John Banville

Paul Joyce

'If you're interested in Dublin, or if you're interested in the novelist John Banville, or if you're interested in radiantly superb sentences about whatever - I'm all three - then Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir is a book you'll not be able to put down' The Guardian 'A trove of arresting imagery, from the lushly poetic to the luridly absurd ... utterly delightful' Irish Times 'Delicious ... Banville's soarings, like a hawk's, are both wild and comprehensive, taking in everything and imagining more' New York Times For the young John Banville, Dublin was a place of enchantment and yearning. Each year, on his birthday - the 8th of December, Feast of the Immaculate Conception - he and his mother would journey by train to the capital city, passing frosted pink fields at dawn, to arrive at Westland Row and the beginning of a day's adventures that included much-anticipated trips to Clery's and the Palm Beach ice-cream parlour. The aspiring writer first came to live in the city when he was eighteen. In a once grand but now dilapidated flat in Upper Mount Street, he wrote and dreamed and hoped. It was a cold time, for society and for the individual - one the writer would later explore through the famed Benjamin Black protagonist Quirke - but underneath the seeming permafrost a thaw was setting in, and Ireland was beginning to change. Alternating between vignettes of Banville's own past, and present-day historical explorations of the city, Time Pieces is a vivid evocation of childhood and memory - that 'bright abyss' in which 'time's alchemy works' - and a tender and powerful ode to a formative time and place for the artist as a young man. Accompanied by images of the city by photographer Paul Joyce.

A Dublin Memoir

Time Pieces

Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard is a genuine Liverpool legend. Captain at the age of 23. Two FA Cups. Three League Cups. One UEFA Cup. And that Champions League win. Gerrard embodies the spirit and passion of Liverpool football club like no other in the modern era. From the raw but talented youngster who made the jump from the Melwood training ground and took to the famous Anfield turf at 18, to the talismanic skipper who has led his beloved club through thick and thin, this stunningly illustrated book, complete with exclusive new photographs, is the story of his fifteen momentous seasons at Liverpool FC. Along with a foreword from Kenny Dalglish, this is Steven Gerrard's Liverpool story in his own words.

My Liverpool Story

David Hockney

David Hockney is as fascinating as he is articulate on ways of seeing, and in this impressive book he leads us on an artistic journey where anything is possible. He considers the influence of Picasso and Rembrandt and speaks of Eastern conventions and perspective and of their relevance to his work. He points to Laurel and Hardy's lasting appeal in his conviction that popularity and art are not incompatible. Hockney and his work have long been the subjects of controversy; few twentieth century artists have so successfully surmounted their cult image for three decades, and he remains one of our most relentlessly dedicated, versatile and original painters. Beautifully illustrated, HOCKNEY ON ART is a rare insight into the thought-processes and working life of our most celebrated artist.

Paul Joyce

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