Beginning in 1912, Defiant Spirits traces the artistic development of Tom Thomson and the future members of the Group of Seven, Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley, over a dozen years in Canadian history. Working in an eclectic and sometimes controversial blend of modernist styles, they produced what an English critic celebrated in the 1920s as the most vital group of paintings” of the 20th century. Ins...

In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The thirty-three-year-old Michelangelo had very little experience of the physically and technically taxing art of fresco; and, at twelve thousand square feet, the ceiling represented one of the largest such projects ever attempted.Nevertheless, for the next four years he and a hand-picked team of assistants laboured over the vast ceiling, making thousands of drawings and spending back-brea...

Discover the addictive sun-drenched Hollywood Trilogy from #1 bestseller Shari Low and ITV's Ross King'A gritty raunchy thriller. A page turner that lifts the lid on Hollywood!' Catherine Zeta-Jones‘A glam, edgy thriller, just the way I like them’ Martina Cole‘Sex, scandal and secrets galore’ Jackie CollinsThis boxset contains the complete Hollywood Trilogy from Shari Low and Ross KingThe Ris...

The start of a thrilling and glamourous Hollywood series from multi-million copy bestselling author Shari Low and Strictly Come Dancing's Ross King ✨When we bury our secrets, they always come back to haunt us...Their rise was meteoric.Only a few years before, they had been three friends from Glasgow, just trying to survive tough lives of danger and dysfunction.But on one Hollywood evening in 1993, they were on the world’s b...

Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build because of its enormous size. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age...

Discover the prodigious global influence of il bel paese in this star-studded retelling of Italy’s past—from a foremost author of historic Italy. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.“Each page brims with Bill Bryson-like trivia that is sure to delight.”—Booklist, starred reviewThe calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the p...

Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art--The Last Supper. After a dozen years at the court of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, Leonardo was at a low point personally and professionally: at 43, in an era when he had almost reached the average life expectancy, he had failed, despite a number of prestigious commissions, to complete anything that truly fulfilled his astonishing promise. His latest f...

Responding to a cryptic summons to a remote country house, London bookseller Isaac Inchbold finds himself responsible for restoring a magnificent library pillaged during the English Civil War, and in the process slipping from the surface of 1660s London into an underworld of spies and smugglers, ciphers and forgeries. As he assembles the fragments of a complex historical mystery, Inchbold learns how Sir Ambrose Plessington, founder of the library, escaped from Bohemia on the eve of the Thi...

The thrilling second instalment in the gripping Hollywood series from multi-million copy bestselling author Shari Low and TV's Ross King.They’ve made it to the top but someone is determined to make them pay...At a glittering after-party on the night of the Academy Awards, author Mirren McLean celebrates her win with her childhood friends Davie Johnston and Zander Leith by her side.Three kids from a tough street in Glasgow, the dazzling trio rose f...

The bestselling author of Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling captures the excitement and spirit of the Renaissance in this chronicle of the life and work of "the king of the world's booksellers" and the technological disruption that forever changed the ways knowledge spread.The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings—the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and archit...

Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art-The Last Supper. After a dozen years at the court of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, Leonardo was at a low point personally and professionally: at forty-three, in an era when he had almost reached the average life expectancy, he had failed, despite a number of prestigious commissions, to complete anything that truly fulfilled his astonishing prom...

The explosive finale in the thrilling and glamourous Hollywood series from multi-million copy bestselling author Shari Low and TV's Ross King.They climbed up from the streets of Glasgow to the top of the world. Now these Hollywood icons are heading for a fall.Twenty-five years ago, three friends from Glasgow shocked the world when they became Oscar-winning legends.But now, they are all fighting for survival.A-list actor Zander Leith has fin...