10 books like A Crisis of Brilliance

By David Boyd Haycock,

Here are 10 books that authors have personally recommended if you like A Crisis of Brilliance. Shepherd is a community of 8,000+ authors sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Paul Nash in Pictures

By James Russell,

Book cover of Paul Nash in Pictures: Landscape and Dream

Dave McKean Author Of Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash

From the list on Paul Nash.

Who am I?

I spent two years researching and creating the graphic novel Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash for the 14-18Now Foundations WW1 centenary art commissions, and then touring a live permanence work evolved from the book. We grew up a few miles from each other, and he convalesced after the war where I live now, and I share his sense of place, and we appear to have shared many life experiences, with the obvious exception being his time in the trenches - that was the huge black hole I tried to understand with this work.

Dave's book list on Paul Nash

Discover why each book is one of Dave's favorite books.

Why did Dave love this book?

Key paintings from Nash’s restless career, each with an accompanying essay offering insight into the real places and events that Nash samples and folds into his psychological landscapes. We are constantly aware of the mind behind the brush, using the places he loves to explore his inner anxieties and his desire for solace.

Paul Nash in Pictures

By James Russell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Paul Nash in Pictures as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Poet and Painter

By Anthony Bertram, Claude Colleer,

Book cover of Poet and Painter

Dave McKean Author Of Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash

From the list on Paul Nash.

Who am I?

I spent two years researching and creating the graphic novel Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash for the 14-18Now Foundations WW1 centenary art commissions, and then touring a live permanence work evolved from the book. We grew up a few miles from each other, and he convalesced after the war where I live now, and I share his sense of place, and we appear to have shared many life experiences, with the obvious exception being his time in the trenches - that was the huge black hole I tried to understand with this work.

Dave's book list on Paul Nash

Discover why each book is one of Dave's favorite books.

Why did Dave love this book?

More than any other book, this volume of letters between friends, and the unguarded insight they allow, gave me a sense of the man, his rhythms of speech, his manner of expression and his character. Career details and everyday mundanities mix with deeper concerns and the kind of excavation of ideas only really close and respectful friends can express.

Poet and Painter

By Anthony Bertram, Claude Colleer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Poet and Painter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book bears witness to the staying power of Pre-Raphaelitism & illuminates the ambivalent, relatively uncritical response in England to the modern movement.


Paul Nash

By David Boyd Haycock,

Book cover of Paul Nash: Outline, An Autobiography

Dave McKean Author Of Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash

From the list on Paul Nash.

Who am I?

I spent two years researching and creating the graphic novel Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash for the 14-18Now Foundations WW1 centenary art commissions, and then touring a live permanence work evolved from the book. We grew up a few miles from each other, and he convalesced after the war where I live now, and I share his sense of place, and we appear to have shared many life experiences, with the obvious exception being his time in the trenches - that was the huge black hole I tried to understand with this work.

Dave's book list on Paul Nash

Discover why each book is one of Dave's favorite books.

Why did Dave love this book?

Nash never managed to finish his autobiography, and it was originally published with notes, letters and fragments edited into the second half to attempt to complete his story. This new edition adds his wife Margaret’s Memoirs of Paul Nash, 1913-1946, from a surviving type manuscript held at the Tate, to add many more colours and details to this fascinating portrait of an artist and his genius loci – sense of place. I’d also recommend James King’s biography Interior Landscapes.

Paul Nash

By David Boyd Haycock,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Paul Nash as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Paul Nash (1889-1946) was one of the most important British artists of the twentieth century and an official war artist in both the First and the Second World Wars. This new edition of Nash's unfinished autobiography, Outline, is published to coincide with the Tate's major Paul Nash retrospective and incorporates an abridged edition of the previously unpublished 'Memoir of Paul Nash' by his wife Margaret.

Nash started writing Outline in the late 1930s, but it was left incomplete on his sudden death in 1946. Nash had struggled to complete the book, finding that he could not get beyond the beginning…


Brothers in Arms

By Paul Gough,

Book cover of Brothers in Arms: John and Paul Nash and the Aftermath of the Great War

Dave McKean Author Of Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash

From the list on Paul Nash.

Who am I?

I spent two years researching and creating the graphic novel Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash for the 14-18Now Foundations WW1 centenary art commissions, and then touring a live permanence work evolved from the book. We grew up a few miles from each other, and he convalesced after the war where I live now, and I share his sense of place, and we appear to have shared many life experiences, with the obvious exception being his time in the trenches - that was the huge black hole I tried to understand with this work.

Dave's book list on Paul Nash

Discover why each book is one of Dave's favorite books.

Why did Dave love this book?

A thoroughly researched visual study of two brothers, close and highly imaginative playmates as children, but then gradually divergent adults as they came to terms with their war experiences. John had a tougher war, yet seems to have been able to leave the horror behind as he embarked on a brighter, more decorative illustrative style. Paul would be haunted his entire life by shadows of death and depression, but would become one of this country's most important and powerful artists.

Brothers in Arms

By Paul Gough,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Brothers in Arms as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When brothers John and Paul Nash held their first exhibition in 1913 at the Dorien Leigh Gallery in South Kensington, London they were regarded as equally talented and equally ambitious, even though it had been Paul who had studied at the Slade School of Art amongst an extraordinary cohort of young British artists, and John was regarded as an untutored youngster with a flair for capturing the essence of the English landscape. As war broke their fortunes diverted: Paul achieved instant recognition as an Official War Artist, while John withstood the terrors of the trenches as an infantryman. In 1918…


Among the Bohemians

By Virginia Nicholson,

Book cover of Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939

Tessa Lunney Author Of Autumn Leaves, 1922: A Kiki Button Mystery

From the list on the 1920s.

Who am I?

I started reading about the 1920s after I read Among the Bohemians by Virginia Nicholson in 2008. I kept reading about the 1920s, particularly 1920s Paris, through my Masters and then my Doctorate in war fiction. I would read about interwar Europe, or America, or Britain, when I needed to work on my doctorate but was too tired to read about trenches or trauma, and it became an obsession. Then it became the subject of two novels, which involved more and more particular research. I love the period's brittle gaiety, its dirty glamour, a time of cultural and political revolution as people fought for a better world.

Tessa's book list on the 1920s

Discover why each book is one of Tessa's favorite books.

Why did Tessa love this book?

It is not too much to say that this book changed my life. I found this book when I was looking for a guide, a template, for how to be a writer. This book has a hundred anecdotes of the creative life, of how to succeed and how to fail gloriously. This book ignited my obsession with the 1920s.

Nicholson writes about the life of Britain’s bohemians in the first half of the twentieth century, not from their work, but from their way of life. There are chapters on money and clothes, on cleaning and babies, on houses and travel. She includes famous names, like the Bloomsbury Illuminati, and many whom I’d never heard of. She includes lots of material from the people she writes about – photos, sketches, letters, telegrams, talks, and interviews. The writing is perfectly economical and the portraits leap off the page. Nicholson is Virginia Woolf’s…

Among the Bohemians

By Virginia Nicholson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Among the Bohemians as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Virginia Nicholson's Among the Bohemians is a portrait of England's artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century, engaged in a grand experiment.

Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant - the Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they painted and danced and didn't care what people thought. They sent their children to co-ed schools; explored homosexuality and Free Love. They were often drunk, broke and hungry but they were rebels.

In this fascinating book Virginia Nicholson examines the way the Bohemians refashioned the way we live our lives.

'Interesting, gorgeous, wonderful.... this book displays the best of bohemia itself…


Beatrix Potter, Scientist

By Lindsay H. Metcalf, Junyi Wu (illustrator),

Book cover of Beatrix Potter, Scientist

Tami Lewis Brown Author Of Perkin's Perfect Purple: How a Boy Created Color with Chemistry

From the list on inspiring your young scientist.

Who am I?

From a girl who defied death to set nearly every aviation record in a rickety bi-plane, to a team of young women who literally invented computer coding with no guidance and very little credit, to a boy who revolutionized chemistry when he used the scientific method to create the color purple from coal tar, I write books about young people who followed their dreams to accomplish amazing things. There’s no reason to wait until you grow up to become a scientist. The books I’ve chosen will inspire your young scientist to explore and invent - right now!

Tami's book list on inspiring your young scientist

Discover why each book is one of Tami's favorite books.

Why did Tami love this book?

We all know Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated Peter Rabbit and other children’s books, but how many people are aware that young Beatrix was a groundbreaking mushroom scientist? In Beatrix Potter, Scientist, Metcalf unveils the secret scientific side of Beatrix Potter, long before her books became classics. Beatrix studied all sorts of fungi, discovering a mushroom known as the Old Man Of The Woods, but as a female she was prohibited from presenting a scientific paper to London’s Linean Society. I love one of this book’s underlying messages, that someone can be an artist AND a scientist; there’s no need to choose one or the other. There’s also a terrific author’s note and strong supporting end matter for further study.

Beatrix Potter, Scientist

By Lindsay H. Metcalf, Junyi Wu (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Beatrix Potter, Scientist as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Friends of American Writers Chicago Winner 2021 Young People's Literature Award

Beatrix Potter was a writer, an artist, and a scientist too, and she strove to find a place in the world for her talents.

Everyone knows Beatrix Potter as the creator of the Peter Rabbit stories. But before that, she was a girl of science. As a child, Beatrix collected nature specimens; as a young adult, she was an amateur mycologist presenting her research on mushrooms and other fungi to England's foremost experts. Like many women of her time, she remained unacknowledged by the scientific community, but her keen…


Zero History

By William Gibson,

Book cover of Zero History

Janet Stilson Author Of The Juice

From the list on novels that wonder about the future.

Who am I?

There are days when it seems like all I do is imagine what the future holds. I love reading “wonder tales,” as I’ve heard Margaret Atwood call them – novels that imagine how our world might change or fantasize about completely different realms. At the same time, they reflect on conditions in our world today. That’s what I do with my own creative writing. I was trained to think about the future as a journalist, talking with media executives about how their content and technology are evolving. My stories have appeared in Asimov's; they’ve been selected by the Writers Lab for Women; and my novel The Juice was published in February.

Janet's book list on novels that wonder about the future

Discover why each book is one of Janet's favorite books.

Why did Janet love this book?

This novel represents a sharp turn for me. Until I snapped up Zero History in an airport bookstore many years ago, the science fiction I’d read seemed like dry, intellectual exercises. The characters didn’t have depth. They never made me laugh (or cry). But Zero History unleashed a passion in me for speculative fiction, and eventually, it turned my own writing in that direction as well. To this day, it’s one of my all-time favorite novels. While it’s the third book in a William Gibson trilogy, it is entirely complete on its own. There’s a pop culture, cool vibe about it as the story taps into the lives of three people with unusual gifts – which a global marketing magnate dearly wants to use in various ways.

Zero History

By William Gibson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Zero History as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Gibson is having tremendous fun' Independent

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THE THIRD NOVEL IN THE BLUE ANT TRILIOGY - READ PATTERN RECOGNITION AND SPOOK COUNTRY FOR MORE

Hubertus Bigend, the Machiavellian head of global ad-agency Blue Ant, wants to uncover the maker of an obscurely fashionable denim that is taking subculture by storm. Ex-musician Henry Hollis knows nothing about fashion, but Bigend decides she is the woman for the job anyway.

Soon, though, it becomes clear that Bigend's interest in underground labels might have sinister applications. Powerful parties, who'll do anything to get what they want, are showing their hand. And Hollis is…


Foundation

By Peter Ackroyd,

Book cover of Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

Bill Thompson Author Of Callie

From the list on kick off a great series.

Who am I?

During my decades in the corporate world, I traveled extensively and spent months in England, where I became a devoted Anglophile. I am privileged to have met Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, and to have attended a knighting at Westminster. English history fascinates me, but so do gripping spy thrillers occurring in European and Middle Eastern settings. There’s nothing better than finishing a satisfying first book in a series—fiction or not--and deciding to ration the remaining ones so you can savor the experience a little longer! 

Bill's book list on kick off a great series

Discover why each book is one of Bill's favorite books.

Why did Bill love this book?

Peter Ackroyd has written several wonderful books about London, the Thames, and aspects of English life, but this six-volume series (the last to come in 2023) is the best and most comprehensive I’ve found. It’s a delightful trip through history, not only covering the politics of the times but giving insight into the daily lives of people from one era to the next, how towns became cities, infrastructure and the system of government developed. The page counts are daunting, but don’t be dissuaded—nobody can make history come alive better than Ackroyd.

Foundation

By Peter Ackroyd,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Foundation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first book in Peter Ackroyd's history of England series, which has since been followed up with two more installments, Tudors and Rebellion.

In Foundation, the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death, in 1509, of the first Tudor king, Henry VII. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past--a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a…


Blind Justice

By Bruce Alexander,

Book cover of Blind Justice

Laura C. Stevenson Author Of All Men Glad and Wise: A Mystery

From the list on mysteries that make a time and place come alive.

Who am I?

I’m an historian who writes novels, and an avid reader of historical murder mysteries—especially ones whose characters are affected by social, religious, and political change. Lately, I’ve been fascinated by the breakup of rural British estates between 1880 and 1925, when, in a single generation, the amount of British land owned by the aristocracy fell from 66% to perhaps 15%. I thought it might be interesting to set a “country house” mystery on one of the failing estates, with a narrator influenced by the other great change of the period: from horses to automobiles. “Interesting” was an understatement; writing it was eye-opening.  

Laura's book list on mysteries that make a time and place come alive

Discover why each book is one of Laura's favorite books.

Why did Laura love this book?

Blind Justice, set in 1768, is the first of Bruce Alexander’s 11 Sir John Fielding mysteries. Its hero is the famous blind magistrate of London’s Bow Street Court; its narrator is thirteen-year-old Jeremy Proctor, whom Fielding’s wisdom has saved from an unjust accusation of theft. The pair investigate the death of Sir Richard Goodhope, who has been discovered shot in his library, locked from the inside. Sir John assumes suicide, but Jeremy’s observation of a detail that the magistrate could not see suggests murder. Proof of murder involves following Goodhope’s history through London’s streets, gambling houses, coffee houses, and great houses—to Drury Lane theater and Newgate—in a compelling portrait of eighteenth-century London.

Blind Justice

By Bruce Alexander,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Blind Justice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first of a series of novels set in 18th-century London and featuring Sir John Fielding - magistrate, detective, founder of the Bow Street Runners, half-brother of Henry, and confidant of such notables as Johnson and Boswell. Sir John is blind, and uses a young orphan as his "eyes".


Book cover of The First English Detectives: The Bow Street Runners and the Policing of London, 1750-1840

Melissa McShane Author Of Burning Bright

From the list on touring the unfamiliar corners of Regency England.

Who am I?

I’ve loved the Regency era since first reading Jane Austen’s novels, but in writing my series of 19th-century adventure fantasies, I discovered there was so much more to the period than I’d ever dreamed. Though their culture and traditions aren’t like ours, I’m fascinated by how much about the lives of those men and women is familiar—the same desires, the same dreams for the future. I hope the books on this list inspire in you the same excitement they did in me!

Melissa's book list on touring the unfamiliar corners of Regency England

Discover why each book is one of Melissa's favorite books.

Why did Melissa love this book?

Captain Gronow shed some light on the darker aspects of the Regency period, which was a time before law enforcement as we know it. But it wasn’t all bad—the Bow Street Runners were the start of a new era of policing. I was fascinated by the story of how these first detectives came to be and how much truth was behind the myth, especially since the myth has become a popular one for fiction writers in recent years.

The First English Detectives

By J. M. Beattie,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The First English Detectives as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the first comprehensive study of the Bow Street Runners, a group of men established in the middle of the eighteenth century by Henry Fielding, with the financial support of the government, to confront violent offenders on the streets and highways around London. They were developed over the following decades by his half-brother, John Fielding, into what became a well-known and stable group of officers who acquired skill and expertise in investigating crime,
tracking and arresting offenders, and in presenting evidence at the Old Bailey, the main criminal court in London. They were, Beattie argues, detectives in all but…


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