This book is full of good jokes, full of cartoons, full of memorable epigrams, but above all full of thought-provoking ideas that make you want to pause on every page and say: "Discuss." I have never read such a stimulating short guide to art. It should be issued as a set text in every school

A visual and intellectual delight

Punchy, mischievous ... Hugely entertaining. You could, genuinely, take an aphorism or a quote from every second page ... This is splendid, transgressive stuff ... a love letter to art ... a thing of pleasure: petite, luxuriously printed, a mischievous little hymn to 21st-century inclusivity

It reveals Perry to be not just an artist but a wordsmith, too... It is acute and funny at the same time. This, I think, is why people love Perry so much.

A joy to read

A polemic for inclusivity... The great thing about Perry's statement of it here is that you are always convinced that he believes it and lives by it

It's unputdownable! It's really relevant to anyone who does anything ... A great book ... Grayson is brilliant

The horror of Vincent van Gogh cutting off his ear in 1888 is one of the most famous incidents in art history...Now dramatic discoveries are painting the real story in a new light...When [Bernadette Murphy] presented her research to experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, they were astonished.

A recently discovered letter from Félix Rey, the doctor who treated Van Gogh in the hospital...was found in an American archive by Bernadette Murphy. The discovery brings an end to a long-standing biographical question.

Bernadette Murphy...discovered a document in an American archive. A note written by Félix Rey, a doctor who treated van Gogh at the Arles hospital, contains a drawing of the mangled ear showing that the artist indeed cut off the whole thing. Murphy...was also able to identify the woman to whom van Gogh gave his ear.

An Irish-born amateur historian appears to have solved one of the great mysteries of Western art. Bernadette Murphy includes the first-ever reproduction of the diagram in her book Van Gogh’s Ear. Another coup for Murphy is her debunking of the long-circulating story that had dozens, even a hundred or so, of Arles residents signing a petition in late February, 1889, urging the mayor to return the recovering van Gogh to his family or, failing that, put him in an asylum.

Her bit of 'research gold' — as one van Gogh specialist called it — came from a drawing in the collection of novelist Irving Stone. 'It’s really quite jarring, after 129 years to see something new come along,” says a van Gogh specialist. 'It’s not Bernadette having an opinion or some theories, it’s really concrete stuff she's uncovered...The really great thing about what she has done is that she has traced back this information to somebody who was standing next to Vincent van Gogh.'

The discovery of a drawing by the doctor who treated the artist in 1888 provides comprehensive evidence that Van Gogh sliced far deeper than scholars had thought.

Bernadette Murphy has investigated his grisly act with the forensic zeal of a latter-day Sherlock Holmes…no-one before has built up such a detailed picture of the people who surrounded this great artist during his short, unhappy but artistically fertile sojourn in Arles.

[It] is both intriguing and unexpected.

As meticulous and methodical as the finest fictional sleuth, Murphy studied… She allows for a version of his history in which her subject’s passion for life, art and humanity blooms like the sunflowers he painted.

[It] recounts her formidable detective work.

Van Gogh’s Ear is a compelling detective story and a journey of discovery. It is also a portrait of a painter creating his most iconic and revolutionary work, pushing himself ever closer to greatness even as he edged towards madness – and one fateful sweep of the blade that would resonate through the ages.

Bernadette Murphy… Is like a detective on the case of Van Gogh. And she’s excellent – she creates a vivid picture of this strange, troubled genius, and also of what it was like to be in Provence in 1888.

With the forensic zeal of a latter-day Sherlock Holmes, Murphy investigates Van Gogh’s grisly act of chopping off his own ear.

Fully illustrated in colour throughout, this is a fascinating and insightful look into the world of art from Romanticism to Realism.

The essays are not just novel in form but clear and even elegantly written.

Combining what is clearly a life-long love of art with an admirable depth of knowledge, Barnes brings a novelist’s eye to the gallery wall and, with this, a fresh, accessible approach to the stories being told in each painting.

Thought-provoking, beautifully presented, tender.

Barnes has a wonderful eye for what makes a good picture, and a command of language that again and again allows readers to share what he sees.

Well-informed and deeply admiring, but never didactic.

[It] gave me a new confidence in how to engage with, understand and, more importantly, enjoy wandering around an exhibition.

For those…insecure when viewing art, not always sure how to decode it or emotionally engage with it, this offers a lifeline…Utterly compelling.

A typically elegant ad absorbing book by one of t great contemporary English Writers, and with strong Gallic undertones – a wonderful set of essays about artists, many of them French, covering the period from Romanticism through to modernism.

Opinionated, enthusiastic, witty and beautifully written.

Julian Barnes is best known for his fiction...but he's also an excellent art writer... Peppered with personal insights and select historical detail, each piece is as engaging as the next

Unusually moving.