Untold Paris is a unique illustrated guide to Paris – its people, quirks, peculiarities, charms and eccentricities, as well as its history and some of its many secrets.
John Baxter Book order
John Baxter is an Australian author renowned for his insightful explorations of cinema and its creators. His early career in journalism and filmmaking in Australia fostered a deep fascination with the seventh art, leading to numerous biographies of film personalities and incisive film criticism. Relocating to Paris, his writing evolved to encompass autobiographical works, delving into personal experiences and the city's allure. Baxter's distinctive style is marked by its erudition and its ability to capture the essence of both artistic creations and lived experiences.






- 2024
- 2023
This comprehensive guide to agricultural and horticultural knowledge is an essential reference for farmers and rural residents. In addition to detailed instructions on farming techniques and best practices, the book also includes valuable information on topics such as suspended animation and poisonous substances. A must-have for anyone interested in agriculture and rural affairs.
- 2023
The French may not have invented love but they perfected it, and the laboratory in which they did so was Paris. James Joyce called the city "a lamp for lovers, hung in the wood of the world." From medieval times, Paris has drawn those who wish to experience the limits of love--intellectual, spiritual, carnal. In Love Is in the Air of Paris John Baxter turns the spotlight on some of them, from the medieval troubadors who seduced court ladies with flowery verse to Man Ray, whose camera conferred immortality on his lover and model Kiki, and Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, who turned their moans of sexual pleasure into music. The grandes horizontales of the belle epoque, accomplished technicians of eroticism who drew the rich and powerful of both sexes to Paris, had their modern incarnation in Gala, who left the bed she shared with poet Paul Éluard and painter Max Ernst to seduce the young Salvador Dalí. Love in Paris, however, can take unexpected forms. Was the devotion to Marcel Proust of his housekeeper Céleste Albaret any less passionate than that of Anne Desclos to Jean Paulhan, for whom she composed "the strangest love letter any man ever received"--the notorious novel Sto
- 2023
The Story of Disney: 100 Years of Wonder
- 304 pages
- 11 hours of reading
"The Walt Disney Company honors its 100th anniversary in 2023. As part of the festivities, this must-have coffee table book showcases the company's history and rich legacy--past, present, and future--through vibrant voices and rare Disney concept art and photographs"-- Provided by publisher
- 2022
- 2021
A fascinating exploration of the life of Charles Boyer.
- 2019
A Year in Paris
- 336 pages
- 12 hours of reading
A sumptuous and definitive portrait of Paris through the seasons, highlighting the unique tastes, sights, and changing personality of the city in spring, summer, fall, and winter. When the common people of France revolted in 1789, one of the first ways they chose to correct the excesses of the monarchy and the church was to rename the months of the year. Selected by poet and playwright Philippe-Francois-Nazaire Fabre, these new names reflected what took place at that season in the natural world; Fructidor was the month of fruit, Floréal that of flowers, while the winter wind (vent) dominated Ventôse. Though the names didn't stick, these seasonal rhythms of the year continue to define Parisians, as well as travelers to the city. Devoting a section of the book to each of Fabre's months, Baxter draws upon Paris's literary, cultural and artistic past to paint an affecting, unforgettable portrait of the city. Touching upon the various ghosts of Paris past, from Hemingway and Zelda Fitzgerald, to Claude Debussy to MFK Fisher to Francois Mitterrand, Baxter evokes the rhythms of the seasons in the City of Light, and the sense of wonder they can arouse for all who visit and live there
- 2017
Eating Eternity: Food, Art and Literature in France
- 267 pages
- 10 hours of reading
Baxter shows how the French have celebrated the relationship between art and food. Painters have found in food a persuasive metaphor for the divinity of nature; authors wrote in Paris's cafes, and wrote of the pleasures and importance of food in French culture. Inspired by art, French chefs created dishes as much for the way they looked as for their taste. Part history, part guidebook, Baxter's book offers a seductive menu of those places in the French capital where art and food have intersected, and brings to life the culinary experiences of Paris. -- adapted from back cover.
- 2017
Montmartre
- 256 pages
- 9 hours of reading
In the second portrait of his series Great Parisian Neighborhoods, award- winning raconteur John Baxter leads us on a whirlwind tour of Montmartre, the hill-top village that fired the greatest achievements of modern art while also provoking bloody revolution and the sexual misbehavior that made Paris synonymous with sin High on the northern edge of Paris, Montmartre has always attracted bohemians, political radicals, the searchers for artistic inspiration as well as those hungry for pleasure. In its winding, windmill- shadowed streets, which, only fifty years before, saw the anarchist rising of the Commune, Renoir, Picasso and van Gogh seized a similar freedom to remake painting, while, in the tenderloin of Pigalle, Toulouse-Lautrec drew the cancan dancers of the Moulin Rouge, celebrating a hedonism that titillated the world, In Montmartre , bestselling author and IACP Award winner John Baxter lifts the curtain on a district that visitors to Paris seldom see. From the tumbledown workshops of the Bateau Lavoir in which Picasso and Braque created Cubism to Clichy's Cabaret of Nothingness where guests dined at coffins under lamps of human bones, the whole of this mysterious enclave is ours to explore. For visitors and armchair travelers alike, Montmartre captures the excitement and scandal of a fascinating quarter that condenses the elusive perfumes, colors and songs of Paris.
- 2017
Montparnasse
- 242 pages
- 9 hours of reading
From bestselling Francophile John Baxter, the third book in his Great Parisian Neighborhoods series, offering tourists and locals alike a guided tour of Montparnasse