The Face of Britain
  • Published: 28 November 2016
  • ISBN: 9780670922307
  • Imprint: Viking
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 632
  • RRP: $48.00

The Face of Britain

The Nation through Its Portraits

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
28 Nov 2016
EBook
16 Sep 2015
Audiobook
16 Sep 2015
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'A work of dazzling panache ... a book to devour' - Sunday Times

Churchill and his painter locked in a struggle of stares and glares; Gainsborough watching his daughters run after a butterfly; a naked John Lennon five hours before his death.

Simon Schama has written a tour de force about British portraits over the centuries in which the image-maker, the subject and everyone else looking on are brought unforgettably to life. Mesmerising in its extraordinary storytelling, and beautifully illustrated, The Face of Britain will change the way we see our past - and ourselves.
  • Published: 28 November 2016
  • ISBN: 9780670922307
  • Imprint: Viking
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 632
  • RRP: $48.00
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About the author

Simon Schama

Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University. His award-winning books, translated into fifteen languages, include Citizens,Landscape and Memory, Rembrandt's Eyes,A History of Britain,The Power of Art,Rough Crossings, The American Future, The Face of Britain and The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words (1000 BCE - 1492).

His art columns for the New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for criticism and his journalism has appeared regularly in the Guardian and the Financial Times where he is Contributing Editor. He has written and presented more than fifty films for the BBC on subjects as diverse as Tolstoy, American politics, and The Story of the Jews and is co-presenter of a new landmark series on the history of world art, Civilisations.

portrait photo of Simon Schama

Also by Simon Schama

Art
Belonging
A History of Britain - Volume 1
The Power of Art
Scribble, Scribble, Scribble
The American Future
Citizens
See all

Praise for The Face of Britain

Classic Schama . . . brilliantly written, sizzling, fascinating. His greatest gift is a sure eye for an extraordinary story. Schama can look at something we think we know and make it seem fresh and new

Andrew Marr, Prospect

Schama is a matchless raconteur . . . a book to devour

John Carey, Sunday Times

Energetic and wide-ranging. Torrents of bravura prose

Financial Times

Enthralling

Evening Standard

Entertaining, idiosyncratic, wonderfully compelling. Full of unhackneyed paintings and unfamiliar stories

The Times

Vivid, intimate, insightful, remarkable. Schama is excitable and exciting

Observer

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