The BP Portrait Award, now in its twenty-first year, is one of Britain's most prestigious art prizes, and is the leading showcase for artists throughout the world specialising in portraiture. Last year nearly 300,000 people visited the exhibition, which is based on the competition open to all artists aged eighteen and over from around the world. The catalogue features sixty works from an international list of artists, which together display a diverse range of styles and painterly techniques. It also includes a fascinating essay by bestselling novelist Rose Tremain and an illustrated article by the 2009 Travel Award winner Isobel Peachey. Peachey describes the journeys she undertook to Switzerland and Belgium to document historical re-enactment weekends in which participants recreated life in a medieval castle and a Napoleonic battle. Her account and the accompanying portraits capture her sitters' passionate involvement in recreating the past, and their dual identity as contemporary people re-enacting historical events.
Rose Tremain Books
Rose Tremain is an acclaimed author whose novels delve into themes of identity, memory, and the human longing for connection. Her prose is celebrated for its rich sensuousness and incisive psychological insight. With an unerring eye for detail and a profound understanding of human nature, Tremain crafts narratives that are both intimate and epic in scope. Her work explores the intricate relationships between characters and the worlds they inhabit, often set against compelling historical backdrops.







From an acclaimed voice in literature comes a children's story steeped in magic...Oliver loves birds - watching them soar into the sky and wishing that just sometimes they would stay close.So when he discovers a robin made of iron, he thinks he's found the perfect friend - even if his pet dragon isn't quite so certain! When the robin begins to glimmer and hop, Oliver is overjoyed, but in a terrible turn of events, this new friend is lost. But the magic of Iron Robin and the joy of friendship means that there is wonder and excitement ahead for Oliver...Join Oliver on the start of his adventure, with this lyrical and funny story which explores friendship, loyalty and the power of hope. Iron Robin is the perfect bedtime story to share together.
Restoration
- 384 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Robert Merivel abandons his medical studies for the vibrant Court of Charles II, where he finds unexpected favour with the King and serves as a 'paper groom' to the youngest of the royal mistresses. But by falling in love with her, Merivel violates the one rule that will cast him out from his new found paradise. Driven to work in a Quaker Bedlam, he must endure a yet more painful fall from grace before he can achieve spiritual and social restoration.
Merivel: A Man of His Time
- 384 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Set in seventeenth-century England, the story follows Robert Merivel, a physician and courtier to Charles II, as he grapples with the complexities of middle age. As he questions his roles as a father, master, and friend to the King, Merivel embarks on a journey to the French court of Versailles. His quest for self-discovery leads to a series of misadventures, blending humor and introspection in a richly depicted historical context.
Court physician Robert Merivel has a middle age crisis and sets off for Versailles where he meets Madame de Flamanville, a Swiss botanist, and rescues a captive bear to take back to Bidnold Manor.
Sacred Country
- 416 pages
- 15 hours of reading
Standing in a cold Suffolk field with her family, six-year-old Mary Ward has a revelation: I am not Mary. I am not a girl. I'm a boy. So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender. In this book, her story begins from the rural community of the 1950s to London in the Sixties, and beyond to the glitter of America in the Seventies.
Restoration. Des Königs Narr, englische Ausgabe
- 399 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Restoration is a dazzling romp through 17th-century England. The main character Robert Merivel not only embodies the contradictions of his era, but ours as well. He is trapped between the longing for wealth and power and the realization that the pursuit of these trappings can leave one's life rather empty.
The Gustav Sonata
- 256 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Shortlisted for the Costa Book Award The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller What is the difference between friendship and love? Jewish and mercurial, a talented pianist tortured by nerves when he has to play in public, Anton fails to understand how deeply and irrevocably his life and Gustav's are entwined.
The road home
- 384 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter. He struggles with the mysterious rituals of 'Englishness', and the fashions and fads of the London scene. We see the road Lev travels through his eyes, and we share his dilemmas.
Music & silence
- 453 pages
- 16 hours of reading
Set in 1629, this is the story of young English musician, Peter Claire, who joins the Danish Court to play with the Royal Orchestra - He finds himself falling in love with the Queen's companion and begins to tread the path of divided loyalties.
Absolutely and Forever
- 192 pages
- 7 hours of reading
A piercing short novel of thwarted love and true friendship from one of our greatest living writers.Marianne Clifford, 15, only child of a peppery army colonel and his vain wife, Lal, falls helplessly and absolutely for Simon Hurst, 18, whose cleverness and physical beauty suggest that he will go forward into a successful and monied future, helped on by doting parents. But fate intervenes. Simon’s plans are blown off course, and Marianne is forced to bury her dreams of a future together.Narrating her own story, characterising herself as ignorant and unworthy, Marianne’s telling use of irony and smart thinking gradually suggest to us that she has underestimated her own worth. We begin to believe that―in the end, supported by her courageous Scottish friend, Petronella―she will find the life she never stops craving. But what we can’t envisage is that beneath his blithe exterior, Simon Hurst has been nursing a secret which will alter everything.
The colour
- 382 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Joseph and Harriet emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand. Joseph finds gold in the creek and is overcome with gold fever.__
Lily
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
London, 1850. On a freezing winter's night, a baby is abandoned at the gates of a park only to be saved by a young policeman and taken to the Foundling Hospital. After suffering years of brutal hardship at the Hospital, Lily is released into the world of Victorian London. But she is hiding a dreadful secret... When Lily and the policeman meet again, Lily is convinced that he holds the key to her happiness. But might he also be the one to uncover her crime and so condemn her to death?
Letter to Sister Benedicta
- 178 pages
- 7 hours of reading
Fat and fifty, educated only to be a wife and mother, Ruby Constad has reached a point of crisis. Her husband, Leon, lies in a nursing home after a stroke that has left him paralyzed; her grown-up children are gone. In her anguish Ruby appeals for help to a half-remembered figure from her colonial Indigenous girlhood — Sister Benedicta. Gradually the events leading up to Leon’s stroke are revealed and a woman emerges whose capacity to love, hope and understand are far greater than she realizes.
The Garden of the Villa Mollini
- 160 pages
- 6 hours of reading
These short stories deal with ideas about mutability, improvement and escape into new worlds, and involve characters who constantly fail to understand themselves or anyone else. They also celebrate the small success or fragment of knowledge which can contribute to a person's experience of life.
Islands of Mercy
- 464 pages
- 17 hours of reading
1865. In the city of Bath, a young woman renowned for her nursing skills is convinced that some other destiny will one day show itself to her. But when she finds herself torn between a dangerous affair with a female lover and the promise of a conventional marriage to an apparently respectable doctor, her desires begin to lead her towards a future she had never imagined. Meanwhile, in Borneo, an eccentric British 'rajah', Sir Ralph Savage, overflowing with philanthropy but compromised by his passions, sees his schemes relentlessly undermined by his own fragility, by man's innate greed and by the invasive power of the forest itself. Jane's quest for an altered life and Sir Ralph's endeavours become locked together as the story journeys across the globe -- from the confines of an English tearoom to the rainforests of a tropical island via the slums of Dublin and the transgressive fancy-dress boutiques of Paris.
This is the summer that Lewis Little, precocious thirteen-year-old, is spending in Paris with his mother, Alice. Alice is translating the latest medieval romance by Valentina Gavrilovich, the bestselling and exotic Russian emigre. As Valentina slowly casts a spell over Lewis, he is driven on a terrifying quest.
The colonel's daughter & other stories
- 174 pages
- 7 hours of reading
From the author of The Gustav Sonata At the moment that Colonel Browne is standing in the shallow end of the swimming pool of the Hotel Alphenrose, preparing for his late afternoon dip, his daughter Charlotte, carrying a suitcase, is getting out of her car back in England, preparing to rob the ancestral home. It is not just another day- it is the culmination of hundreds of days, hundreds of disappointments and misunderstandings, and thousands of very small lies... Over a million Rose Tremain books sold 'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I 'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times 'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times 'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie 'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian
The Darkness of Wallis Simpson
- 224 pages
- 8 hours of reading
A wonderful new collection of short stories, most of which are published here for the first time.Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, ended her life (as the Duchess of Windsor) as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone — friend, foe or journalist — to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, had forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her.This superb story plays with the selectiveness of why does Wallis recall the seemingly unimportant, while forgetting the glory days of her notoriety? She can remember her first two husbands — one a bit of a brute, the other very boring — but not the world-famous third one.The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and an East German border guard, redundant after the Berlin Wall comes down in 1989, imagines that he might still have a purpose in life. He tries to reach Russia by bicycling across the hostile wastes of Poland. A jilted man gets his revenge. A baby grows wings. A character in an Impressionist painting escapes from his “frame” — or does he? And there’s a Christmas story set in a seedy hotel.From the Hardcover edition.
Trespass
- 384 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Set among the hills and gorges of the Cevennes, the dark and beautiful heartland of southern France, 'Trespass' is a novel about disputed territory, sibling love and devastating revenge.
Friendship
- 144 pages
- 6 hours of reading
What is the secret to true friendship? Is it really love's quieter relation or something stronger and more profound? And where does the line between the two lie? Rose Tremain looks at two unlikely lifelong friendships, which - though tested - prove unbreakable. Thought-provoking and life-affirming, this is at once an examination and a celebration of friendship in all its glorious complexity.
Evangelistas Fächer. Und andere Erzählungen
- 266 pages
- 10 hours of reading
Rosie
- 211 pages
- 8 hours of reading
Geboren 1943 in London, ist Rose Tremain umgeben von zerstörten Familien und einer Stadt in Trümmern. Vordergründig ist ihre Familie zwar intakt, doch fehlt es an Zuneigung und Liebe. Ihre einzige Vertraute ist das Kindermädchen Vera, die für Rose wie eine Mutter ist. Ihre »richtige« Mutter Jane hingegen steckt ihre Töchter kurzerhand ins Internat, denn sie will die verlorene Zeit nachholen, hat der Krieg ihr doch die Jugendjahre genommen. Im Internat knüpft Rose prägende Freundschaften – vor allem aber findet sie das, was für ihr Leben bestimmend sein wird: den unbedingten Willen, zu schreiben. Rose Tremains Kindheits- und Jugenderinnerungen bewegen durch die große Aufrichtigkeit der Autorin, bestechen durch ihren ungeschönten Blick – und das Bedürfnis danach, die eigene Mutter verstehen zu wollen.
Stalin - de kommunistische tsaar
- 159 pages
- 6 hours of reading
Biografie van de Russische staatsman (1879-1953).
L'été de Valentina
- 355 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Artikelzustand: Sehr gut Autor: Genre: Format: Erscheinungstermin: Anzahl der Seiten: Länge: Breite: Gewicht: Sprache: EAN: 9782744113901
Pocket: Musique et silence
- 471 pages
- 17 hours of reading
Le rideau se lève sur le château de Rosenborg où Christian IV, roi de Danemark, accueille un jeune luthiste anglais. Il se nomme Peter Claire et rayonne d'une grâce qui contraste avec les sombres secrets de la cour. La musique aura-t-elle le dessus ? Elle console les uns, égare les autres, châtie ceux qui l'ignorent. Rose Tremain mène la danse avec une fougue qui aurait ravi Alexandre Dumas. Elle a tout vu, tout entendu, découvert la cachette où la reine-mère entassait son or, épié les ébats de l'épouse-gourgandine, assisté aux massacres des guerres de Religion et braqué sur la lune le premier télescope. C'était hier, au matin du XVIIe siècle. C'est aujourd'hui, à l'instant où vous ouvrez ce livre. Un roman historique ? Non, un drame shakespearien, enregistré en direct. Gabrielle Rolin " Une réussite extraordinaire. " The Daily Telegraph " Un véritable concert baroque. " Telegraph Magazine " Un livre merveilleux, joyeux et bruyant. " The Guardian " L'œuvre la plus réussie de Rose Tremain. " Times Literary Supplement " Un livre magique. " The Spectator " Un vrai régal. " Standard
Hudba a ticho
- 381 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Mladý loutnista Peter Claire přijíždí roku 1629 na dvůr dánského krále Kristiána IV. a stává se členem orchestru, který své umění provozuje převážně v chladném a temném sklepení. V touze po ochraně a bezpečí si ho král vybírá za svého „anděla strážného“, pročež se Peter ocitá v situacích, kdy spolu zápasí světlo a tma, dobro a zlo, ale také povinnost a milostná vášeň. V tomto lyricky laděném výpravném dramatu z dvorského prostředí nejde totiž o nic méně než o naplnění touhy a spásu vlastní duše.... celý text
Román Valentina a já z roku 1997 nás zavádí do současné Paříže, kam vypravěč románu, třináctiletý anglický hoch, přijíždí jednoho léta se svou matkou, jež zde má pracovat na překladu nového románu enigmatické, uhrančivé a velice úspěšné francouzsky píšící spisovatelky ruskéhopůvodu Valentiny Gavrilové. Valentina je namyšlená, arogantní, necitlivá, ovšem pro mladého hrdinu neodolatelně přitažlivá. Román kombinující žánry psychologického thrilleru a klasického románu.
Zlatá horečka
- 351 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Román o lidské touze zbavit se svého starého já, o potřebě vytvořit si lepší svět, o snaze nalézt smysl života a štěstí uprostřed neznámé divočiny. Joseph a Harriet Blackstoneovi opustí v polovině devatenáctého století Anglii, aby si založili farmu na Novém Zélandu. Jejich sen o budoucím úspěchu se však téměř ihned promění v neúprosný zápas o přežití v lůně nespoutané a kruté přírody. Joseph se proto rozhodne vsadit znovu vše na jedinou kartu - se svými minimálními prostředky se připojí k dobrodruhům hledajícím štěstí mezi zlatokopy.

























