This week's @TheTLS, featuring Claire Lowdon on Barbara Pym; @simonjenkins4 on British institutions; @RoryStewartUK on modern Machiavels; @LaurenElkin on the Impasse Ronsin; @lucyamcdonald on microaggressions – and more pic.twitter.com/gUPiOK1ghI
— George Berridge (@George_Berridge) August 18, 2021
Category Archives: Books
Previews: “Bikepacking – Exploring The Roads Less Cycled” (September 2021)
Bikepacking is the publication to discover the adventurous spirit of life on two wheels. Exploring journeys in different regions around the world, introducing the people and culture around it, and giving you the lowdown of all the tips and tricks, this book presents the insights and inspiration to plan your expeditions. Whether beginner or experienced, this is a journey for everyone to enjoy.
They say that what matters is the journey and not the destination, and that couldn’t be more accurate when it comes to bicycle touring. Pack your bag! Taking the roads less traveled, Bikepacking explores surroundings every pedal of the way whilst embracing the freedom nature offers. Long-distance cycling is more than a method of transportation, it’s a vibrant traveling philosophy.
Stefan Amato is a British-based biker and the founder of a bicycle tour operator Pannier.cc. Since its founding in 2012, it has become a staple of the biking community both in the UK and abroad.
Travel & Culture Books: ‘Dubai Wonder’ (Assouline)
Dubai Wonder tours readers through this storied city and its cultural diversity and distinct neighborhoods, including Deira, home to the Khor Dubai, a creek that Dubai’s economy relied on for several decades for pearl diving and fishing; Al Quoz, the cultural heart of the city; the Dubai International Financial Centre and Jumeirah, a largely residential district featuring the emirate’s notable resorts along its coast.
An international port city and desert oasis, Dubai is one of the most important metropolises in the Middle East. With modest beginnings in the industries of pearl diving, fishing and trade, Dubai has since eclipsed its historic origins. The most populated of the seven emirates united by founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1971, Dubai is a treasure trove of the best, the biggest and the brightest, drawing such stars of architecture as Zaha Hadid, Foster + Partners, and Santiago Calatrava. Dubai’s skyline features the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa; the giant Dubai Mall; the Burj Al Arab seven-star hotel and the Dubai International Airport—the ultimate extravagance.
Other stops on the tour include Dubai’s burgeoning art scene, the Art Dubai fair and Alserkal Avenue, a cluster of warehouses containing art galleries. Dubai Wonder also takes readers inside the highly anticipated Expo 2020 Dubai, opening in October 2021 and already heralded as the grandest world fair in history. A hub of innovation and firsts, Dubai represents a vision for the future, where anything is possible, as each page of this awe-inspiring addition to Assouline’s Travel Series demonstrates.
Myrna Ayad is an arts consultant, cultural strategist and editor, with a focus on visual art and culture from the Arab world, Iran and Turkey. She established her namesake consultancy in 2018 following her directorship of Art Dubai, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia’s foremost international art fair. Ayad has written for The New York Times, CNN Online, The Art Newspaper, Artforum, Artsy, Artnet, Wallpaper* and The National, among others, and contributed to artist monographs and exhibition catalogues. From 2007 to 2015, she served as editor of Canvas, the premier magazine for visual art from the Middle East, where she oversaw the production of the title’s affiliate newspapers, catalogues and luxury art books. Over the years, Ayad has served both as a panelist and moderator and sits on the committees of cultural entities in the region. For almost four decades, she has been based in Dubai, where she lives with her husband and two children.
Art Books: ‘Caravaggio – The Complete Works’
Caravaggio, or more accurately Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), was always a name to be reckoned with. Notorious bad boy of Italian painting, the artist was at once celebrated and controversial: violent in temper, precise in technique, a creative master, and a man on the run. Today, he is considered one of the greatest influences in all art history.
This edition offers a neat and comprehensive Caravaggio catalogue raisonné. Each of his paintings is reproduced from recent top-quality photography, allowing for a vivid encounter with the artist’s ingenious repertoire of looks and gestures, as well as numerous detail shots of his boundary-breaking naturalism. Five accompanying chapters trace the complete arc of Caravaggio’s career from his first public commissions in Rome through to his growing celebrity status and trace his tempestuous personal life, in which drama loomed as prominently as in his canvases.
The author
Sebastian Schütze was a longtime research fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome. He is a member of the academic board of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici in Naples, and a member of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. From 2003 to 2009 he held the Bader Chair in Southern Baroque Art at Queen’s University in Kingston. In 2009 he was appointed professor of early modern art history at Vienna University.
Previews: Times Literary Supplement – August 13
Previews: Times Literary Supplement – August 13
Reviews: ‘The Collected Works Of Jim Morrison – Poetry, Journals & Lyrics’
When the lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison, died in 1971 at age 27, he left behind boxes filled with poetry, journals, and handwritten lyrics of what would become some of the era’s most memorable songs. His sister, Anne Morrison Chewning, has now compiled material from his archive into a new book, “The Collected Works of Jim Morrison.” Correspondent John Blackstone talked with Chewning, and with the two surviving members of The Doors – drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger – about Morrison’s impact as a writer and performer.
Books: ‘Hannah Arendt – Critical Lives’ – Samantha Rose Hill (LARB Review)
New Photography Books: ‘Yachts – The Impossible Collection’ (Assouline)
Yachts: The Impossible Collection is an eclectic and carefully curated anthology of ships, from the 1851 ship for which the America’s Cup was named, to J Class racing yachts of the early 1900s, to the current high-tech megayachts, from classics with timeless silhouettes, to head-turners that broke the mold with daring design and redefined their era.
Since time immemorial, monarchs, nobility and the aristocracy have yearned to spend their leisure time on the water. From Cleopatra’s fabled luxury barge to Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia, from elegant Jazz Age vessels such as Nahlin, once chartered by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, to the swinging ’60s Hollywood royalty invited aboard Aristotle Onassis’ Christina O, the yachting scene has always attracted celebrities, high society and the top 0.1%. But with over three thousand sizable yachts currently in the global fleet, not to mention those legendary vessels that are sadly no longer in existence, how do we distinguish the crème de la crème of this exclusive breed?
And with so much focus today on the environment and the health of the oceans, the yachting world is changing quickly, increasingly pursuing sustainability. Whether impossible in sheer size, speed, luxurious features or advanced green technology, all of the vessels in this fantasy marina have transformed the yachting seascape.
As long as there are people with means and blue oceans to explore, there will always be a demand for these beautiful and impossible creatures that break the boundaries of technology, luxury and decadence—and new yachts are still yet to be built, worthy of The Impossible Collection.
Miriam Cain is a U.K.-based luxury journalist and editor, specializing in the superyacht industry for two decades, in a variety of editorial and PR roles, including editor of Elite Traveler Superyachts and SEA+I Magazine. Cain is currently the editor for the yachting and lifestyle publication Navigator, and she also contributes to a variety of international yachting publications as a freelance journalist.
New Art Books: ‘Vermeer – The Complete Works’
In his lifetime, however, the fame of Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) barely extended beyond his native Delft and a small circle of patrons. After his death, his name was largely forgotten, except by a few Dutch art collectors and dealers.
Despite numbering at just 35, his works have prompted a New York Times best seller; a film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth; record visitor numbers at art institutions from Amsterdam to Washington, DC; and special crowd-control measures at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, where thousands flock to catch a glimpse of the enigmatic and enchanting Girl with a Pearl Earring, also known as the “Dutch Mona Lisa”.
Outside of Holland, his works were even misattributed to other artists. It was not until the mid-19th century that Vermeer came to the attention of the international art world, which suddenly looked upon his narrative minutiae, meticulous textural detail, and majestic planes of light, spotted a genius, and never looked back.
This 40th anniversary edition showcases the complete catalog of Vermeer’s work, presenting the calm yet compelling scenes so treasured in galleries across Europe and the United States into one monograph of utmost reproduction quality. Crisp details and essays tracing Vermeer’s career illuminate his remarkable ability not only to bear witness to the trends and trimmings of the Dutch Golden Age but also to encapsulate an entire story in just one transient gesture, expression, or look.
The author
After completing his studies of art history and archaeology at the University of Vienna, Karl Schütz joined the staff of the Gemäldegalerie of the city’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, serving from 1972 as a curator and from 1990 to 2011 as its director. His particular scholarly interests include Netherlandish and Flemish painting, early-16th-century German painting, courtly portraiture, and the history of the Gemäldegalerie collection.
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