Old Man Goya

Description

An intimate account of the life of Francisco de Goya from 1792 when he was 47 and contracted a serious illness which left him totally deaf. Through a time of political turmoil, war, violence and confusion, Goya continued to work, transforming the scenes he witnessed into his visionary paintings, drawings and etchings. Also detailed are Goya's lovers - the Duchess of Alba and Leocadia who was with him at the end. This is ultimately a tale of the ferocious energy, passion and genius of this great artist.

Julia Blackburn has written several books of non-fiction - Charles Waterton, The Emperor's Last Island, Daisy Bates in the Desert, With Billie - a family memoir, The Three of Us, which won the 2009 J. R. Ackerley Award, and, most recently, Thin Paths; and also two novels, The Book of Colour and The Leper's Companions, both of which were shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She is the author of seventeen short stories specially commisioned by BBC Radio, a selection of which were published in My Animals and Other Family, and four radio plays, including The Spellbound Horses, which was broadcast in 2011.

Sensitive and intelligent... Julia Blackburn has steeped herself in her subject and in the period * Irish Times * A near-perfect work... combines lyrical style with such exceptional imaginative power and intelligence * Sunday Times * Reading Ms Blackburn's work, you have the uncanny sensation that you have met Goya, felt his honest horny hands, watched him work * Economist * Julia Blackburn has developed her own technique for marrying the 'granite' of fact with the rainbow of personality... Her prose is elegant and precise, illuminated by intelligence, curiosity and a refined visual sense... When the book is closed, her evocation of the life and times of "old man Goya" lives on, a succession of brilliantly lit images in the mind's eye * Literary Review * Julia Blackburn has an extraordinary talent for thinking herself into other worlds... So vivid are her conjurings of lives lived elsewhere or long ago, you begin to suspect she sees ghosts -- Marina Benjamin * Evening Standard *