Ross King

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

Shari Low

“A gritty raunch thriller. A page turner that lifts the lid on Hollywood!” - Catherine Zeta-Jones The next glamorous and thrilling book from Shari Low and Ross King They’ve made it to the top but someone is determined to make them pay... At a glittering after-party on the night of the Academy Awards, author Mirren McLean celebrates her win with her childhood friends Davie Johnston and Zander Leith by her side. Three kids from a tough street in Glasgow, the dazzling trio rose from the ashes to become Hollywood stars with global fame and vast fortunes. This is their moment in the spotlight. But by morning, there’s only darkness. A secret from their past has come back to haunt them and the shield of stardom can’t protect them from the horrors of their old lives. Someone is out to destroy them... and unlike the movies, there’s no guarantee that the good guys will win. An exciting next instalment of the glamorous thriller for the fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Liane Moriarty and Jo Spain.

The BRAND NEW glamorous thriller from Shari Low and TV's Ross King for 2023

The Catch

Architektur und Intrige: Wie die schönste Kuppel der Welt entstand

Das Wunder von Florenz

In this biography, Ross King rescues Machiavelli's legacy from caricature, detailing the vibrant political and social context that influenced his thought and underscoring the humanity of one of history's finest political thinkers.

Machiavelli

"A gritty raunch thriller. A page turner that lifts the lid on Hollywood!" - Catherine Zeta-JonesPRE-ORDER NOW the next glamorous and thrilling book from Shari Low and Ross King They've made it to the top but someone is determined to make them pay... At a glittering after-party on the night of the Academy Awards, author Mirren McLean celebrates her win with her childhood friends Davie Johnston and Zander Leith by her side. Three kids from a tough street in Glasgow, the dazzling trio rose from the ashes to become Hollywood stars with global fame and vast fortunes. This is their moment in the spotlight. But by morning, there's only darkness. A secret from their past has come back to haunt them and the shield of stardom can't protect them from the horrors of their old lives. Someone is out to destroy them... and unlike the movies, there's no guarantee that the good guys will win. An exciting next instalment of the glamorous thriller for the fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Liane Moriarty and Jo Spain.

Beginning in 1912, Defiant Spirits traces the artistic development of Tom Thomson and the future members of the Group of Seven, Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley, over a dozen years in Canadian history. Working in an eclectic and sometimes controversial blend of modernist styles, they produced what an English critic celebrated in the 1920s as the “most vital group of paintings” of the 20th century. Inspired by Cézanne, Van Gogh and other modernist artists, they tried to interpret the Ontario landscape in light of the strategies of the international avant-garde. Based after 1914 in the purpose-built Studio Building for Canadian Art, the young artists embarked on what Lawren Harris called “an all-engrossing adventure”: travelling north into the anadian Shield and forging a style of painting appropriate to what they regarded as the unique features of Canada’s northern landscape. Rigorously researched and drawn from archival documents and letters, Defiant Spirits constitutes a “group biography,” reconstructing the men’s aspirations, frustrations and achievements. It details not only the lives of Tom Thomson and the members of the Group of Seven but also the political and social history of Canada

The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven

Defiant Spirits

The Bookseller of Florence captures the excitement and spirit of the Renaissance amid the technological disruption that forever changed the ways knowledge spread, from the bestselling author of Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling. The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world. Born in 1422, Vespasiano da Bisticci became what a friend called "the king of the world's booksellers." At a time when all books were made by hand, for over four decades Vespasiano produced and sold hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for discussion and debate. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe. Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, the king of the world's booksellers was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano’s elegant manuscripts. A thrilling chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of one of the true titans of the Renaissance.

Vespasiano da Bisticci and the Manuscripts that Illuminated the Renaissance

The Bookseller of Florence

'A marvel of storytelling and a masterclass in the history of the book' WALL STREET JOURNAL The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings - the dazzling handiwork of the city's artists and architects. But equally important were geniuses of another kind- Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars and booksellers. At a time where all books were made by hand, these people helped imagine a new and enlightened world. At the heart of this activity was a remarkable bookseller- Vespasiano da Bisticci. His books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. With a client list that included popes and royalty, Vespasiano became the 'king of the world's booksellers'. But by 1480 a new invention had appeared- the printed book, and Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge faced a formidable new challenge. 'A spectacular life of the book trade's Renaissance man' JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMES

Vespasiano Da Bisticci and the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance

Per i viaggiatori che si fermavano sul bordo della strada a sbirciare i fiori o che allungavano il collo dai finestrini del treno per scorgere un angolo dello stagno, il giardino di Monet a Giverny era una visione paradisiaca. “Un Paradiso dove, all’ombra di alcuni alberi, i fiori variopinti giocano sul prato illuminati dal sole che filtra a chiazze tra le fronde mosse dalla brezza” scrisse un giornalista. Eppure quel luogo ameno era lo stesso in cui Monet, lottando con le sue tele, contemplava quello che il suo primo critico definì “il nulla insondabile”: le ninfee – “silenti e misteriose più di ogni altro fiore” – ossessione decennale di un artista che inseguiva il sogno della forma e del colore fin quasi all’autodistruzione. “Ho intrapreso qualcosa di impossibile. Non dormo più per colpa loro”, confessò Monet al suo amico Georges Clemenceau. Ma dietro ogni fiore c’è forse una donna? Una donna inaccessibile, proibita? Ross King ricostruisce lo scenario che fa da sfondo al “folle incantamento” di Monet e alla realizzazione di questi dipinti sfuggenti e misteriosi, in cui – forse più che in ogni altra opera dell’impressionismo – possiamo scorgere la scintilla della modernità.

Il mistero delle ninfee

Si Nae Park

Score One for the Dancing Girl presents more than a hundred stories from an early-nineteenth-century collection of yadam stories, the Kimun ch’onghwa (“Compendium of Records of Hearsay”). Prose tales that feature historical people and places but may also include fantastical elements, the yadam stories in this volume feature ghosts and magic, courtesans and sex, and court politics. They constitute both an entertaining literary collection and a rich treasure trove of information about life in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Korea. The first volume in an ongoing series of translations of classic Korean literature by the Canadian missionary James Scarth Gale (1863–1937), Score One for the Dancing Girl includes the original literary Sinitic (hanmun) text and Gale’s English translation. Both the hanmun and English are extensively annotated. Introductory essays by Ross King and Si Nae Park discuss the yadam genre, Gale’s life and career, and the ways in which his background as a Christian missionary affected the translations.

A Story Collection from Nineteenth-century Korea

Score One for the Dancing Girl, and Other Selections from the Kimun ch'onghwa

Tells the complete story of the creation of The Last Supper mural: the adversities suffered by the artist during its execution; the experimental techniques he employed; the models for Christ and the Apostles that he used; and the numerous personalities involved -- everyone from Leonardo's young assistants to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan who commissioned the work.

Ross King

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