho.

Over the course of one long, hot summer, Don glimpses a liberating new existence. But his epiphany is also a moment of self-reckoning, as his oldest friendship – and his own unexamined past – are revealed to him in a devastating new light. As Don’s life unravels, he suffers a fall from grace that that shatters his world into pieces.

‘A novel that combines formal elegance with gripping storytelling…wildly enjoyable’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Tiepolo Blue really has blown me away… The last debut novel I read that had this much talent buzzing around inside it was Alan Hollinghurst’s The Swimming-Pool Library.‘ ROBERT DOUGLAS-FAIRHURST

‘Meticulous and atmospheric… delicious unease and pervasive threat give this assured first novel great singularity and a kind of gothic edge’ Michael Donkor, GUARDIAN