Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm Gladwell, Eleanor Catton and many more recommend the books that impressed them this year
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China. It made me think and laugh. I also love Dave Eggers' The Circle (Hamish Hamilton), which is a sharp-eyed and funny satire about the obsession with "sharing" our lives through technology. It's convincing and a little creepy.
William Boyd
By strange coincidence two of the most intriguing art books I read this year had the word "Breakfast" in their titles. They were Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Jonathan Cape) and Breakfast at Sotheby's by Philip Hook (Particular). Greig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China. It made me think and laugh. I also love Dave Eggers' The Circle (Hamish Hamilton), which is a sharp-eyed and funny satire about the obsession with "sharing" our lives through technology. It's convincing and a little creepy.
William Boyd
By strange coincidence two of the most intriguing art books I read this year had the word "Breakfast" in their titles. They were Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Jonathan Cape) and Breakfast at Sotheby's by Philip Hook (Particular). Greig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was...
- 11/23/2013
- by Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Tom Stoppard, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, William Boyd, Bill Bryson, Shami Chakrabarti, Sarah Churchwell, Antonia Fraser, Mark Haddon, Robert Harris, Max Hastings, Philip Hensher, Simon Hoggart, AM Homes, John Lanchester, Mark Lawson, Robert Macfarlane, Andrew Motion, Ian Rankin, Lionel Shriver, Helen Simpson, Colm Tóibín, Richard Ford, John Gray, David Kynaston, Penelope Lively, Pankaj Mishra, Blake Morrison, Susie Orbach
- The Guardian - Film News
Late actor's collection, including Van Gogh, Degas and Pissarro, goes under the hammer at Christie's in London
Elizabeth Taylor was a person of prodigious appetites, most famously for jewellery, fried chicken, and husbands. On Tuesday at Christie's in London, however, a less documented aspect of the star's taste will come into focus when 38 works from her art collection are auctioned.
The sale will begin with the three most significant works going under the hammer: Autoportrait by Edgar Degas, expected to fetch £350,000 to £450,000; Pissarro's Pommiers d'Eragny (£900,000 to £1.2m); and Van Gogh's Vue de l'Asile de la Chapelle de Saint-Rémy, whose estimate is £5m to £7m.
"It's the part of her life that nobody knew," said Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie's. "She had as an extraordinary a way of collecting pictures as much as she did jewellery. Take the Degas: one would think she'd go for a race course or ballet scene,...
Elizabeth Taylor was a person of prodigious appetites, most famously for jewellery, fried chicken, and husbands. On Tuesday at Christie's in London, however, a less documented aspect of the star's taste will come into focus when 38 works from her art collection are auctioned.
The sale will begin with the three most significant works going under the hammer: Autoportrait by Edgar Degas, expected to fetch £350,000 to £450,000; Pissarro's Pommiers d'Eragny (£900,000 to £1.2m); and Van Gogh's Vue de l'Asile de la Chapelle de Saint-Rémy, whose estimate is £5m to £7m.
"It's the part of her life that nobody knew," said Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie's. "She had as an extraordinary a way of collecting pictures as much as she did jewellery. Take the Degas: one would think she'd go for a race course or ballet scene,...
- 2/4/2012
- by Alex Needham
- The Guardian - Film News
Hollywood star's artworks include pieces by Van Gogh, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir and Gris
Paintings by greats such as Vincent van Gogh and Camille Pissarro from the art collection of late Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor are to be sold at auction.
A total of 38 artworks are to come under the hammer at the sale next month at Christie's in London.
They include a Van Gogh, which dates back to 1889 and is expected to fetch up to £7m. The painting, Vue de l'Asile de la Chapelle de Saint-Rémy, was completed the year before his death and will go on public display prior to the auction. It was acquired by Taylor in 1963.
Also included is Pissarro's Pommiers d'Eragny, which is estimated to go for up to £1.2m.
The items, due to be auctioned on 7 and 8 February, are being sold as the second batch of works the Taylor's collection, with 1,778 lots having already been...
Paintings by greats such as Vincent van Gogh and Camille Pissarro from the art collection of late Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor are to be sold at auction.
A total of 38 artworks are to come under the hammer at the sale next month at Christie's in London.
They include a Van Gogh, which dates back to 1889 and is expected to fetch up to £7m. The painting, Vue de l'Asile de la Chapelle de Saint-Rémy, was completed the year before his death and will go on public display prior to the auction. It was acquired by Taylor in 1963.
Also included is Pissarro's Pommiers d'Eragny, which is estimated to go for up to £1.2m.
The items, due to be auctioned on 7 and 8 February, are being sold as the second batch of works the Taylor's collection, with 1,778 lots having already been...
- 1/17/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Prince William and Kate Middleton got their hands dirty during day three of their visit to Canada today. Prince William and Kate Middleton, the duke and duchess of Cambridge, planted a ceremonial Hemlock tree on the grounds of Rideau Hall in the shadow of an Oak put there by his parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, on William's first birthday on June 21,1983. Kate and Will's sapling is a symbol of their love, and even with a shovel in hand she once again looked perfectly put together in a gray Catherine Walker dress and sparkly shoes for the beautiful ceremony. Kate and William also unveiled a mural by Augustus John at the Canadian War Museum before traveling to the next spot on their Canadian journey. Kate and William departed Ottawa and made an appearance in Montreal, where Kate made time to speak to a young girl in the children's cancer ward at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital.
- 7/3/2011
- by Molly Goodson
- Popsugar.com
Elizabeth Taylor is selling off a number of prized pieces from her art collection including a series of works by famed Welsh painter Augustus John which were salvaged by her father.
The Hollywood actress inherited the works from her dad Francis, a London art dealer, who pieced the sketches back together after the artist tore them up in a fit of rage in the 1930s.
The drawings will be sold in Britain through Chiswick Auctions and Taylor has passed a letter to the auction house to authenticate the lots.
Taylor writes, "In the late 1930s my father Francis Taylor based his business as an art dealer in London. During that time he acquired a great many works by Augustus John, including these drawings that the artist had torn up in a fit of anger... and which my father subsequently persuaded him to allow to be pieced back together, a task that my father undertook himself."
The 44 drawings, which include female nude studies and portraits, have an estimated value of between $300 (£200) and $1,200 (£800).
The Hollywood actress inherited the works from her dad Francis, a London art dealer, who pieced the sketches back together after the artist tore them up in a fit of rage in the 1930s.
The drawings will be sold in Britain through Chiswick Auctions and Taylor has passed a letter to the auction house to authenticate the lots.
Taylor writes, "In the late 1930s my father Francis Taylor based his business as an art dealer in London. During that time he acquired a great many works by Augustus John, including these drawings that the artist had torn up in a fit of anger... and which my father subsequently persuaded him to allow to be pieced back together, a task that my father undertook himself."
The 44 drawings, which include female nude studies and portraits, have an estimated value of between $300 (£200) and $1,200 (£800).
- 9/26/2010
- WENN
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