thrilling to see this comprehensive show of Lee Miller's work opening at The Tate - Lee was one of the magnificent six in my group bio of front line female journalists in WW2 @tate @picadorbooks #GoingWithTheBoys

V excited to be returning to the excellent Guildford Book Festival on October 15 - talking about the brilliant and contradictory siblings Gwen and Augustus John

The mighty River Lot at Cahors, with views of ancient fortified bridge and a stupendous wine

Night lights

Some highlights from the anti-Trump demo

Monarez: "Kennedy demanded 2 things of me that were were inconsistent w/ my oath of office. He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence. He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause"

apples looking like something from a fairy tale in the early autumn sun, and the blues even more intense

Have they updated to the bit where these yobs theew bottles, flares and bricks at the police yet?

Lovely audience at Burton Gallery for my Appledore book festival talk- also a great exhibition of British art in the gallery itself #gwenandaugustusjohn

The extra joy of being invited to a book festival when these are the views #appledorebookfestival #GwenandAugustusJohn

Half through The Correspondents by @judithmackrell.bsky.social. Great read! One thing that jumps out is the constant background of Nazi propaganda, disinfo, & how so many turned a blind eye to fascism's rise. This isn't the 1930s. Yet parallels abound. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676722...

Having read all the previous biographies of Gwen & Augustus John, I was intrigued by @judithmackrell.bsky.social's new joint biography, wondering what more could be written about these two artists. Quite a lot, as it turns out. It is a magnificent and insightful book, and I didn't want it to end.

In book news - thrilled to be going to the beautiful Appledore book festival on September 13 and to be coming back to Guildford on October 15 (tickets still going so please please come if you're in the neighbourhood)

Morning mist, and the sun seems huge #France #Aftertheheatwave

Karaoke, dinner and dancing in the village square last night but, just a few steps away, moonlight on the river quay

"Do not forget Gaza. And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance." This is heartbreaking

Re-watching Apocalypse Now for the first time in decades and OMG, Martin Sheen. What an actor, and how did he get from the-horror-the horror to magnficent Jed Bartlet in the West Wing and adorable out of the closet Robert in Grace and Franki

Very deeply attached to my strimmer and trimmer - and nothing gets you over a grumbling writer's blip so fast as slashing down a thicket of brambles #france #gardening #boystoysforgirls

Among the many tributes to Robert Wilson I would like to add his kindness when, at the premiere of his 1995 installation at the Clink St Vaults, he took the sweetest interest in my, then, v small son's plastic Halloween vampire bat .

Brava Miyako Yoshida - so loved at the Royal Ballet and 15 years later back at the Opera House as director of National Ballet of Japan #nationalballetjapan #ballet #giselle

Signing copies at the National Gallery's elegant new book shop @nationalgallery #nationalgallery #ArtistsSiblingsVisionaries #gwenjohnartist #augustusjohn @tatebritain

The right-wing press is going mad over votes at 16 ("a naked attempt to twist democracy in Labour’s favour", an "election-rigging move"...) Oddly, they said the same 100 years ago when the voting age for women fell from 30 to 21. Let's revisit the Mail's campaign to"Stop the Flapper Vote Folly"...

Greens, blues, lights and shadows #France

Next up on my reading list:

From sunset to moonrise in a single hour

27 people — including a priest, professor and health workers — were arrested today under terrorism laws. Their crime? Peacefully holding signs opposing genocide. This is how we sleepwalk into fascism.

🔴11 More Government Reforms the Media Hasn’t Wanted to Tell You About You probably won’t have read much about these announcements over the past few weeks bylinetimes.com/2025/07/01/1...

Tonight. Share everywhere. 🙏

A beautiful portrait of Maude Boughton Leigh (who went by the name Grilda) by Gwen John. She drew her many times, often with an up-tilted chin, hair piled up on her head, and distant, inaccessible look in her eyes

Thank you to Hatchards for inviting me in to sign some books today #art #books #biography #ArtistsSiblingsVisionaries

The weather will be fine, and lots to talk about Gwen Augustus, art and local history

"Plotted with the verve of a great Victorian novel' - huge thank you to The IrishTimes for this great review of my double biography of Gwen and Augustus John #ArtistsSiblingsVisionaries

Hard agree

🙏🙏🙏

How resolute and intelligent she looks! 😁

Gwen John, born OTD, 1876. What a pleasure and a challenge it was to write about her and her brother Augustus #ArtistsSiblingsVisionaries

God my absolute heart is with the people of Iran, who’ve fought so steadfastly for their own liberation, and are getting fucked half a dozen ways by a whole pantheon of geriatric war criminals while being told they should be grateful for it

Important to remember how we got here.

Not sure that this is the statement the British people wanted to hear...

Gwen John born #OTD 1876. After recent excellent exhibition and book by Alicia Foster very much looking forward to reading @judithmackrell.bsky.social Artists, Siblings, Visionaries

It’s a good thing Congress isn’t alive to see this

Please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Gorgeous publication day flowers

Amazing correction in the Telegraph.

This is thrilling - Amazon best seller in History of Women & Art. Huge gratitude to those of who've pre-ordered the book and to the critics and readers who've written about it so generously.

Thank you BBCWales for having me on air this morning to talk about my new double bio of Gwen and Augustus John - 'Artists Siblings Visionaries', published this Thursday

So thrilled by this-

Fabulous work by Ivan Putrov and others in making this happen- and what heroes the Ukrainian dancers are

Thanks to @theguardian.com for this fabulous review www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

V happy to see my Johns' book given lead review in The Times yesterday