James Hamilton

THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF J. M. W. TURNER, REISSUED TO MARK THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH'A pleasure to read' A. S. BYATT'With splendid clarity and shrewd humour, James Hamilton evokes the visceral world of a great artist and a fascinating character' MIKE LEIGH, Academy Award-winning director of Mr. TurnerJ. M. W. Turner became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, aged just twenty-four. As influential collectors competed to buy his paintings, he travelled widely - in an era defined by industrial change and social turbulence, he observed both landscape and people, gathering material for a series of works that would come to express the collective identity of Britain. Blending vibrant biography and art history, James Hamilton paints a remarkable portrait of an eccentric and enigmatic figure. He examines the fascinating conflicts of Turner's life and legacy, revealing him to be a giant of the nineteenth century and a beacon for the twenty-first.

Some came in search of places of Classical interest, others joined scientific expeditions. A few were attracted merely by the desert's mystery and romance. James Hamilton was such a traveller. Though the slave trade still flourished, and dangers from thieves and, worse, disease still were prevalent, North Africa now held less secrets than its dark interior. Hamilton's journey, in 1852, through the deserts of Cyrenaica (Barqah) takes the form of an excursion, here entertainingly retold. 'I believe', the author states, 'that the traveller who simply records what he sees with his eyes, and hears with his ears, and indulges in none of the pleasures of the imagination, rarely meets with those stirring scenes which so frequently charm the reader.' True to these principles, Hamilton's 'wanderings' have a charm all of their own, and this facsimile edition first published in 1856 will be welcomed by a wide readership.