While investigating the mutilation of a painting in a London gallery, journalist Minto Maitland finds himself drawn into a horrific story of brutality and betrayal during the Hungarian revolution. Exposing odd connections to art dealer Alexander Courtney, Maitland suspects an appalling secret.

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARThe ten years leading up to the First World War were the most exciting, frenzied and revolutionary in the history of art. They were the crucible of Modernism, when Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism and Abstract Art all burst forth. Simultaneously the Old Master market boomed, and art itself was politically weaponised in advance of approaching war.What was the conventional art against which Modernism was rebelli...

In January 1794 the French 'Army of Italy' was commanded by General Dumerbion and he acknowledged a great debt to his 25-year-old commander of artillery – Napoleon Bonaparte.The French Revolution had resulted in major changes in the military system, conscription created a national army and new tactics and initiatives allowed an officer of such promise as Napoleon to rise quickly through the ranks. By 1796 he was the general commanding the French in Italy and at the...

Explains and illustrates the training and tactics of the Light Infantry and Rifle regiments, famously dramatized in the 'Sharpe' novels and TV films.In an age when infantry units manoeuvred and fought in rigid blocks, the idea of encouraging initiative and allowing a unit to 'skirmish' was regarded as revolutionary and fell out of favour in the years following the French-Indian and American Revolutionary wars. It was revived by far-sighted British and foreign-merce...

Parnello Moran buys a German romantic landscape at an auction, but then it's stolen from him. When he sets out to recover it he discovers all its recent owners met violent deaths. Gradually he uncovers a deeper past, and the biggest surprise of all - the secret of the soldier in the wheatfield.

A man is found dead in a London hotel room, the only clue to his identity a polaroidof a lost Impressionist painting. A young man inherits his mother's diaries and realisesher early life in France was much more eventful than he'd realised.And as the extent of the past's effect on the present becomes clear, Daniel iscaught up in a web of conspiracy and betrayal that began decades ago.

The bombardment by Confederate artillery of Fort Sumter on 12 April 1861 was the spark that finally ignited the American Civil War, quickly bringing thousands of eager volunteers for the Union cause.It proved especially easy to raise cavalry, since recruits naively believed that their military duties would be easier than in the infantry. This book investigates all aspects of the life and experiences of a Union trooper, covering enlistment, training, uniforms, weapo...

During the Napoleonic Wars all the major combatants fielded large numbers of light cavalry.These nimble, fast-moving regiments performed a variety of vital roles, from reconnaissance and keeping contact with the enemy during the movement of armies, to raiding, skirmishing, and the pursuit to destruction of beaten enemies. In practice, light cavalry were often also employed for battlefield charges alongside the heavy cavalry. Featuring period illustrations and speci...

Philip Hook returns to fiction in this collection of short stories. Many are set in the art world, of which the author has deep inside knowledge. Others are about cricket, football, war, espionage and marriage. Some are funny, some are moving, some are surreal. All of them are compulsive reading.

In 1892 Degas' painting In the Café was sold for a mere 180 guineas at auction, with the public hissing as the hammer fell. Less than a century later another Impressionist work, Renoir's Moulin de la Galette, sold at Sotheby's for $78 million, accompanied by enthusiastic applause. In this history-cum-memoir Philip Hook, Senior Director of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art department, examines the public's change of heart toward Impressionism. Starting with its shocking novelty and con...

1945, an art historian leads a convoy towards Dresden. Fifty years later, Oswald Ginn is sent a photograph of a masterpiece presumed destroyed in the bombing of Dresden. As the art world speculates, three people are propelled on an international search, and someone sits back and watches.

Philip Hook takes the lid off the world of art dealing to reveal the brilliance, cunning, greed and daring of its practitioners. In a richly anecdotal narrative he describes the rise and occasional fall of the extraordinary men and women who over the centuries have made it their business to sell art to kings, merchants, nobles, entrepreneurs and museums.From its beginnings in Antwerp, where paintings were sometimes sold by weight, to the rich hauteur of the contemporary gallery in ...