A beautiful and enlightening new book about the Taplin life and work charts a riveting journey from the wartime East End to the wilds of the Essex coast. En route, the self-taught artist, hurtling through many careers before finding his feet and pouring his spirit into sculpture, has meandered as far as the driftwood he turns into magical art.
The story of a fascinating man who connected the great politicians, artists and thinkers at the height of British global power and influence. A famed aesthete, politician and patron of the arts, Philip Sassoon lived in a world of English elegance and oriental flair. Gathering a social set that would provide inspiration for Brideshead Revisited, Sassoon gave parties at which Winston Churchill argued with George Bernard Shaw, while Noël Coward and Lawrence of Arabia mingled with flamingos and Rex Whistler painted murals as the party carried on around them. Not merely a wealthy socialite, he worked at the right hand of Douglas Haig during the First World War and then for Prime Minister Lloyd George for the settlement of the peace. He was close to King Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, and Minister for the Air Force in the 1930s. And yet as the heir of wealthy Jewish traders from the souks of Baghdad, Philip craved acceptance from the English establishment. In Charmed Life, Damian Collins explores an extraordinary connected life at the heart of society during the height of British global power and influence.
Exploring the Australian property market, this book delves into the diverse investment strategies available, including residential versus commercial choices and renovation versus redevelopment. It emphasizes the potential to leverage an initial investment property to significantly increase wealth, encouraging readers to think beyond the conventional approach of owning just one investment. The insights provided aim to empower investors to maximize their opportunities in the dynamic property landscape.
67 People I'd Like to Slap is one man's journey through the labyrinthine world of human angst and annoyance.
This is a personal story of a life marred by the psychiatric condition OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). The full nature of this complex disorder, the varied symptoms and its ability to wreak havoc on normal everyday life is accurately retold from 30+ years of notes and psychological diaries. But unlike many such 'troubled life stories' which detail different symptoms when and where they developed, and end with the sufferer eventually seeking some form of professional help, this account in itself is a serious in-depth study of the psychological motivation behind and reasons for the development and persistence of this particular case of OCD. Initially based on five and a half years of psychoanalysis during the 1980s, the author's personal quest for self-understanding continued for years. This protracted inner journey and the insights it produced into the underlying nature of OCD form the essence of this book.
This is a glittering and haunting saga of the artist-jeweller to the Russian and British courts and his chief patrons - sisters and queen-empresses Alexandra and Maria Feodorovna, who commissioned fabulous objects and changed the world. Norfolk's Sandringham Estate, royal retreat and global powerhouse, was central to their bittersweet story.
A vivid biography in cinematic snapshots of David Lloyd George, one of the world's greatest statesmen. Brought up in rural North Wales, David Lloyd George attended neither a grand school nor ancient university. He was very much an outsider. And yet he rose through the ranks with charisma, fierce intelligence and fighting spirit to become, as Churchill put it in his tribute, a man who 'stood, when at his zenith, without a rival'. But his rise was not without its hardships, and in Rivals in the Storm, experienced MP and author Damian Collins focuses on the impact of Lloyd George's personality on other leading politicians, in driving progressive reforms through government, changing the course of the First World War to lead the Allies to victory, and cementing Britain's alliance with America. Covering Lloyd George's emergence as the dominating political personality in Great Britain to the aftermath of his resignation, this fascinating biography takes you inside the rooms where the important decisions happened, and shows the bitter struggles as well as the triumphs of this great man of his or any other age, who nonetheless fell short of his own high expectations.