Paul Bailey

Harry Chapman is not well, and he doesn't like hospitals. Furthermore, Dr Pereira's wonder drug is causing some strange side effects: he can hear more than the usual quotient of voices. First, it is his mother, acerbic and disappointed in him as ever, but then more and more voices add their differing notes and stories to the chorus, squabbling, cajoling and commenting. Friends from childhood, lovers, characters from novels and poetry, Virginia Woolf and a man who wants to sell him T.S Eliot's teeth. Written with a gentle, effortless generosity, full of delicate observation, Chapman's Odyssey is the work of a master; a superbly rendered act of storytelling and ventriloquism that is both witty and deeply moving.

New and experimental ways to capture landscape in acrylics.Landscape artist Paul Baileys fascination with the natural world is sensationally conveyed in his colourful and semi-abstract paintings. In Experimental Nature in Acrylics, he reveals his techniques for the first time making it simple for readers to produce their own work that is abstract, evocative and full of vivid colour.Through easy-to-follow explanations and step-by-step demonstrations, Paul describes how to manipulate the medium in surprising yet often simple ways. Readers will learn how distil craggy cliffs, rolling farmland hills, tidal rivers or flat, open-skied wilderness in striking and unusual colour palettes. There are tips on how to paint organic shapes and using abstract elements in the natural landscape as the basis for a painting, and how to create a compositional sense of rhythm.Pauls beautiful and contemporary work appears throughout the book and acts as a masterclass in scraping, pulling, weathering and splattering the paint. As well as showing how to build layer upon layer, the process of construction and how to tease a sense of movement from a static image.This essential guide is a must for anyone wishing to augment their understanding of the acrylic medium and appreciation of composition and colour, and to liberate their own beautiful paintings.