The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner
Published on 3. February 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-7472-6541-2 (ISBN)
Description
Auberon, the brilliant but troubled Director of the Museum of British History (known as BRIT) is preparing one Midsummer's Day for the opening of the most spectacular exhibition the Museum has ever staged. The centrepiece of the exhibition is Gainsborough's portrait of the beautiful but intriguing Lady St John; not shown in London for a hundred years, the painting shows its subject strikingly attired as Puck. As the day passes the portrait arouses in the minds of the museum staff disquieting questions, rivalries, and strangely deep affections. Tension mounts: will the gala dinner be a success? Can the Museum's Chairman be kept under control? And just what is it that's so peculiar about the portrait?
Reviews / Votes
Not just a sparkling farce, one disaster following hard on the heels of another, but a blistering satire on the museum world and its many parasites. There are some memorably ghastly minor characters * Sunday Telegraph * Waterfield's comic novel, always urbanely light-hearted, hides a meaner satirical punch benwath its entertaining surface * The Sunday Times * Waterfield's comic novel, always urbanely light-hearted, hides a meaner satirical punch beneath its entertaining surface * The Sunday Times * Waterfield's uproarious portrait of museum life is daubed with flashes of silver-tongued satire... Amid the frivolity, he manages to insert some apt digs at New Labour obsessions with modernity * The Times * Delightfully light and funny satirical romp through the museum art-world... perfect holiday reading * Sunday Telegraph * Waterfield's uproarious portrait of museum life is daubed with flashes of silver-tongued satire, and he delights in puncturing the pomposity of its senior hierarchy. Amid the frivolity, he manages to insert some apt digs at New Labour obsessions with modernity * The Times * Urbane and deceptively light-hearted satire on the clash between sponsorship and scholarship in the modern world * The Sunday Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
208 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7472-6541-2 (9780747265412)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Giles Waterfield was brought up in Paris and Geneva. Having worked at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and for sixteen years as Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, in 1996 he abandoned arts administration in order to write, teach and curate exhibitions.