(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
 

Ann Skea reviews...
 

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
by Sue Prideaux

In Prideaux's richly illustrated book, she charts the development of Gauguin's art alongside the way in which his life influenced it, and she discusses many of his paintings in detail. For a man who did not seriously begin painting until he was in his early 20s, and who was largely self-taught, his achievements were, and still are, remarkable.
 

Thirst
by Marina Yuszczuk

I am not usually a reader of vampire fiction, but when this book was sent to me, I was intrigued: "feminist Gothic," the "fragility of vampires," "nihilism," "the history of Buenos Aires." I was aware that horror, death, blood, and sex are hallmarks of this genre, and they are all there in abundance in Thirst... but a feminist vampire?
 

The Players
by Minette Walters

Elias's history is as complicated as the history he and his family have lived through. Minette Walters is adept at making both histories clear. In a prologue, she briefly outlines the "Aftermath of the English Civil War" and the events resulting in the crowning of the Catholic convert, King James II, who in contrast to the much loved "Merry Monarch," King Charles II, was widely feared and disliked.
 

Rapture
by Emily Maguire

The first accounts of a Pope Joan were written in the 13th century. They claim that with the help of a lover, she disguised herself as a man, worked her way up through the Church hierarchy, and in 855 due to her learning and talents, was elected as Bishop of Rome. She reigned as Pope John Anglicus (Pope John VIII) for just over two years before giving birth to a child during a Papal procession. She is said to have either died of natural causes or to have been murdered and buried on the spot.
 

The Instrumentalist
by Harriet Constable

Unlikely as this sudden skill sounds here, it is true Vivaldi did, in fact, see something exceptional in eight-year-old Anna Maria della Pietà and nourished it. She became the youngest ever to join the figlie di coro; she was declared a maestro at 18 for her exceptional violin playing; and years later, she became the first female Maestro di Coro (Master of Music) when Vivaldi left the Ospedale for the court of Emperor Charles VI in Vienna.