Portraits from Paris

Gavin Cologne-Brookes is professor emeritus at Bath Spa University. Educated in England and the United States, he moved to Paris in 2019 to pursue his passion for oil painting. His portraits of Arthur Miller, William Styron, Joyce Carol Oates, and Bruce Springsteen are on loan display at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.

"With his astonishing powers of recall, Gavin Cologne-Brookes packs the schooldays sections of Portraits from Paris with insight and accurate observation. . . . An engaging and uplifting account of a life in search of liberty." - Richard Beard, author of The Day That Went Missing and Sad Little Men"Cologne-Brookes has lived a remarkable life and is a gifted storyteller. The writing thrums with energy and color and humor. . . . The whole insightful performance is embedded to a quite extraordinary degree in artistic and literary lore. Stunning." - Jonathan Carr, author of Make Me a City"The brutality of school opens the reader's heart (and eyes) to the brutality that lies behind so much of the art that Cologne-Brookes observes. . . . A powerful memoir that dramatizes a dynamic interplay between art, temporality, and the self." - Mimi Thebo, author of Dreaming the Bear"A beautifully written painter's portrait of surviving boarding school and finding validation in art. This book is a touching and evocative journey that takes in some of the world's great artworks, described with an artist's palette." - Robert Verkaik, author of Posh Boys and The Traitor of Colditz