Cover of Summer in February

Summer in February

Sir Alfred Munnings, retiring President of the Royal Academy, chooses the 1949 Annual Banquet to launch a savage attack on Modern Art. The effect of his diatribe is doubly shocking, leaving not only his distinguished audience gasping but also many people tuning in to the BBC's live radio broadcast. But as he approaches the end of his assault, the speech suddenly dissolves into incoherence when he stumbles over a name - a name he normally takes such pains to avoid - that takes him back forty years to a special time and a special place.

Read more

Summer in February is a disturbing and moving re-creation of a celebrated Edwardian artistic community enjoying the last days of a golden age soon to be shattered by war. As resonant and understated as The Go-Between, it is a love story of beauty, deprivation and tragedy.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 368 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Summer in February? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Summer in February. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. China Court: The Hours of a Country House Shares historical fiction, Cornwall, fiction
  2. Dorothea's War
  3. Penmarric Shares historical fiction, Cornwall, fiction
  4. Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting Shares art, biography, adult

“People who read Summer in February tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Parthenon
  2. Spring Awakening
  3. Days Without Number
  4. Object of Virtue

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about art), start with these.”

  1. The Four Swans
  2. Bella Poldark
  3. The Stranger from the Sea
  4. The Black Moon

“If it was the Cornwall that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Zennor In Darkness
  2. A Gathering Storm
  3. Ross Poldark
  4. I, Hogarth

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Lucky Us
  2. Agatha Raisin The Terrible Tourist and The Fairies of Fryfam
  3. Seeds of War
  4. Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News