Frances Spalding

Among the many current and very welcome trends in the art world is a revival in interest in the artistic output in England in the two decades between the two world wars. Frances Spalding, an impeccable art historian with a string of brilliant biographies to her name, refocuses her lens to show the devastating effects that WW1 had on creativity, and how a desire for the past coalesced with the need for something different to produce a unique and exciting moment in art. Here are the artists we know and love already such as Stanley Spencer, Paul Nash, Henry Moore and Eric Ravilious, but Spalding shines her light on lesser-known stars too, including John Nash, Tristram Hillier and Algernon Newton. Women get a good show, and not just the obvious ones like Dora Carrington and Gwen John. The book is solid in every way: a thumping tome, lucidly written, gorgeously illustrated and printed on lovely thick cream paper.