Riddled with contradictions: the enigma of Jan Morris
The self-made woman remained obstinately masculine; the admirer of imperialism was a passionate Welsh nationalist; and the travel writer could be both superficial and profound
The great French painter who had no time for France
Describing himself as the ‘savage from Peru’, Paul Gauguin avoided French society when he could, returning to Polynesia in 1895, where he spent his final years on the island of Hiva Oa
Between the Iron Lady and the Wedding Cake: conflict in Belle Époque Paris
Two 19th-century buildings perfectly symbolised the growing friction between the capital’s progressives and traditionalists – the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre’s Sacré Coeur
The essence of bohemian Paris
This book is about two people who reinvented themselves in 1920s Paris. Mark Braude focuses on Kiki de Montparnasse and…
An expert castle-squatter
When Nick Hunt first read Patrick Leigh Fermor’s account of his youthful trudge across Europe in A Time of Gifts…
