Art History and Teaching 

 

Qualifications:

BSc; TQUK Level 3 Education and Teaching Award (RQF).

 

I teach a range of courses in Art History and Fine Art Studies (Introductory and Foundation level) and Creative Writing with Art. I also provide commission-based art history consultancy, cataloguing, monographic, and research services.

 

Completed research project:

Connoisseurship and art collecting as a statement of 'Englishness' in the eighteenth century

(MA submission - September 2023).

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The Altair Press

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The Altair Press was launched in March 2023 as a "self-publishing" company. Working with Print2Demand an excellent print company located in Bedfordshire, The Altair Press will now publish all of my books until further notice. All published titles available by direct order from myself.

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Published by The Altair Press:

• Round and Around: Selected Poems 1978-2023 (published: 31 March 2023) - all proceeds to charity.

• Duty of Candour: The Memoirs of Edward Stanton Ross, Vol 1 (published: 6 November 2023).

• On Art: Essays and Anecdotes (due for publication in February 2024) - all proceeds to charity.

• Night Lights: Another round of selected poems (due for publication in Spring 2024) - all proceeds to charity.

• Remorse for the Rising Sun: The Memoirs of Edward Stanton Ross, Vol 2 (to be published: Autumn 2024)

• Exploring The Stars (to be published: January 2025) - all proceeds to charity.

• A Miscellany: The Memoirs of Edward Stanton Ross, Vol 3 (to be published: Autumn 2025)

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My Writing Journey

 

I started writing "seriously" from the age of 12; and over the last forty years have successfully been published in magazines, journals, newspapers, and newsletters.  

 

My first historical fiction novel was completed in 2018 which is a sequel to a very famous quinessential 20th century English novel. I have now completed the first two books in a trilogy, with the third book well on its way. The first of the trilogy, titled: Duty of Candour is due for publication on 6 November 2023 by The Altair Press.

 

A slim volume of poetry spanning the years 1978 - 2023, entitled Round and Around was published by The Altair Press on 31 March 2023. All proceeds donated to Peace Hospice Care, Watford. A second volume Night Lights: Another round of selected poems, is due for publication in Spring 2024; again, all proceeds to charity.

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Duty of Candour: The Memoirs of Edward Stanton Ross, 3rd Earl of Hanwell, is published on 6 November 2023 by The Altair Press. This is the first in a trilogy - the second instalment is due for publication in Autumn 2024; and the final instalment in Autumn 2025.

 

I am currently working on another new historical fiction novel with the main character located in his early years in Watford, Hertfordshire, at the turn of the twentieth century. I also have plans to write a book titled Exploring The Stars, which shall be an amateur astronomer's guide to observing stars and based on a book of the same title by the late Patrick Moore - whilst this is a project enveloped in nostalgia, it shall be written in a way that encourages the amateur to perhaps go-on to reach a higher level of study in astronomy. 

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A book, titled On Art, is due for publication by The Altair Press, in January/February 2024. This book brings together some of my previously published articles, albeit revised and updated, plus unpublished work as well as a host of interviews and anecdotes. All proceeds to be donated to Peace Hospice Care, Watford. 

 

I am married to Louise who is an artist and writer; and live in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

 

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The Bookshelf

 

As writers, we are all influenced by books we read. Do we read books cover-to-cover? In most cases, yes, but in my world most of my books are reference / non-fiction works that are to be dabbled in and out of. Sources, primary and secondary, are extracted and used appropriately. Like music collections, bookshelves can reveal a person's character and mine is no different. Here are a few random highlights that present their bindings on my bookshelf:​

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• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

• As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee

• The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

• The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home by Peter Mandler

• Diaries (9 vols) by James Lees Milne (some edited by Michael Bloch)

• James Lees Milne, A Life by Michael Bloch

• The Englishness of English Art by Nikolaus Pevsner

• Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant by Philip Hoare

• Henry 'Chips' Channon - The Diaries (3 vols) Edited by Simon Heffer

• The Glamour Boys by Chris Bryant

• Coffee with Hitler by Charles Spicer

• Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited by Philip Eade

• Charmed Life: The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon by Damian Collins

• Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars by Daisy Dunn

• King Edward VIII by Philip Ziegler

• Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor by Andrew Lownie

• The King Who Had To Go:  Edward VIII, Mrs Simpson and the Hidden Politics of the Abdication Crisis by Adrian Phillips

• Edward VIII by Frances Donaldson

• Vermeer and the Delft School, edited by Walter Liedtke

• Pieter de Hooch (1629 - 1684) by Peter Sutton

• Paris 1919 by Margaret Macmillan

• Siegfried Sassoon by Max Egremont

• Collected Poems by Robert Graves

• The War Poems by Robert Graves

• Diaries of Sergey Prokofiev (3 vols), translated and annotated by Anthony Phillips 

• The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn

• The Scientific Works of William Herschel (2 vols), edited by J L E Dreyer.

• The Sky At Night by Patrick Moore (13 vols)

• The Amateur Astronomer by Patrick Moore (Eighth Edition is the best!)

• It Came From Outer Space Wearing An RAF Blazer and Return to the Far Side of Planet Moore (2 volume biography of Sir Patrick Moore) by Martin Mobberley

• Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly 

• Vangelis: The Unknown Man - An Unauthorised Biography by Mark T Griffin 

• Bob Dylan: All The Songs - The Story Behind Every Track by Jean Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin

• Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography by Ian Carr

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Membership

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I am a member of:

 

• Association for Art History ​

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and, two excellent writing groups:

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• Jericho Writers

• Watford Writers 

 

 

and just for fun... my Desert Island Discs:

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In My Life by The Beatles

Rio de Janeiro Blue by Randy Crawford

Family Affair by Sly and The Family Stone

The Golden Time of Day (Hammersmith Odeon version) by Maze feat. Frankie Beverly

Vienna by Ultravox

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right by Bob Dylan

Blue Moon of Kentucky by Elvis Presley

Ombra Mai Fu (Handel) by Andreas Scholl

 

Favourite Book: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Inanimate object: Binoculars 

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Main interests / past times...

 

Dutch art of the seventeenth century (especially the work of Godfried Schalcken and Pieter de Hooch). I am also interested in the work of Post-Impressionists Georges Seurat and Vincent Van Gogh; and American artists Edward Hopper and Jackson Pollock. I have an interest in astronomy that goes back to my very early years; and finally, I love music - in particular the music of Vangelis, The Beatles, Bowie, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Weller, and Ultravox... favourite genres include jazz, jazz funk, new romantics, and classical.