“Despite their exquisite details, bliss-inducing imagery, and invocation of the sublime, his nature poems are so often imbued with a sense of transience and mourning.”

"There is often no rational reason to write a novel - we just feel compelled and respond to that compulsion."

I had intended to rustle up another essay on literature or art, but I’m intensely rehearsing for a play (Nell Gwynn at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge) that kicks off on Tuesday 14th July, so I decided t...

"The passions and preoccupations of the 19th century characters foretell their descendants' determination to unearth the past."

"The whole novel illuminates the gloriously subversive nature of androgyny - the way that androgynous characters unsettle us all."

"It morphs from a friendship into a wild romance before a co-dependency kicks in and they separate, but an invisible force - at times, a fierce possessiveness - always pulls them back together again."

"They offer meditations on the human condition: on desire and fear; on impermanence and suffering; on culture; on how cities are shaped by our thoughts and emotions."

"You have to admire Chaucer - the way that he brought up a family and worked as a senior civil servant whilst penning some of the most influential narratives of all time was truly extraordinary."

"Violet’s radiant complexion, veiled clothing, and exotic headdress capture her rebellious personality."

"I love how, rather than demonising them, it humanises the people of 1930s Berlin - how it shines a light on the dark forces that ate into and consumed their banal lives."

"The characters remind us that - whatever our circumstances just now - we’re only a few unfortunate events away from poverty ourselves."

"His earlier pieces are more muted, but he’s best known for the shimmeringly intense colours of his later work."

"Another significant theme within the letters of the Bloomsbury Group is the fierce critique of their own and other people’s work."

"It untaps deeply repressed hopes and fears, shines a light on notions of punishment and guilt, and makes us question overly simplistic conceptions of morality."

"It’s fascinating how human figures create a sense of narrative."

"As well as wrestling with big political issues, The Buddha of Suburbia brims with humanity - hopes and fears; losses and new beginnings; human relationships in all their messiness and complexity."

"What I love most about Winifred Nicholson is the way she treated art as a spiritual practice: as a way to celebrate the power of the present moment - the power of now."

"Elmina’s Kitchen is a powerful play. It shines a light on forces shaping the lives of black British men, and critiques wider conceptions of fatherhood and masculinity."

"Despite being championed by everyone from Thomas Hardy to Virginia Woolf, her work was largely ignored during her lifetime."

"One of the things I love most about Lucie Rie’s pots is how their austere sense of stillness, self-control, and inner strength is tempered by an individuality and expressiveness."

"Some of the things I most love about the literary history of London are the quirky details."

"Such a great place to while away an hour or two."

"Gawain’s journey is a rite of passage that reminds us of the disorientation of adolescence, the power of forgiveness, and the potential for transformation and rebirth."

"A refreshingly different perspective on the Bloomsbury Group - an intimate first-hand account of this iconic group of friends."

When a sitter asked why one of their eyes had been left blank, Modigliani replied: "because you look at the world with one eye, and into yourself with the other.”

"The landscapes Macfarlane treks across are portrayed not only as geological sites populated by vibrant ecosystems, but also as historical and psychological spaces that define our shared identities."

"By the time that Thackeray started to write Vanity Fair, he was in his mid-thirties, a single-parent, and struggling to establish himself as a journalist whilst bringing up his two young daughters."