‘Magisterial… thrilling’ Guardian

‘Terrifically enjoyable’ Daily Telegraph

The beautifully illustrated, long-awaited final volume of John Richardson’s magisterial Life of Picasso, drawing on original research from interviews and never-before-seen material in the Picasso family archives.

The Minotaur Years opens in 1933 with a visit by the Hungarian-French photographer Brassaï to Picasso’s château in Normandy, Boisgeloup, where he would take his iconic photographs of the celebrated plaster busts of Picasso’s lover Marie-Thérèse Walter. Picasso was contributing to André Breton’s Minotaur magazine and spending time with the likes of Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, and the poet Paul Éluard, in Paris and the south of France. It was during this time that Picasso began writing surrealist poetry and became obsessed with the image of himself as the mythic Minotaur.

Richardson shows us the artist being as prolific as ever, painting Walter, as well as the surrealist photographer Dora Maar, who became a muse, collaborator and lover. The bombing of Guernica in April 1937 would inspire Picasso’s vast masterwork of the same name, which he painted in just a few weeks for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair. When the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, Picasso chose to remain in the city despite the threat that his art would be confiscated. In 1943, Picasso met Françoise Gilot who would replace Maar and inspire a brilliant new sequence of paintings.

As always, Richardson tells Picasso’s story through his work, analysing how it shows what the artist was feeling and thinking. His fascinating and illuminating narrative immerses us in one of the most exciting moments in twentieth-century cultural history, and brings to a close the definitive and critically acclaimed biography of one of the world’s most celebrated artists.

‘A pacy, gripping tale… written with skill and colour. It gave me enormous pleasure to read such a satisfying novel.’ SANTA MONTEFIORE

‘If you’re in desperate need of a far-flung getaway, indulge in this slice of escapist fiction’ HEAT

‘Being transported to a Spanish summer in 1951… I feel the cool of the shadows under the trees and hear the sea as it glistens in the rippling heat.’ FERN BRITTON

‘This absorbing, poignant rollercoaster of a read is utterly satisfying and will stay with you long after you’ve put it down.’ PATRICIA SCANLAN

‘Keeps up the pace and excitement to the very end.’ JOAN BAKEWELL

Soaked in sunlight, love and the mysteries surrounding a famous artist The Diver and the Lover is a novel inspired by true events.
It is 1951 and sisters Ginny and Meredith have travelled from England to Spain in search of distraction and respite. The two wars have wreaked loss and deprivation upon the family and the spectre of Meredith’s troubled childhood continues to haunt them. Their journey to the rugged peninsula of Catalonia promises hope and renewal.

While there they discover the artist Salvador Dali is staying in nearby Port Lligat. Meredith is fascinated by modern art and longs to meet the famous surrealist. Dali is embarking on an ambitious new work, but his headstrong male model has refused to pose. A replacement is found, a young American waiter with whom Ginny has struck up a tentative acquaintance.

The lives of the characters become entangled as family secrets, ego and the dangerous politics of Franco’s Spain threaten to undo the fragile bonds that have been forged.

A powerful story of love, sacrifice and the lengths we will go to for who – or what – we love.

Model. Muse. Lover. Artist.

Paris, 1929. Lee Miller has abandoned her life in New York and a modelling career at Vogue to pursue her dream of becoming a photographer. When she catches the eye of artist Man Ray she convinces him to hire her as his assistant. Man is an egotistical, charismatic force and they soon embark upon a passionate affair.

Lee and Man spend their days working closely in the studio and their nights at smoky cabarets and wild parties. But as Lee begins to assert herself, and to create pioneering work of her own, Man’s jealousy spirals out of control and leads to a betrayal that threatens to destroy them both . . .

‘Powerful, sensual and gripping’ – Madeleine Miller, author of Circe
‘Fans of Mrs Hemingway and The Paris Wife will love this one’ – Elle

The play tells the story of a love triangle between Jimmy, an intelligent and educated man of working class background, his upper-middle-class wife Alison, and her superior and disdainful best-friend Helena. Jimmy hates his wife’s background, almost as much as he hates himself. Dark and savage, Look Back in Anger makes readers and audiences re-examine what was once called ‘the good life’.