"Often touching and always richly entertaining, like its subject"
HILARY SPURLING, 'Daily Telegraph'

Peggy Guggenheim's tempestuous life spanned the most exciting and volatile years of the twentieth century, and she lived it to the full. 'Mrs Guggenheim, how many husbands have you had?', she was once asked. 'Do you mean my own, or other people's?'.

It was among the American expatriate bohemian set in Paris in the 1930's that the young heiress began to make her mark in the art world. Her many lovers included Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst (whom she later married), Yves Tanguy and Roland Penrose. Yet real love always seemed to elude her.

In the later 1930's Peggy set up one of the first galleries of modern art in London, building up a magnificent collection of works by Picasso, Magritte, Miro and Brancusi, and buying paintings from artists fleeing the Nazis. Escaping from Vichy France to New York, she was hugely influential in assisting the new American abstract Impressionist movement (in particular, Jackson Polluck). After the war she returned to Europe, living in Venice until the end of her life. Today her memory is enshrined in the world-famous palazzo that houses her collection.

Meticulously researched, filled with colourful incident and a distinguished cast list, Anton Gill's biography reveals the inner drives of a remarkable woman and an indefatigable patron.

"Anton Gill tells this extraordinary story with vigour and panache"
SELINA HASTINGS, 'Sunday Telegraph'

Peggy Guggenheim -- millionairess, legendary lover, sadomasochist, appalling parent, selective miser -- was one of the greatest and most notorious art patrons of the twentieth century.

After her father, Benjamin Guggenheim, went down with the Titanic, the young heiress came into a small fortune and left for Europe. She married the writer Laurence Vail and joined the American expatriate bohemian set. Though her many lovers included such lions of art and literature as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst (whom she later married), Yves Tanguy, and Roland Penrose, real love always seemed to elude her.

In the late 1930s, Peggy set up one of the first galleries of modern art in London, quickly acquiring a magnificent selection of works, buying great numbers of paintings from artists fleeing to America after the Nazi invasion of France. Escaping from Vichy, she moved back to New York, where she was a vital part of the new American abstract expressionist movement.

Meticulously researched, filled with colorful incident, and boasting a distinguished cast, Anton Gill's biography reveals the inner drives of a remarkable woman and indefatigable patron of the arts.

When Titanic set sail in 1912, she was the largest, most luxurious and most technologically advanced man-made moving object in the world. Built by the great industrial communities that made Britain the pre-eminent superpower of the age, the famous ocean liner signalled the high-water mark of our nation's manufacturing industry. A must-read for any Titanic enthusiast, this fascinating book tells the untold stories of the men and women who made the 'ship of dreams' a reality: the fearless riveters who risked deafness from hammering millions of rivets that held together the fortress-like steel hull the engineers charged with the Herculean task of fitting engines to power the massive ship across the Atlantic at a speed of 23 knots the electricians who installed state-of-the-art communications systems and enormous steam-driven generators, each capable of powering the equivalent of 400 modern homes the highly skilled carpenters, cabinet-makers and artists who laboured over every last detail of the opulent staterooms. Titanic, of course, was destined to sink on her maiden voyage, but the achievement of the thousands of people who built and fitted out this astonishing ship lives on.

At the turn of the 16th century, Italy was a turbulent territory made up of independent states, each at war with or intriguing against its neighbor. There were the proud, cultivated, and degenerate Sforzas in Milan, and in Rome, the corrupt Spanish family of the Borgia whose head, Rodrigo, ascended to St Peter's throne as Pope Alexander VI. In Florence, a golden age of culture and sophistication ended with the death of the greatest of the Medici family, Lorenzo the Magnificent, giving way to an era of uncertainty, cruelty, and religious fundamentalism.
In the midst of this turmoil, there existed the greatest concentration of artists that Europe has ever known. Influenced by the rediscovery of the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, artists and thinkers such as Botticelli and da Vinci threw off the shackles of the Middle Ages to produce one of the most creative periods in history - the Renaissance.
This is the story of twelve years when war, plague, famine, and chaos made their mark on a volatile Italy, and when a young, erratic genius, Michelangelo Buonarroti, made his first great statue - the David. It was to become a symbol not only of the independence and defiance of the city of Florence but also of the tortured soul who created it. This is a wonderful history of the artist, his times, and one of his most magnificent works.