Roy Strong

'Viper wit from the gardener, writer and Knight of exquisite taste' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Funny, barbed and moving ... magnificently readable' THE TIMES Scenes and Apparitions covers a period of Roy Strong's life from 1988 to 2003. A sequel to Splendours and Miseries, it is an unmissable record of how a citizen at the close of the second Elizabethan age observed and chronicled his own world at the turn of the century. Although it is not without tragedy - the murder of his friend Gianni Versace, and the death of his beloved wife Julia Trevelyan Oman - there is plenty to enjoy from his descriptions of Elton John's fiftieth birthday party, to a concert for the Queen Mother, and his portraits of marriage, friendship, work and his celebrated garden, The Laskett.

The Roy Strong Diaries 1988–2003

Scenes and Apparitions

In January 2004, where his third volume of Diaries begins, Roy Strong was in a state of deep grief following the death of his wife, Julia Trevelyan Oman, three months earlier. Yet the following years demonstrate his determination and resourcefulness, as well as extraordinary energy and creativity. New ideas for books are brought to fruition, regular forays into the worlds of TV and radio are made, and a three-year photographic portrait project with John Swannell concluded with the Sir Portrait exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. The final year, 2015, sees Roy Strong celebrate his 80th birthday, agree the takeover of The Laskett house and garden, and receive news of his forthcoming appointment as a Companion of Honour for services to the nation's culture. As with the two previous volumes, here is a wonderful window on to Roy Strong's world. His encounters with churchmen, politicians, royalty - and friends old and new - are all described with a telling eye for detail and delicious wit. While there is frustration at the changing world around him, and the loss of beloved friends, TYPES AND SHADOWS is a hugely informative and entertaining record of a uniquely full and colourful life.

Types and Shadows: Diaries 2004-2015

From the Romans to the Present

The Story of Britain : A History of the Great Ages

Roman Art (The Yale University Press Pelican History of Art)

Fifty years after his seminal Tate gallery London exhibition, 'The Elizabethan Image', leading authority Roy Strong returns with fresh eyes to the subject closest to his heart, The Virgin Queen, her court and our first Elizabethan age From celebrated portraits of the Queen and paintings of knights and courtiers, to works depicting an aspiring 'middle class', Strong presents a detailed and authoritative examination of one of the most fascinating periods of British art. Enriching previous perceptions and ways of seeing the Elizabethans in their world, he reveals an age parallel in many ways to our own--a country aspiring professionally and changing socially. The gaze is from the inside, capturing the knights, melancholy lovers, poets (including Sidney, Donne and Sir John Davies), court favourites and their 'Gloriana'--as they mirrored and made themselves. Beginning with the great portrait of the Queen in grand procession with her Garter Knights, Strong pinpoints the characters and key motifs that run through the rest of the book: chivalry, changes to the social order, emblems and imagery - the full richness of the Elizabethan imagination. These pictures were intimate--personal commissions by private individuals, and not necessarily for public view. As such they are a glimpse into private worlds and sentiments and speak eloquently for the people who paid for, painted and lived amongst them, reversing an academic tendency to treat the portraits as if they had a life of their own, not grounded by the real people who commissioned them. Roy Strong concludes this richly illustrated volume with the famous and complex Rainbow Portrait, unpicking the iconography of this final painting of an ageless Elizabeth in her 'Mask of Youth'. Within a year of its completion the queen was dead--her portraits increasingly demoted and replaced by Mary Stuart's--as the splendour of the Elizabethan age and 'the cult of the queen' made way for new monarch James VI, who was to rule over a united England and Scotland.

An Introduction to English Portraiture, 1558 to 1603

The Elizabethan Image

Tate Gallery

The Elizabethan Image: Painting in England, 1540-1620

National Portrait Gallery (Great Britain)

Tudor & Jacobean Portraits

Julia Trevelyan Oman

Elizabeth R

Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton

The Royal Portraits

Cecil Beaton

THE CLASSIC HISTORY OF BRITAIN, FULLY UPDATED Roy Strong has written an exemplary introduction to the history of Britain, as first designated by the Romans. It is a brilliant and balanced account of successive ages bound together by a compelling narrative which answers the questions: 'Where do we come from?' and 'Where are we going?' Beginning with the earliest recorded Celtic times, and ending with the present day of Brexit Britain, it is a remarkable achievement. With his passion, enthusiasm and wide-ranging knowledge, he is the ideal narrator. His book should be read by anyone, anywhere, who cares about Britain's national past, national identity and national prospects.

The Story of Britain

Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, and Her Family

The Winter Queen

For over three decades Roy Strong has teased, tantalised, amused and sometimes enraged the British public, firstly in his capacity as the flamboyant director of two great cultural institutions, the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and more recently as a broadcaster, writer, garden expert and historian. This first volume of diaries takes the reader into the heart of his career from 1967 to 1987, vividly recording events as they happened, and revealing Sir Roy to be not just a mercurial and brilliant administrator but also a shrewd observer of the glittering social and political milieu into which he was drawn. In these pages we meet David Hockney in his studio, the poignant figure of Cecil Beaton in decline, the Philistine Mrs Thatcher, the ever-indestructible Diana Cooper, and many others, including a bevy of members of the Royal Family. SPLENDOURS AND MISERIES provides a unique panorama of the world of the arts, fashion and society, taking us from the outrageous Swinging Sixties to the hard-edged glitz of Thatcher's Britain.

The Roy Strong Diaries

Roy C. Strong

"Toenails cut while dining, meals served to wax effigies of the dead, napkins concealing singing birds, dishes descending from the ceiling - these are just a few of the more exotic aspects of everyman at table. From the stupendous banquets of the Ancient Babylonians, Feast covers five millennia of formal eating." "Feast offers a fascinating and, at times, highly unusual mirror of society. It gathers together for the first time all the ingredients which contributed to the phenomenon of the celebratory meal: the people, the clothes, the food, the setting, the action and its circumstances." "In an age which has virtually abolished the shared meal as a central feature of daily living, Feast presents a revelatory picture of a world we have lost. Beautifully illustrated, it traces fashions in food and the etiquette of eating, taking the reader from the elegancies of the Roman villa to the austerities of the monastic refectory, from the splendours of the Renaissance banquet to the rigours of the Victorian dinner party."--Jacket.

A History of Grand Eating

Feast

To examine the portraits of Elizabeth I is to witness the creation of the legend of the Virgin Queen, of Gloriana and her burgeoning empire. The history of the portraiture is that of the deliberate manufacture of an image powerful enough to hold together a people divided by both rigid hierarchy and religious belief. When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, her subjects had an all-too-vivid memory of military defeat and religious turmoil. Restoring stability to the kingdom involved the image of the Queen herself--over the years, she was transmuted from an elegant aristocrat into a cosmic vision. In Gloriana, Roy Strong provides a richly detailed analysis of all the major portraits.

The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I

Gloriana

Revealing the glories of the English formal gardens of the Tudors and Stuarts, which ranked among the masterpieces of Renaissance Europe.

The Renaissance Garden in England

Renaissance Festivals, 1450-1650

Art and Power

In this innovative yet down-to-earth book, Roy Strong demonstrates that looking at garden styles of the past offers no just ways to restore or re-create garden styles of a particular period, but also an exciting treasure trove of ideas for small gardens today. Gardening through the Ages will enable anyone to make a garden entirely in keeping with the style and architecture of their home, whether it is a Georgian terraced house, a Victorian cottage or a 1920s suburban villa. But, just as some of the most interesting interiors are an eclectic fusion of styles, so Roy Strong presents hundreds of seductive and unusual ideas which can be mixed, adapted and used in any garden. As well as an abundance of photographs of existing gardens in twenty different historical styles, conceived with his unerring eye for period effects, and brought to life with stunning three-dimensional illustrations

Roy Strong

Books

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