Anywhere: ARTIST (Keywords)

A failed artist who was big in the nineties grapples with his storied, difficult past and uncertain present, all while convalescing secretly in the cottage of his lost love, who just so happens to be married to his former best friend.

At the time of her death, the press wrote many things about Ingrid Olssen: She was a brilliant artist. She was a terrible mother to her girls, Mattie and Nora. And that her legacy would live on forever. Even so, it's unlikely the world will ever see another Ingrid Olssen exhibition - her last request to her daughters was to throw her ashes in the canyon and her paintings in the sea. But as Mattie and Nora reluctantly embark on an all-or-nothing trip to fulfil her wishes, they start to unpick the painful scars of their past. And soon they begin to realise that the ties that bound them, might also break them.

A single sentence, that was all it took to define Cammy's life. They came as her beloved artist aunt was dying, a teenage Cammy standing by her bedside: 'Did your mother ever tell you about the curse?' Cammy is warned that the women in her family are destined always to lose the one they love. She thinks nothing of it - until the day when, in her late twenties, her new boyfriend is hit by a car. Convinced she is to blame, Cammy begins to investigate the one-hundred-and-fifty-year story of a family that is both ordinary and remarkable, tragic and beautiful. But is the curse real, or is there an answer lurking in the letters, diaries and paintings of generations of women whose hearts were broken?

Ever since his mother's plane was senselessly shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby, Cyrus has been grappling with her death. Now, newly sober, he is set to learn the truth of her life. When an encounter with a dying artist leads Cyrus towards the mysteries of his past - an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as an Angel of Death, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter - he finds himself once again caught up in the story of his mother, who may not have been who or what she seemed. As Cyrus searches for meaning in the scattered clues of his life, a final revelation transforms everything he thought he knew.

On the surface Dylan has achieved the impossible - a life in New York, eight years of making this stick. And yet it is not the thing she'd imagined. When she walks out of her career, then apartment, and into a housesit for an artist she's never met, she does not tell her friends, her parents back in England, or Matt, her boyfriend, living on the West Coast. Job-free and rent-free, she'll make good on her book, herself, other things, too. Sublimely fraught and erotically charged, 'How to Be Somebody Else' is an uncoming of age story in which Dylan is forced her to confront her future.

The sea is steady for now. The land readies itself. What can be done with the woman on the cliff? On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home. It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Inions, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature. All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural - a Summoning as the Inions call it. One day, a letter arrives at Nell's door from the reclusive Inions who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history.

Cole is the perfect husband; a romantic, supportive of his wife, Mel's career, keen to be a hands-on dad, not a big drinker. A good guy. So when Mel leaves him, he's floored. She was lucky to be with a man like him. Craving solitude, he accepts a job on the coast and quickly settles into his new life where he meets reclusive artist Lennie. Lennie has made the same move for similar reasons. She is living in a crumbling cottage on the edge of a nearby cliff. It's an undeniably scary location, but sometimes you have to face your fears to get past them. As their relationship develops, two young women go missing while on a walk protesting gendered violence, right by where Cole and Lennie live. Finding themselves at the heart of a police investigation and media frenzy, it soon becomes clear that they don't know each other very well at all. This is what happens when women have had enough.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output; it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities. The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments – and lifetimes – of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

Be careful what you wish for in the magic tree house - it might just come true! This time, Jack and Annie have been whisked away to ancient Egypt. After getting lost inside a pyramid, the siblings meet a real-life mummy who needs their help solving a centuries-old riddle. Join Jack and Annie as they learn about the past and try to solve the ancient mystery - if only they can find their way through the pyramid's maze.

Full of fascinating facts about just how clever birds can be, Bright Birds will delight the whole family. From bowerbirds to blue tits, parrots to pigeons, fairy wrens to fork tailed drongos, a bird brain may be small, but it is mighty. Learn about the crows in Japan using passing cars to crack nuts, the woodpecker finches in the Galapagos creating their own foraging tools, or the herons who use bread as bait for fishing. Covering everything from migration to nest-building, you'll never look at our feathered friends in the same way again.

Hans Holbein the Younger is chiefly celebrated for his beautiful and precisely realised portraiture, which includes representations of Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, and an array of the Tudor lords and ladies he encountered during the course of two sojourns in England. But beyond these familiar images, which have come to define our perception of the world of the Henrician court, Holbein was a protean and multi-faceted genius: a humanist, satirist, political propagandist, and contributor to the history of book design as well as a religious artist and court painter. Franny Moyle traces and analyses the life and work of an extraordinary artist against the backdrop of an era of political turbulence and cultural transformation, to which his art offers a subtle and endlessly refracting mirror.

Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Ren is recovering from a romantic betrayal. Kayla is a Black British artist and journalist keen to make her mark. Thrown together during a string of interviews in New York for Ren's latest film, they're struck by an irresistible attraction. Following a night of searing honesty and passion, the two are left with more questions than answers about the future. With secrets lurking between them, their potential romance could upend the respective lives Ren and Kayla have so carefully built. But as things progress, the disheartening idea of life without each other seems like the biggest risk of all. Their cravings have led them this far - where will their desire take them next?

This first new novel in two years from the Nation's Favourite Storyteller is a sweeping story of love and rescue - an unforgettable journey to the Greek island of Ithaca, and back in time to World War Two... This first new novel in two years from the Nation's Favourite Storyteller is a sweeping story of love and rescue - an unforgettable journey to the Greek island of Ithaca, and back in time to World War Two.Australian-Greek girl Nandi travels to her ancestors' home in Ithaca, and discovers - through a friendship with an extremely unusual flying fish - the extraordinary story of her great-aunt Elena; of how she fell in love, in the hardest of times, and how of how she became an unsung hero of World War Two.But Elena has gone missing, and Nandi has to find her. In her search, she will discover that Elena was an even greater hero than she thought - and still is.Nandi's story is a beautiful and inspiring tale of personal discovery, of love and place and belonging, threaded through with the quiet heroism of everyday people. Stunningly illustrated throughout by acclaimed artist George Butler, and full of magic, myth and mystery, it is a classic Morpurgo novel that will move and thrill every reader who loved Private Peaceful and War Horse, and combines all the hallmarks of this beloved Master Storyteller.

Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, this book documents his 'first contact with poverty': sleeping in bug-infested hostels, working as a dishwasher in Paris, surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, living alongside tramps. The perfect edition for any Orwell enthusiasts' collection, discover Orwell's personal account of life on the streets beautifully reimagined by renowned street artist Shepard FaireyTo be poor and destitute in 1920s Paris and London was to experience life at its lowest ebb. George Orwell, penniless and with nowhere to go, found himself experiencing just this as he wandered the streets of both capitals in search of a job. By day, he tramped the streets, often passing time with 'screevers' or street artists, drunks and other hobos. At night, he stood in line for a bed in a 'spike' or doss house, where a cup of sugary tea, a hunk of stale bread and a blanket were the only sustenance and comfort on offer.First published in 1933, Down and Out in Paris and London is George Orwell's haunting account of the streets and those who have no choice but to live on them.'A man who looked at his world with wonder and wrote down exactly what he saw, in admirable prose' John MortimerCOMPLETE THE TRIO WITH SHEPARD FAIREY'S NEW-LOOK 1984 AND ANIMAL FARM.

When wealthy businessman Leonard Howell's daughter is kidnapped, the police jump on it straight away. But Howell knows this won't be straightforward - he needs someone willing to break the rules. Once a con artist, now a hotshot lawyer, Eddie Flynn's learnt that fast talk and sleight of hand are just as important in the courtroom are they are on the street. Knowing what it's like to lose a daughter, he'll stop at nothing to save Howell's. But with a client on trial for his life, and the body count rising, Eddie Flynn is starting to fear that the whole thing was a set-up from the very beginning. The only question is who is deadlier - the man who knows the truth, or the one who believes a lie?

The truth has no place in a courtroom. The truth doesn't matter in a trial. The only thing that matters is what the prosecution can prove. Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different. It's been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter Amy. Eddie only has 48 hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial - and win - if wants to save his daughter.

For years, major New York law firm Harland & Sinton has operated a massive global fraud. The FBI are on to them, but they need witnesses to secure their case. When a major client of the firm, David Child, is arrested for murder, the FBI ask con-artist-turned-lawyer Eddie Flynn to secure Child as his client and force him to testify against the firm. When Eddie meets David Child he knows Child is innocent, despite the overwhelming evidence against him. With the FBI putting pressure on him to secure the plea, Eddie must find a way to prove Child's innocence while keeping his wife out of danger - not just from the FBI, but from the firm itself.

An uplifting celebration of every child's own family story. You are your mother's bright eyes and her joyful wide grin, Your father's big heart and his kindness within... Inspired by the author's own experience of raising her children to celebrate their British and Indian heritage, Best of All is a gorgeous and heartwarming book exploring what makes us who we are. This treasure of a book is perfect to share with multi-heritage children, and to celebrate any child's unique family history. Smriti's lyrical verse is paired with vibrant artwork from up-and-coming artist Chaaya Prabhat. Brimming with love and joy, the lush language and stunning illustrations make repeat reading a pleasure.

Meet shy mermaid Atalanta Scrimshaw. She lives in the quiet backwater of Sleepy Cove, collects messages in bottles, rides seahorses and enjoys the hobby of 'walking' on the beach and visiting friends. Life is perfect, until Atalanta learns of plans by developers Bristle & Splinter to transform Sleepy Cove into a luxury, seaside golf resort. Realising that this plan will destroy her home, she enlists the help of her friends, old and new, to try to stop it...

Charlotte-Rose de la Force, exiled from the court of the Sun King Louis XIV, has always been a great teller of tales. Selena Leonelli, once the exquisite muse of the great Venetian artist Titian, is terrified of time. Margherita, trapped in a doorless tower and burdened by tangles of her red-gold hair, must find a way to escape. Three women, three lives, three stories, braided together to create a compelling tale of desire, obsession, black magic and the redemptive power of love.