Giles Waterfield

The society wedding of Thomas, an idealistic German architect, and Irene, an English artist, brings together the Curtius and Benson families. Thomas and Irene settle into marital life in Berlin, until their lives are shattered by the outbreak of the First World War. While Irene struggles to survive in a country where she is the enemy, her sister Sophia faces the war as a nurse on the Western Front. For their brother Mark, diplomatic service sees him moving between London, Washington and Copenhagen, all the while struggling to confront his own identity. Against a backdrop of war and its aftermath, relationships are tested, sacrifices are made and Irene and her family strive to find their place in an evolving world.

The Iron Necklace

Dulwich Picture Gallery

A Regency Picture Collection Seen Through Victorian Eyes

Rich Summer of Art

This innovative history of British art museums begins in the early 19th century. The National Gallery and the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London may have been at the center of activity, but museums in cities such as Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Nottingham were immensely popular and attracted enthusiastic audiences. The People's Galleries traces the rise of art museums in Britain through World War I, focusing on the phenomenon of municipal galleries. This richly illustrated book argues that these regional museums represented a new type of institution: an art gallery for a working-class audience, appropriate for the rapidly expanding cities and shaped by liberal ideals. As their broad appeal weakened with the new century, they adapted and became more conventional. Using a wide range of sources, the book studies the patrons and the publics, the collecting policies, the temporary exhibitions, and the architecture of these institutions, as well as the complex range of reasons for their foundation.

Art Museums and Exhibitions in Britain, 1800-1914

The People's Galleries

In this brilliantly witty satire -- a bestseller in the UK -- a prestigious British museum launches an ambitious new exhibit...which quickly becomes a seasonal nightmare. Think that a day in the life of a London museum director is cold, quiet, and austere? Think again. Giles Waterfield brings a combination of intellectual comedy and knockabout farce to the subject in this story of one long day in a museum full of scandals, screw-upsŠand more than a few scalawags. At the beginning of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner, Auberon, the brilliant but troubled director of the Museum of British History, is preparing one midsummer's day for the opening of the most spectacular exhibition his museum has ever staged. The centerpiece is a painting of the intriguing Lady St. John strikingly attired as Puck, which hasn't been shown in London in a hundred years. As the day passes, the portrait arouses disquieting questions, jealousies, rivalries -- and more than a few strange affections -- in the minds of the museum staff. As guests and employees pour in, the tension rises -- and Auberon himself has the hilariously ridiculous task of keeping the peace, without losing his own sense of reality as well. For everyone who loves the farce of David Lodge and Michael Frayn, or even the Antiques Roadshow, the fast-paced, hilarious satire of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner is sure to delight and entertain.

A Novel

The Hound in the Left-hand Corner

Auberon, the brilliant but troubled Director of the Museum of British History (known as BRIT) is preparing one Midsummer's Day for the opening of the most spectacular exhibition the Museum has ever staged. The centrepiece of the exhibition is Gainsborough's portrait of the beautiful but intriguing Lady St John; not shown in London for a hundred years, the painting shows its subject strikingly attired as Puck. As the day passes the portrait arouses in the minds of the museum staff disquieting questions, rivalries, and strangely deep affections. Tension mounts: will the gala dinner be a success? Can the Museum's Chairman be kept under control? And just what is it that's so peculiar about the portrait?

The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner

Matthew Craske

Anne French

Traditionally, British portraits have concentrated on the upper classes and the famous. This book explores the servant, be it in a grand or modest house, in the country or town, telling a fascinating story about power, class and human relationships spanning over 400 years of social and economic history.

400 Years of Servants' Portraits

Below Stairs

Servants know everything. Never trust them. Never fall in love. Ellen, a young maid in the 1840s, enters service at the declining Markham Thorpe: a house where the relationship between masters and servants is not quite as it should be. There's one clear reason for this, sitting bang in the middle of this mess of sex, power, money and intrigue: the charismatic housekeeper, Mrs Rundell, whose agendas are complex and whose enemies are growing...

Markham Thorpe

Tate Gallery

Karen Hearn

Robert Upstone

Five centuries of private collecting are represented in this publication of some of the finest art treasures preserved in Britain's historic houses. In addition to paintings by Canaletto, Van Dyck, Claude Lorrain, Gainsborough, Stubbs, Augustus John, and Lucian Freud, more unusual works include a death mask of Napoleon, a life mask of Charles I by Bernini, and a bracelet inset with portrait miniatures of Queen Victoria's children. Over 90 objects and paintings are presented from over 50 houses, including Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard, Chatsworth, Harewood House, and Longleat.

The Art of the Country House

In Celebration

In the 1930s, Henry and Helen Williamson arrive on the French Riviera looking for a house. Barely thirty, Henry has been forced to retire from the Indian civil service through ill-health. They fall in love with the dreamlike Lou Paradou and set about constructing a life of ease, and a ravishing garden. But as the political conflict gathers, so the atmosphere of their new home becomes increasingly unquiet and a tragic fate befalls them. THE LONG AFTERNOON enchants and involves the reader, just as the Williamsons' garden seduces its visitors.

The Long Afternoon

First published by Hogarth Arts in association with Compton Verney to accompany the exhibition 'The Artist's Studio', Compton Verney, 26 Sept.-13 Dec. 2009 [and] Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, 9 Feb.-16 May, 2010.

Giles Waterfield

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