Cate Haste

The life of an extraordinary artist and intellect- the composer, author and socialite Alma Mahler, whose life spanned one of the most captivating and dramatic periods in history Born into the dying days of the Habsburg Empire, Alma Mahler was at the epicentre of fin de si cle Vienna's artistic and intellectual life. A talented composer in her own right, she was open, generous, remarkably creative, curious, challenging and zealous in her pursuit of love. Artists, architects, musicians and writers jostled to join her coterie. Gustav Mahler was her first husband; Gustav Klimt her first kiss. The great men who were drawn into Alma's wake would be indelibly touched by her power and brilliance- from her second husband Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus and modernist architecture, to the Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka and her last husband, writer Franz Werfel. But her life was inflected by tragedy, and the love, support and inspiration that Alma gave to the men she loved came at the heavy price of her own artistic fulfilment. As the turmoil of her century uprooted her from her homeland and she fled Austria first for occupied France and then America, it would be her love of music alone that sustained her through a series of great losses. Drawing extensively on hitherto unpublished diaries and letters, Cate Haste illuminates the passionate spirit of one of history's most complex and charismatic muses, a modern woman with an elemental vitality that could scarcely be contained by her century o who will live forever in the art she created and inspired.

The Life of Alma Mahler

Passionate Spirit

Talented, determined and charismatic, Sheila Fell was one of the very few women artists to achieve national recognition in the 1950s and 1960s and was one of the youngest artists ever to be elected a Royal Academician in 1974. Her tragic early death in 1979 cut short her burgeoning artistic career. This book, the first comprehensive study of her life and work, draws on previously unpublished letters and archive sources to establish Fell as a significant force in 20th-century British figurative painting. It includes reproductions of many hitherto unseen works to convey the diversity and power of her paintings and her original, transforming vision.

A Passion for Paint

Sheila Fell

This book tells the history of the changing sexual attitudes of 20th-century Britain: the free love debate, the sex psychologists, the bright young things, homosexual life in the thirties, secret sex and World War II, the sixties and the pill, gay rights, rape laws, the impact of AIDS and whole body sensuality.

Sex in Britain : World War I to the Present

Rules of Desire

This fully illustrated study of the life and work of Scottish artist Craigie Aitchison (1926-2009) is the first book to cover the entire oeuvre of a painter whose distinctive and powerfully evocative style has earned him widespread critical acclaim and public popularity. Award-winning writer Cate Haste draws for the first time on original documents, family archives, letters, published interviews with the painter, and new interviews with those who knew Aitchison to explore the relationship of his life to his work, the influences which shaped his visual imagination, the emergence of his distinctive themes, and the development of his painting style.

A Life in Colour

Craigie Aitchison

The life of an extraordinary artist and intellect: the composer, author and socialite Alma Mahler, whose life spanned one of the most captivating and dramatic periods in history Alma Mahler was once at the epicentre of Vienna's artistic and intellectual life. A talented composer in her own right, she was open, generous, remarkably creative, curious, challenging and zealous in her pursuit of love. Artists, architects, musicians and writers jostled to join her coterie. Gustav Klimt was her first kiss; Gustav Mahler her first husband. But her life was haunted by tragedy, and the support and inspiration that Alma gave to the men she loved came at the heavy price of her own artistic fulfilment. Drawing extensively on previously unpublished diaries and letters, Cate Haste illuminates the passionate spirit of one of history's most complex and charismatic muses, a modern woman with an elemental vitality that could scarcely be contained by her century – who will live forever in the art she created and inspired.

Cherie Booth

When your husband (or wife, in Denis Thatcher's case) becomes Prime Minister, and the doors of No.10 close behind you, every aspect of life is suddenly changed. This was what Cherie Booth discovered. Intrigued, Cherie and social historian Cate Haste set out to explore the experience of previous political generations since the 1950s. Based on personal interviews, diaries and letters, and the accounts of surviving spouses, families, close friends and colleagues, the story begins with three Conservatives - Clarissa Eden, Dorothy Macmillan and Elizabeth Home. Then comes a shift with the Labour governments and the different backgrounds and attitudes of Mary Wilson and Audrey Callaghan, before the contrasting experiences of Denis Thatcher and Norma Major. Set against the flow of dramatic events on the world stage, this illuminating book explores the pressures of life in the 'goldfish bowl' and offers fascinating insight into the 'political marriage' and the changing role of the leader's spouse.

Cate Haste

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