Sandra Blow (1925-2006) is among the most important British artists of the later twentieth century. During a time of rapid change in the art world, her commitment to abstract painting resulted in a large and diverse body of work of distinctive power and subtlety. Michael Bird's fascinating survey of Sandra Blow's life and art is now available for the first time in a handsome paperback edition. Compiled in collaboration with the artist during the last years of her life, it provides a definitive overview of her career. The book is lavishly illustrated throughout with a fully representative selection of Blow's work. In this highly readable account, Michael Bird looks in depth at Blow's evolving studio practice and the personal nature of her abstract vision. He places Blow's achievement firmly within the wider context of British and international art movements of the post-war period and late twentieth century. He also casts new light on the role played in her life by Alberto Burri and Roger Hilton, two influences she acknowledged to be crucial to her art. Through close attention to Blow's working methods, this book provides a unique insight into her creative process. It reveals the intensity of emotional engagement and technical experimentation that lie behind the apparent spontaneity of her vivid handling of materials, colour and form.

A treasure trove of carefully selected letters written by great artists, providing unique insight into their characters and a glimpse into their lives. Artists’ Letters is a collection of intriguing, entertaining, moving, significant, surprising, witty and insightful correspondence from great artists. Arranged thematically, it includes writings and musings on love, work, daily life, money, travel and the creative process.  On the theme of friendship, for example, letters provide evidence of a creative community between peers, with support and mutual appreciation that helps to dispel the myth of the artist as solitary genius. Letters between Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin show an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas. We see mutual admiration between Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot, and Picasso’s quick notes to Jean Cocteau illustrate their closeness. Letters, some of which includes sketches and drawings, are reproduced with the transcript and some background and contextual information alongside.  Artists include: Salvador Dali, Goya, Lucian Freud, Vanessa Bell, Michelangelo, Mondrian, Gustav Klimt, Jasper Johns, Edward Burne-Jones, William Blake, Marcel Duchamp, Dorothea Tanning, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Picasso, Mark Rothko, David Hockney, Monet, Marina Abramovic, Cindy Sherman, Joseph Cornell, Leonora Carrington, Wang Zhideng, Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, Renoir, Rubens, Eva Hesse, Cy Twombly, Roy Lichtenstein, Mary Cassatt, Jackson Pollock, Leonardo da Vinci, Joseph Beuys, Judy Chicago, Frida Kahlo, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Auguste Rodin, Camille Claudel, Henry Moore, Joshua Reynolds, Rembrandt, Whistler, Anni Albers, Naum Gabo, Kazimir Malevich, Francis Bacon, Ana Mendieta, Lee Krasner, Andy Warhol

First published by Lund Humphries in 2008, The St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place and Time has become the classic account of the St Ives group of artists. Our beautifully produced new edition, published in 2016, is now available in an accessible paperback format. The flourishing of international modernism in Cornwall was a unique episode in the story of modern art in Britain – perhaps anywhere in the world. No other small seaside town has been host to such a roll-call of major artists. Weaving in-depth research into a narrative of ‘startling anecdotal richness’, Michael Bird explores the many – often unexpected – connections between St Ives artists and broader currents in 20th-century British history. He sets the careers of international artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron and Peter Lanyon in the context of a local environment that held powerful meanings for their work. Bird examines the influence of the two world wars, the birth of the Welfare State and the Cold War, the space race of the 1960s – all of which found echoes in artists’ work – as well as the position of women artists in St Ives, the role of social class, and relations between artists and the community. The artists themselves emerge as vivid personalities. Do Alfred Wallis, Naum Gabo, Bernard Leach and Roger Hilton really have anything in common? The answers Michael Bird uncovers add up to a fascinating and highly readable account of the St Ives phenomenon.

The Sacred Text presents an introduction to historical, interpretive, and theological issues relating to the Christian Scriptures. It presents an overview of the formation of the canon, discusses different strategies for interpretation, and describes how Scripture functions in different theological traditions.

Examining for the first time the life and work of the sculptor Matt Rugg (1935–2020), Michael Bird’s impeccably researched text vividly charts Rugg’s parallel careers as artist and teacher in the context of developments in creative pedagogy in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century, and their implications for practice and teaching today. Highlighting the impressive range of Rugg’s output, from his distinctive 'painted drawings' to large-scale metal constructions, and the unifying strands in his thought, this book skilfully draws together Rugg’s work, ideas and inspirational role as an educator. Lavishly illustrated, it charts successive phases of Rugg's continuous experimentation with found industrial materials and form, and the subtle interrelationship in his work between two and three dimensions. Dr Harriet Sutcliffe's research into the Basic Course led by Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton at King's College, Newcastle, in the 1950s and 1960s provides fascinating insights into both Rugg's oeuvre and wider developments in British art practice and pedagogy.

An enthralling journey through 40,000 years of art, from prehistoric cave paintings right up to the present day. Discover artists and their art around the world, in exciting and imaginative tales about artists and the way they created their work. Written by educator and art historian Michael Bird, and illustrated by Kate Evans, the book also features reproductions of the famous artworks discussed, a comprehensive timeline of events, and extra feature spreads on places connected with art. This is a beautiful and engaging introduction to art for any home or school library.

From the earliest cave paintings through to the internet and street art, this inspiring book chronicles the 100 most influential ideas that have shaped the world of art. Arranged in broadly chronological order, it provides a unique and compelling take on the history of art. The book shows how developments in materials and technology have radically changed the way that art is produced. Each entry explores when an idea first evolved and how it has resurfaced in the work of different artists up to the present day. Illustrated with historical masterpieces and packed with fascinating contemporary examples, this is an inspirational and wholly original guide to understanding the forces that have shaped world art.

A compelling and lively history that examines the lives of British artists from the late-19th century to today. In This is Tomorrow Michael Bird takes a fresh look at the 'long twentieth century', from the closing years of Queen Victoria's reign to the turn of the millennium, through the lens of the artists who lived and worked in this ever-changing Britain. Bird examines how the rhythms of change and adaptation in art became embedded in the collective consciousness of the nation and vividly evokes the personalities who populate and drive this story, looking beyond individual careers and historical moments to weave together interconnecting currents of change that flowed through London, Glasgow, Leeds, Cornwall, the Caribbean, New York, Moscow and Berlin. From the American James McNeill Whistler's defence of his new kind of modern art against the British art establishment in the latter half of the 19th century to the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson's melting icebergs in London, he traverses the lives of the artists that have recorded, questioned and defined our times. At the heart of this original book are the successive waves of displacement caused by global wars and persecution that conversely brought fresh ideas and new points of view to the British Isles; educational reforms opened new routes for young people from working-class backgrounds; movements of social change enabled the emergence of female artists and artists of colour; and the emergence of the mass media shaped modern modes of communication and culture. These are the ebbs and flows that Michael Bird teases out in this panoramic account of Britain and its artists in across the twentieth century.

Delve into the lives and work of some of the world's great writers with this intriguing collection of correspondence. There is much to discover in this illustrated compendium of letters written by great novelists, poets, playwrights and essayists, from Cervantes to the present day. One hundred letters and notes from Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Jack Kerouac and Chinua Achebe among many others are reproduced, together with a transcript of the correspondence and background details which provide their context. Arranged thematically, the book contains personal musings on love, happiness, work, daily life, money, politics, travel and the creative process. For lovers of literature, these rare documents provide fascinating insights into writers' daily lives, relationships and work. In the era of SMS, email and instant message, Writers' Letters reminds us of the treasures to be found in a simple letter.

Studio Voices explores the multi-layered experiences of modern and contemporary British artists in their own words, drawing on the author's original research in the Artists' Lives audio archive at the British Library. Michael Bird's fascinating oral history of the lives and working practices of artists over the last century, extracted from the huge and growing archive of artists' interviews recorded since 1990, allows us to eavesdrop on artists' life-story conversations, which range through creative practice and professional achievements, childhood memories, family life, relationships, and unexpected, incidental epiphanies of self-awareness. The Artists' Lives project was established in 1990 as part of National Life Stories, the UK's national oral history archive, which is based at the British Library. 

More than 2500 authors entered the Bristol Short Story Prize 2014/15. These are the 20 shortlisted stories published in the eighth volume of the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology

About the Contributor(s): Aida Besancon Spencer is Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Extraordinary Lecturer of North-West University. Besides teaching, Dr. Spencer has worked as a Spanish community organizer and Presbyterian minister. She was born and reared in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She is the author of twelve books and hundreds of articles including 2 Corinthians: Daily Bible Commentary and Paul's Literary Style: A Stylistic Comparison of II Corinthians 11:16-12:13, Romans 8:9-39, and Philippians 3:2-4:13.

This carefully edited collection of essays explores, in greater diversity and depth than has been attempted before, the relationship between film and religion. Combining perspectives from traditional film criticism and from religious studies, Religion in Film asserts that it is no longer possible to view films simply in terms of their moral impact, nor is it reasonable to limit religious meaning only to those films that make and explicit appeal to religious elements. The essays offer a variety of theoretical reflections on the religious interpretation of film, explore particular cinematic variations on the archetypal images of savior and demon, analyze significant cultural trends of a religious nature related to film, and assess thirteen sensibilities - Altman, Bergman, Bunuel, Chaplin, Coppola, Fellini, Hitchcock, Jutra, Kubrick, Peckinpah, Russell, Truffaut, and Wertmuller. The contributors provide a firm basis for analysis while respecting a variety in interpretation. As the overall structure of the book leads from the universal to the particular, from theory to individual directors and films, so its concern with religious interpretation flows naturally from the universally religious to particular religious worldviews. Among world religions, Christianity claims attention in proportion to its dominant cultural influence in the West where film has more obviously flourished. The insights and interpretations presented in these essays will be of importance to cinema scholars, film critics, and students of religion and of interest to film buffs, particularly those who are sensible of the religious dimension of films.