James Cahill

The inaugural collection in the new VERVE Voices series, Queerphoria is a joyful and defiant queer-authored anthology proudly supporting Switchboard, the national LGBTQIA+ support line. Four housemates welcome the reader into their home for a birthday party. An elderly widow visits her first queer bar, beneath the flat she shared with her husband. A couple invite a shipwrecked sailor into their isolated lighthouse on the stormy night of their thirtieth anniversary. A single woman embarks on a romantic relationship with a sex robot. A married couple secretly prepare for their baby's arrival in a world where procreation is controlled by the Establishment. Through prose, poetry, essays, illustrations and more, thirty-one writers bring their visions of euphoria to life. These pages celebrate, subvert, expand and reimagine what joy can look like, even in uncertain times.

'An enthrallingly intricate novel . . . impressive'GUARDIAN'There's something of F. Scott Fitzgerald about the way Cahill writes about the very rich'DAILY MAIL'A biting satire of the art world's glamour, pomp and greed . . . lucid and evocative'DAILY TELEGRAPH'The real deal . . . The Violet Hour offers a convincing and compelling portrait of a very rarefied world'NEW YORK TIMES'A highbrow whodunnit, and grippingly so, but it's much more than that'PATRICK GALE, author of Mother's Boy'It's brilliant . . . the human drama of it is just pitch perfect . . . Hypnotic'SEÁN HEWITT, author of All Down Darkness Wide'Artists are slaves to their vanity. But in the end, in time, they see things as they really are.'Thomas Haller has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of: shows in London and New York, paintings sold for a fortune. The vision he presents to the world is one of an untouchable genius at the top of his game. It is also a lie. Who is the real Thomas Haller? His oldest friend and former dealer, Lorna, might once have known - before Thomas traded their early intimacy for international fame. Between his ruthless new dealer and a property mogul obsessed with his work, the appetite for Thomas and his art is all-consuming. On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But the sudden death of a young man has put everyone on edge, and a chain of events begins that will lead Thomas and Lorna back into the past, to confront who they have become. A story of deception, power play and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking: who is granted admission to a world that only seems to glitter and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass?

''An enthrallingly intricate novel . . . impressive''GUARDIAN''There''s something of F. Scott Fitzgerald about the way Cahill writes about the very rich''DAILY MAIL''A biting satire of the art world''s glamour, pomp and greed . . . lucid and evocative''DAILY TELEGRAPH''I really loved The Violet Hour . . . On one level it functions as a highbrow whodunnit, and grippingly so, but it''s much more than that, building into a meditation on mortality and the unreliable consolations of art, love and materialism''PATRICK GALE, author of Mother''s Boy''A thrilling story told in seductive, shimmering prose. Beauty, money, power, seduction, betrayal. It''s all here in this bewitching and all too often troubling backstage pass to the commercial art world''CHLOË ASHBY, author of Wet Paint''I''m overwhelmed by the beauty of James Cahill''s writing and storytelling''SANTANU BHATTACHARYA, author of Deviants''Artists are slaves to their vanity. But in the end, in time, they see things as they really are.''Thomas Haller has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of: shows in London and New York, paintings sold for a fortune. The vision he presents to the world is one of an untouchable genius at the top of his game. It is also a lie. Who is the real Thomas Haller? His oldest friend and former dealer, Lorna, might once have known - before Thomas traded their early intimacy for international fame. Between his ruthless new dealer and a property mogul obsessed with his work, the appetite for Thomas and his art is all-consuming. On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But the sudden death of a young man has put everyone on edge, and a chain of events begins that will lead the friends back into the past, to confront who they have become. A story of deception, power play and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking: who is granted admission to a world that only seems to glitter and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass?PRAISE FOR TIEPOLO BLUE''The best novel I have read for ages . . . masterly''STEPHEN FRY''An exhilarating, erudite read''VOGUE.COM''Electric''GUARDIAN''Startlingly impressive''DAILY MAIL

David Hockney is the most famous living British artist. And he is arguably one of the more famous American artists as well. Emerging from the north of England in the 1960s, he made quite a splash in Swinging London as a portaitist, and went on to make a even bigger splash in Los Angeles when he moved there in the 1970s. His figurative paintings of the 1970s and 1980s captured the zeitgeist of West Coast living, while he also explored new avenues by constructing mosaics out of polaroids. By the beginning of the millennium, he returned to his Yorkshire roots, embarking on a new period of painting. This came to an end with the death by misadventure in his home of a young studio assistant in 2013. He went 'home' to LA and has in the intervening years begun a new period of contemplative portraiture.

David Hockney is the most famous living British artist. And he is arguably one of the more famous American artists as well. Emerging from the north of England in the 1960s, he made quite a splash in Swinging London as a portaitist, and went on to make a even bigger splash in Los Angeles when he moved there in the 1970s. His figurative paintings of the 1970s and 1980s captured the zeitgeist of West Coast living, while he also explored new avenues by constructing mosaics out of polaroids. By the beginning of the millennium, he returned to his Yorkshire roots, embarking on a new period of painting. This came to an end with the death by misadventure in his home of a young studio assistant in 2013. He went 'home' to LA and has in the intervening years begun a new period of contemplative portraiture.

What if you could sit down with your favourite artist and ask them anything you liked - Life? Work? Inspiration? Based on new interviews and archival material from a huge roster of artists, this book does exactly that. Is art a `career', a vocation or something else entirely? Do you need a studio or a dealer, and how do you find one? Does financial success - or the lack of it - change you? Should you read the reviews? Encompassing every stage of an artist's life - from early works to debut shows and mid- and late-career stages - this book allows artists to answer these key questions.