Memoir

Book Review: Graphic memoir Eyes Too Dry explores mental illness, lasting friendships, and the healing power of art

A true tale of mental illness told from the perspective of both the sufferer and the bewildered friend, Eyes Too Dry is a joint venture from Alice Chipkin and Jessica ‘Tava’ Tavassoli. Switching between Tava, a medical student slipping into a deep depression, and housemate Alice, losing herself in her friend’s darkening struggle, this graphic…

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Book Review: A Forger’s Tale by Shaun Greenhalgh is an art memoir with a difference

An art memoir with a difference, A Forger’s Tale doesn’t trace the life and work of a celebrated artist, but that of Shaun Greenhalgh, one of Britain’s most infamous art forgers. A working class kid from England’s North West, whose backyard workshop was jokingly referred by police as “the northern annex of the British Museum,”…

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Book Review: Michael Peppiatt’s Francis Bacon in Your Blood is a fascinating exploration of the artist, the author, and a decades long friendship

As a young student in Swingin’ Sixties London, Michael Peppiatt met the star of British contemporary art, Francis Bacon. Initially just hoping to secure an interview for a university magazine, what followed was thirty years of friendship, late nights, copious amounts of champagne, and an interview that never really ended. The author of an acclaimed…

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Book Review: I Am Brian Wilson is a charming music memoir guaranteed to make you smile

God only knows where pop music would be without Brian Wilson. The genius writer of many of The Beach Boys greatest hits has had a profound effect on popular culture. I Am Brian Wilson (his second autobiography; his first was published in the nineties) is a complex and forthright account of his life in music….

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