{"title":"Books by Laura Cumming","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781784708634","title":"On Chapel Sands","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e**THE \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER**\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e**SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD**\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eUncovering the mystery of her mother's disappearance as a child: Laura Cumming, prize-winning author and art critic, takes a closer look at her family story.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A modern masterpiece' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAutumn 1929 - a young girl is kidnapped from a beach. Five agonising days go by before she is discovered safe and well in a nearby village. The child remembers nothing of these events and at home, nobody ever speaks of them again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDecades later, Laura Cumming delves into the mystery surrounding her mother's disappearance. Examining everything from old family photos to letters, tickets and recipes, she uncovers a series of secrets and lies perpetuated not just by her family but by the whole community and in doing so unlocks a mystery almost a century old.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A moving, many-sided human story of great depth and tenderness, and a revelation of how art enriches life' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205085692082,"sku":"9781784708634","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781784708634_c9fc26f7-d739-43b6-a3d6-bc1cf6956025.jpg?v=1786025377"},{"product_id":"9780099587040","title":"The Vanishing Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE\u003cbr\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSelected as a Book of the Year in the\u003ci\u003e Herald\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction.  Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velázquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history - a quest that led from fame to ruin and exile.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFusing detection and biography, this book shows how and why great works of art can affect us, even to the point of mania. And on the trail of John Snare, Cumming makes a surprising discovery of her own. But most movingly, \u003ci\u003eThe Vanishing Man\u003c\/i\u003e is an eloquent and passionate homage to the Spanish master Velázquez, bringing us closer to the creation and appreciation of his works than ever before.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223756190069,"sku":"9780099587040","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099587040_11174e2c-e36b-4644-b69f-f68b7947f8db.jpg?v=1786011428"},{"product_id":"9781529922530","title":"Thunderclap","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e**WINNER OF THE SALTIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024**\u003cbr\u003e**WINNER OF THE WRITERS' PRIZE 2024 | NON-FICTION**\u003cbr\u003e**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024**\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA beautifully illustrated new memoir of a life in art, a father and daughter, and what a shared love of a painting can come to mean.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Brilliant’ Edmund de Waal * ‘Captivating’ Nina Stibbe * 'Extraordinary' India Knight\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the morning of 12 October 1654, a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece \u003ci\u003eThe Goldfinch\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThunderclap \u003c\/i\u003eexplores what happened to Fabritius before and after the disaster whilst interweaving the lives of Laura Cumming, her painter father and the great artists of the Dutch Golden Age. It takes the reader from seventeenth-century Delft to twentieth-century Scottish islands, from Rembrandt’s studio to wartime America and contemporary London. This is a book about what a picture may come to mean, how it can enter your life and change your thinking in a thunderclap.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Superb…this book taught me to see anew’ \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A book that often borders on the sublime in its sentiment and beauty’ \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303149646197,"sku":"9781529922530","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529922530_2354afa0-f338-4643-9525-b4b412f2fe4f.jpg?v=1786023442"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-laura-cumming.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}