Böcker utgivna av Unicorn Publishing Group

White studies Rembrandt's technique from an aesthetic rather than a scientific point of view

This ground-breaking publication provides a new view of the great Scottish artist Alan Davie (1920-2014), whose intensely physical gestural painting stood the staid post-war British art world on its head. In advance of a new Davie gallery in Hertford, the visually spectacular book argues that far from being an essentially historical figure, defined by the abstract expressionist era of the Fifties and early Sixties when he enjoyed his greatest fame, Davie was a prophetic artist whose preoccupations with universal creativity and self-realisation are more relevant today than they¿ve ever been.Lavishly illustrated with rare archive photographs and little-seen paintings, Alan Davie in Hertford demonstrates that Davie¿s visionary art was far more closely bound up with physical places than is generally supposed, not least the quiet market town of Hertford, where he lived for 60 years. A catalogue of 40 works intended as the new gallery¿s core collection, provides a ¿rich and fabulous¿ survey of Davie¿s work, from student works of the Thirties to some of his very last paintings.

In 1936, the Duke of York unexpectedly became King George VI, and his ten-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, became heir presumptive. However, she was never heir apparent, because a male sibling would automatically assume her place in the line of succession. So what would have happened upon the late arrival of a baby brother for the grown-up Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret? After King George VI's death in 1952, the United Kingdom's next sovereign would have been a very young boy, and one in need of a regent. James the Third tells that boy's story. How does his reign unfold? He is clever, resourceful and unconventional but can he alter the course of history, given the limited role of a constitutional monarch? Does he find true love, or must he accept second best? And, with the births of his heirs, what does the House of Windsor look like now? Set against rapidly changing times, there is a parallel tale of two working class sisters from the East End of London. As fans of the royal family, they are closer to the crown than they could ever imagine. Seamlessly blending the twists and turns of fiction with historical fact, this book is sure to please anyone who enjoys a glimpse of life behind palace walls.

A social history of mid-nineteenth century life as written by a farmer's son from the East Sussex farm where A.A. Milne wrote Winnie-the-Pooh, and Brian Jones lived and died, and covering a journey to the Great Lakes in Canada via Liverpool and New York.

, In 1930 pioneering female gallerist Lucy Wertheim opened The Wertheim Gallery in London. Wertheim challenged the established art scene conventions; she was a woman without formal art training, driven by intuition and a belief that young British artists should have the same opportunities as their European counterparts. Adventure in Art is Lucy's 1947 autobiography, telling the story of her career in the British Modernist era. Republished by Unicorn to coincide with the forthcoming Towner Eastbourne exhibition, A Life in Art: Lucy Wertheim & Reuniting the Twenties Group (Summer 2022), this book brings to a contemporary audience the trials and tribulations of a key participant in the male-dominated art world in the first half of the twentieth century. Lucy Wertheim's discerning eye and business acumen helped to propel big names such as Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, Cedric Morris, Henry Moore and Frances Hodgkins into the mainstream. With three commissioned essays - the first by Frances Spalding (Lucy Wertheim - Her Gallery in Context); the second by Ariane Banks (Lucy Wertheim - A Pioneering Woman and Her Contemporaries); the third by Towner Eastbourne's Collections & Exhibitions Curator, Karen Taylor (Lucy Wertheim - Her 'Forty-One Year Experiment' [1930-71]) - this new edition not only brings Lucy Carrington Wertheim's words and deeds back into our conscience, but it also publishes over 70 artworks, many of which are featured in the Towner Eastbourne exhibition, as well as newly photographed ephemera from the Estate's extensive archive. Together, this exhibition and book will significantly reset the accepted narrative, and shine a light on a neglected corner of mid-twentieth century art history.,

The story of the Brandt family's international trading and banking activities is told by Peter Augustus Brandt who has based his research on an annotated copy of a genealogy produced by Dr Erik Amburger in 1937

"Published to coincide with a career-defining retrospective at Hastings Museum and Gallery in January 2022"--Page [4] of cover.

James Gordon Bennett was born in 1841, a spoilt only son who took over as publisher of the New York Herald from his millionaire father. Bennett tirelessly supported pioneering fields of technology and sport, always with speed in mind. In 1899, fascinated by the new motor cars, he instigated the International Gordon Bennett Cup. The inaugural race took place in 1900 between Paris and Lyon. Three countries entered, but this was just the beginning of a massive phenomenon that, thanks to Bennett, saw spectators grow from less than a hundred to eighty-thousand. The widespread anti-car sentiment, endless bureaucracy, speed limits, safety and design challenges were all obstacles to overcome. Each Gordon Bennett Cup Race is documented here with an account of the drivers, the cars, the courses and the thrilling highs and lows of the events. The 1903 Cup, which was held in Ireland, was crucial since for the very first time a closed-circuit course was used. It was also the first international race in the British Isles. His dedicated promotion of early motor-car racing gave a boost to the global auto-industry and was a firm basis to the international racing that is still a thrilling part of our lives over 100 years later.

This is an open and frank account of how someone from a railway family in a small East Midlands town went on to become a Cabinet Minister serving in the Ministry of Defence as Britain conducted difficult and demanding operations in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. It sets out his political career from his earliest days knocking on doors for the Labour Party through to his becoming a Euro-MP, an MP for eighteen years and a Cabinet Minister for almost ten years. It describes his careers as an academic, lawyer, politician and in international business, as well as his commitment to conservation and protecting the environment.

This book is a personal, humorous and insightful insider's perspective of what goes on a daily basis inside the United Nations. It is incisive, direct and a pleasure to read. There have been other historical accounts and contemporary assessments of the United Nations, but none by United Nations staff members at such a high level, with long established careers that allow for nuanced perspectives and analysis.

This lavishly illustrated book celebrates the life of Doris and Anna Zinkeisen, charting the rise of the sisters from a childhood in Scotland, to their emergence as amongst the most eminent artists of their day in London, to a quieter yet still highly productive life during their twilight years in rural Suffolk. During the golden age from the 1920s through to the 1950s, the Zinkeisen sisters enjoyed a huge success and won numerous accolades. Their paintings and design work, including posters, murals and luxury ocean liners, and costume designs for stage and film, are today emblematic of that period in British art. Philip Kelleway is an art historian who has written books on topics including 18th century porcelain, illustration and landscape painting. He is an authority on the work of the Zinkeisen sisters and has previously published Highly Desirable: the Zinkeisen Sisters and Their Legacy. Emma Roodhouse is an art curator and works for Colchester and Ipswich Museums. She also contributes on research projects for the East Anglian Traditional Arts Centre. Nicola Evans is an accomplished artist and conservator of paintings at KSH Conservation Ltd. She has also worked for Damien Hirst at Hirst Science and for the National Maritime Museum in London --

Bob Reid's Railway Revolution describes the life and career of the first Bob Reid, always known as Bob Reid One, and the history of the railways since nationalisation. It shows how the organisational changes he forced through when Chief Executive from 1980 to 1990 turned British Rail into one of the best railways in Europe. His reforms, described as revolutionary, saw Inter-City become profitable, the creation of Network SouthEast and for the first time in 30 years, a growth in passenger numbers and freight.

The life of Tom Peters.

In war, it is not just the knavish tricks of the enemy but also the home grown unfortunate occurrences that result in disasters. This book chronicles the circumstances surrounding an aging Panamanian freighter, the SS Capira, on her last voyage in convoys PQ 15, QP 13 and SC 97. During the period between November 1941 and September 1942 she witnessed a number of significant losses brought about by allied actions that far outweighed those caused by the enemy. John Chuter tells SS Capira's story using primary archive material from the UK, USA, Canada, Russia and Germany as well as interviews, letters and previously unpublished contemporaneous eyewitness accounts. He recounts the political, strategic, tactical and technical issues that shaped the events, as well reliving the accounts of the extraordinary sailors who took part in the action.

Lala plays with her diamond ring, mesmerized as always by the distant world it conjures for her and the jewel's extraordinary trajectory from Tsarist Russia to twenty-first-century England. An unexpected invitation has arrived and, at last, she will be able to visit Lentvaris, her paternal grandmother's ancestral home, a splendid East European estate where princely art collections, spectacular jewellery, extravagant balls and performing dwarves, coexisted with philanthropy on a grand scale and a deep sense of noblesse oblige. The First World War irrevocably altered the family's privileged lives, Lala's great-uncle was forced to flee with the last of the Romanov dynasty and her great-grandfather auctioned off his art treasures. The Second World War lost Lentvaris for ever. Lala's grandfather died in a Soviet gulag. Her grandmother, aunt and father survived harsh imprisonment and afterwards crossed continents eventually finding precarious stability living as emigres in South America. This is an epic story of dramatic escapes, concealed treasures, a lost paradise, but especially of the courage, strength and resilience shown by the female side of Lala's family, and of the power of love, humour and hope.

In 1986, Susan Campbell made the chance discovery of a hitherto unknown garden diary. She spent the next 35 years researching its background before writing this book. The diary was written between 1838 and 1865 by the father of Charles Darwin, Doctor Robert Darwin and after his death in 1848 it was continued by his sister, Susan. It describes the horticultural and domestic activities at The Mount, a large house with extensive, beautiful gardens and pastures on the banks of the River Severn, in Shrewsbury. It was the home of the Darwin family from 1800 until Susan's death in 1866 and, in 1809, it was Charles's birthplace. Apart from revealing that Doctor Darwin made his garden available for several of Charles's early horticultural experiments (1838-1841) the diary describes all the plants that grew in this garden, whether ornamental and exotic, utilitarian or edible, as well as the keeping of cows and pigs, the exchanges of plants with neighbours and family, and occasional events of local importance.

A History of Dangerous Assumptions features over two hundred illuminating and intriguing case-studies of this fascinating subject, including some of the most disastrous assumptions ever foisted upon the human race. This book began as an experiment, to discover if acting on assumptions could be discerned through the ages. In fact, this matter of assuming... of jumping to conclusions... of lacking sufficient evidence... of taking things for granted... seems to have caused far more problems for civilisation than expected. From Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, to Bonaparte's march on Moscow; from the hubris of Icarus and Phaeton, to the toppling towers of the Tay Bridge; from the maddening phantoms of a Northwest Passage, to the sinking of the Titanic; from the Schlieffen Plan of the First World War, to the creation of assumptions in the approach to D-Day; from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Sherlock Holmes, here lies a highly contrasted trove of stories, episodes and anecdotes, their common link the mysterious mischief of assumption.

This book of a significant private collection of eighteenth-century Meissen porcelain has been expertly catalogued and photographed. With over 100 specially commissioned photographs to showcase the objects in the round and close-up, as well as to highlight their important features. There are detailed entries for each item, whilst the introductory essay helps to shed light on these beautiful pieces of Meissen porcelain, many of them extremely rare, and are placed into their historical context. Anyone with an interest in the decorative arts of the eighteenth-century will find this book a feast for the eyes.00Philip Kelleway is an art historian. Since completing his doctorate on ceramics Kelleway has written peer-reviewed journal articles and books on topics including eighteenth-century porcelain, illustration, and landscape painting. He is an authority on the work of the Zinkeisen sisters and has published his findings on them including co-authoring The Art of Doris & Anna Zinkeisen (2021), also published by Unicorn.The photographer is Tristan Sam Weller. --

Generations: The Fishing Families of Hastings is a photographic portrayal from the 1990s to the present day of the men and women of BritainΓÇÖs oldest beach-launched fishing community. Realised by the photojournalist and Hastings resident John Cole, the book portrays a unique community that may soon become extinct.Generations is in the tradition of such classic photojournalists as Sebastiao Salgado, Don McCullin and Henri Cartier-Bresson. ColeΓÇÖs images document the passing of a way of working, of skills that have been handed down from generation to generation.

William Carne's life, like so many others in the 20th Century, was defined by the two World Wars. He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet aged just sixteen in 1914. This is his story of his life at sea, from his own memoirs, letters, diaries and photos. It is a humbling account of his time as a midshipman on HMS New Zealand at the Battle of Jutland, to Captain of HMS Coventry in 1941 during the evacuation of Crete. It is also a fascinating insight into society at that time, both in the Service and at home. It is the story of The Making of a Royal Naval Officer.

The first indepth history of Langemark German Cemetery to be published with the English speaking visitor in mind, Studetenfriedhof to Soldatenfriedhof tells the story of the evolution of Langemark German cemetery from its creation in the Great War, the influence of the Nazis before and during WW2 and its evolution into the modern cemetery of today. Dispelling many of the myths and legends that surround the cemetery, Studetenfriedhof to Soldatenfriedhof takes the visitor on a detailed self-guided tour, following the route planned by its designer in the early 1930ΓÇÖs. The clever use of ΓÇ£then and nowΓÇ¥ images helps the visitor visualise the evolution of the cemetery and explains the ΓÇ£who, what and whyΓÇ¥ of it all whilst walking in the footsteps of the past.

On the first day of lockdown, Mary Collis decided to post a painting onto her Facebook page, suggesting she would ΓÇÿlift the dayΓÇÖ during the forecast two-week lockdown. 245 days later she was still posting daily. This Facebook lockdown exhibition became a daily source of inspiration and sanity for Mary and her followers, as they shared memories through her art and words about life in locked down Kenya and beyond.

This intriguing book investigates the very rare discovery of a huge, lost, Last Supper painting produced in the workshop of Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian. The discoloured canvas hung neglected in a parish church for 110 years until the conservator and art historian Ronald Moore removed centuries of discoloured varnish and began to appreciate that something exceptional was being revealed. Following extensive scientific examination, signatures and dates appeared whilst it also became apparent that some faces were actually portraits.The early history of the painting in a Venetian convent was discovered with the enthusiastic help of the modern Venetian, Count Francesco da Mosto, whose family knew Titian. The many painters of Titian''s workshop are considered with careful circumspection to determine possible contributors to the Last Supper and the remarkable reason for the many changes, or pentimenti, are explained. After 10,500 hours of research and the translation of countless Italian documents and books, the full history of the painting has been revealed. We now know that the painting is far more than a Last Supper from Titian''s workshop, painted by at least five artists over twenty years, but is actually a painting within a painting involving other prominent painters and a denouement unparalleled in Renaissance art.

In 1937 aged just 19, Edmund Murray left his family and a comfortable job in London, caught the boat train to France and signed up for the minimum of five years' service with the French Foreign Legion. Armed with little more than school-boy French and a desire for a life of adventure, Murray travelled through France and on to the Legion's headquarters in Algeria where he completed a gruelling three-month basic training programme. He went on to serve in Morocco and Indochina (now Vietnam) where towards the end of the War, his regiment were forced to retreat from invading Japanese forces into China where his service ended after eight years as a Legionnaire. Throughout the Second World War, Murray's overwhelming sense of duty compelled him to try to leave the Legion and join the Allied forces, but he was thwarted at every attempt. He was an Englishman, in a French organisation, by definition a home for 'the men with no names', during a time of global conflict where battle lines and countries' boundaries changed almost daily. He was an anomaly, a diplomatic puzzle. But as such, his was an extraordinary war-time experience. This book, which borrows heavily from Murray's earlier book, Churchill's Bodyguard, includes rare personal insights into Legion life from drills and manoeuvres, to feast-days and festivals as well as accounts of friendships forged in exceptional circumstances and which would last a lifetime. It also documents a unique war-time experience of the man whose sense of duty never faltered and led him, in later life, to become bodyguard to Sir Winston Churchill. Edited by his son Bill Murray, this is the story in his own words of Edmund Murray, Churchill's Legionnaire, and his service in the French Foreign Legion from 1937 to 1945.

Born in London in 1890, Angela Thirkell was Sir Edward Burne-JonesΓÇÖs granddaughter, J.M. BarrieΓÇÖs goddaughter and a cousin of Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. John Collier painted her portrait and she was drawn by John Singer Sargent and Thea Proctor. Between 1931 and her death in 1961, Angela published more than thirty books in a variety of genres. She began with the acclaimed family memoir Three Houses and later settled on her amusing Barsetshire series, inspired by Anthony Trollope but set in the present day.Angela Thirkell: A WriterΓÇÖs Life tells the authorΓÇÖs story from her Kensington childhood to her two marriages and the birth of three sons, Graham McInnes, Colin MacInnes and Lance Thirkell, all of whom also entered the literary world. The book traces her decade in Australia where she wrote for magazines and newspapers and made radio broadcasts, followed by her return to London and her fortuitous meeting with a young publisher called Jamie Hamilton, which lead to her bestselling Barsetshire novels.

Countless dollars of art are stolen or looted every year, yet governments often consider art theft a luxury problem. With limited public law enforcement, what prevents thieves, looters and organised criminal gangs from flooding the market with stolen art? How can theft victims get justice - even decades after their loss? What happens if the legal definition of a good title is at odds with what is morally right? Enter the Art Loss Register, a private database dedicated to tracking down stolen artworks. Blocking the sale of disputed artworks creates a space for private resolutions - often amicable and sometimes entertainingly adversarial. This book is based on ten cases from the Art Loss Register's archive, showing how restitutions were negotiated, how priceless objects were retrieved from the economic underworld and how thieves and fences end up in court and behind bars. A fascinating guide to the dark side of the global art market.

Sempre Avanti. Ever Forward. That's the motto on the Gelardi family shield and it's a philosophy that has directed the lives and careers of four generations of hoteliers - Giuseppe, Giulio, Bertie and Geoffrey. Giuseppe managed hotels in his native Italy in the nineteenth century but his son Giulio was more ambitious and came to London, working first at Walsingham House - which was to later to become the Ritz - and managing the Savoy and Claridges in London and the Waldorf Astoria in New York. His son Bertie worked alongside Lord Forte to create the international Trust Houses Forte empire and acquiring, amongst others, the George V and Plaza Athenee in Paris, Sandy Lane in Barbados and the Pierre in New York. Geoffrey, Bertie's son and the fourth generation Gelardi to make his mark in the luxury hotel business, spent years in the USA at the Bel Air in Los Angeles and the Sorrento in Seattle before returning to the UK to open the Lanesborough in 1991 - then, and still, London's leading luxury hotel. Interweaved into this fascinating history we encounter royalty, celebrities, politicians and film stars - Mussolini, King Edward VII, Lilly Langtry, Ronald Reagan, various Atlantic City mafia figures, Frank Sinatra, Arnold Swartzenegger, Sophia Loren, Madonna, Michael Jackson, HRH The Queen, Princess Diana and many, many more.

For much of the nineteenth century, women artists laboured under the same restrictions and taboos they had endured for centuries, and it was assumed that marriage and child-bearing were their goals in life. However, by the 1870s female art students of every nation were flocking to Paris in search of instruction in the city's private art schools. With proper training, they now had the confidence to tackle a wider range of subjects and by the century's end they were at last able to study the nude figure. During these breakthrough years, women won the right to work and exhibit alongside men, both in Europe and America, and the advent of art galleries and art dealers opened up new ways of selling their work. This book is full of surprising adventures: young women, still not allowed to visit a museum unchaperoned, travelled thousands of miles in a quest for first-class tuition; several Americans, while still in their twenties, journeyed to Rome to study sculpture; numerous free and independent women joined the artists' colonies that sprang up all over Europe, where they made lasting friendships, painting from dawn to dusk en plein air and enjoying the bohemian life. These trailblazing women rose to the challenges of the century's dramatic development in art styles - from Realism to the Avant-Garde - and triumphantly succeeded in becoming successful professional artists.

In an art world that has lost itself to gimmickry and the distortions and hallucinations of Capitalism on crack, here is an artist who values depth and integrity, and is patiently and powerfully reminding us of what art is and can be.

The book depicts the abandoned and crumbling Prime MinisterΓÇÖs mansion in Beirut and the lives connected to it and interwoven into its fabric for over a century. The photographs of the rich and famous at the house in its heyday at its opulent best, contrast with those showing it as it is now. Accompanying essays unravel the intriguing stories knitted into its bricks and mortar, including political intrigue, births, deaths, marriages, tragedies, wars, murders and determination.The mansion was once occupied by Takieddine el-Solh, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon (1973 to 1974 and briefly in 1980) and his wife Fadwa al-Barazi. It is situated in the Kantari district of Beirut, very close to the downtown area where the street battles fully igniting the civil war, which began in April 1975 and ended in 1990. Many of the residents fled their homes at the beginning of the war, never to inhabit them again. It is also close to the port where more recent tragic events have taken place: in August 2020 one of the largest ever non-nuclear explosions ripped through the heart of Beirut resulting in hundreds of lost lives, thousands of injuries and the mass destruction of homes and businesses.