A joint biography of five British artists during WWI: Stanley Spencer, Richard Nevinson, Dora Carrington, Paul Nash and Mark Gertler.

A fascinating overview of the young artists at the Slade School of art, just before and into WWI. Many linked into the Bloomsbury Group and their friends, as well as other 'groups' at the time. Their stories intertwined and overlapped in friendships and love affairs, and the darkness of mind and war.

I go to Cookham every year, and it really filled out my sense of Stanley Spencer's presence there. With his deep love and sense of that place, his home. The chapel is now a gallery with changing exhibitions of his work, there is a sculpture of him on the train station, and a plaque on his house. He is always in evidence. His painting 'Swan Upping' is a scene I know well. ( )

Readable group biography which brings home the fertility of the pre First World War period and the influence of the war on the young artists searching for their voice at the beginning of the 20th century. An important reminder of the horror of war. My only concern is that none of the individuals are entirely sympathetic characters and perhaps sometimes it is better not to know too much about those whose work one admires. The perils of biography! ( )