Claudia Tobin teaches English literature and visual culture at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of ‘Modernism and Still Life: Artists, Writers, Dancers’ (Edinburgh University Press)

Gold Icon The Sussex cottage where Virginia Woolf had a room of her own

At Monk’s House, a 17th-century weatherboard house that the Woolfs bought in 1919, the author found the freedom to write some of her greatest works

3 May 2025

Gold Icon The unconventional wisdom of Eileen Agar

The British Surrealist’s colourful account of a long and eventful career is back in print, and her deep commitment to her work couldn’t be clearer

15 Sep 2024
Vernon Lee (1881), John Singer Sargent. Tate collection

How Vernon Lee kept her finger on the pulse of gallery-goers

Long before the invention of the visitor-response survey, the writer was curious about how works of art affected their viewers

31 Jul 2022