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Tiepolo Blue: 'The best novel I have read for ages' Stephen Fry

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The best novel I have read for ages. My heart was constantly in my throat as I read . . . There is so much to enjoy, to contemplate, to wonder at, and to be lost in’ Stephen Fry It could be that his faithfulness to his studies at an age when he should have been experiencing sexual awakening has largely been the cause of this naivety. Later on, when we meet him, he is going out into the world to crash into a sort of mid-life-latent-adolescent crisis that he nevertheless embraces with poise, shored up by his understanding of classical art and its history. Tiepolo Blue tells the story of a naive, old-before-his-years Cambridge professor, Don Lamb, whose passion is the Italian artist, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Having lived and worked in a Cambridge college since he was a student Don is unaware of life outside academia and when he suddenly loses his job he gradually loses sight of reality. As for setting, it’s a fascinating mix of worlds where you start in academia and end up in the art world and Soho. Don is an out of touch and rather pompous academic who hasn’t a clue about the real world. I read how he started in Cambridge and ended up in London and Soho at that. A story that was painfully fascinating in so many ways. Ashby, Chloë (6 June 2022). "Old Master meets YBAs: James Cahill tells us all about his debut novel". The Art Newspaper . Retrieved 8 December 2022.

Tiepolo Blue comes trailing clouds of glory. Clouds borne by winged putti, perhaps, to fit its subject matter; I have rarely seen a first novel by someone who is not already famous puffed so much with pre-publication quotes by people who are. This would be fine if the novel were a work of great talent but, while not actually bad, I am not sure it fulfils its promise. The plot: Professor Don Lamb is an art historian at Peterhouse, Cambridge’s oldest and weirdest college. (The name “Don” is deliberately unimaginative.) An expert on the great Italian painter Tiepolo, about whom he has been writing the definitive work for years, he has lately been outraged by a permanent exhibition of modern art on the lawn of the College’s main court (Old Court, fittingly).

His departure from academia was not entirely by choice but at the times when it seems that someone is pulling the strings that guide him through his new life, there is doubt caused by some event or other. Maybe things aren't orchestrated, it could just be other peoples' ignorance or folly that sets up some of the situations Don finds himself in. The sympathetic descriptions of the people he meets in his new role as a gallery director in London seem always to redeem them. They are as unworldly, in their ways, as Don was himself when he was cocooned by the traditions he has left behind.

At first I thought the story started off like a Kingsley Amis academic novel with a curmudgeonly Professor who is obsessed with his own art interests and is closed to everything else. Don resigns from his post after a clash about a modern art installation in his courtyard. He is manoeuvred into a directorship post for an art gallery in Dulwich by his long-standing friend Val, who has an unrequited love for him. Then it becomes a story of obsession and yearning as Don falls in love with Ben, an art student, and he explores the love he has always denied himself. More than about a story about queerness, it is, to my understanding, a story about letting go. Of pressure, the past, what you expect your future to be. A novel that combines formal elegance with gripping storytelling . . . wildly enjoyable' Financial Times Tiepolo favored unhurried, fluid, brushstrokes through which he applied his trademark pastel palette. In the words of famous art historian E. H. Gombrich, the artist's style lent itself perfectly to "the whole aristocratic dream-world" which he did so much to help create. To this end, Tiepolo's dramatic narratives were often tallied with a noticeable degree of sparseness. This was not a blemish on Tiepolo's talent so much as an attempt to let the spectator add details to the picture by using their own imagination. Cahill was born in London. [1] He earned a degree in Classics and English at Magdalen College, Oxford, followed by a master's degree in Contemporary Art from the Courtauld Institute. [2] In 2017, he completed a PhD in Classics at Cambridge University. [2] He is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at King's College London. [2]A sad novel and a poignant one too. A professor in his forties lives a secluded life so living in the city of Cambridge and working ina college seems apt. He is persuaded to move to London and escape the safety of that world and get a job in an art museum in London. This novel showcases how a place can transform you and give you a new outlook on life but also damage you. When an explosive piece of contemporary art is installed on the lawn of his college, it sets in motion Don's abrupt departure from Cambridge to take up a role at a south London museum. There he befriends Ben, a young artist who draws him into the anarchic 1990s British art scene and the nightlife of Soho.

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