PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
John Berger was born in London in 1926. His seminal Ways of Seeing was one of the most influential books on art in the 20th century. His many books, innovative in form and far-reaching in their historical and political insight, include To the Wedding, King, and the Booker Prize-winning novel, G. He lived and worked in a small village in the French Alps, the setting for his trilogy Into Their Labours (Pig Earth, Once in Europa and Lilac and Flag). In 2001, his collection of essays The Shape of a Pocket was published, and his Understanding a Photograph, edited by Geoff Dyer, was published in 2013. He died, aged 90, in January 2017.
Berger's early novel puts on display all his painterly skill for description, his flair for metaphor and his powerful social conscience, through the stories and conversations of an ordinary hospital ward. If you admire Berger's later books it's a gem that will deepen your understanding of his work -- GAVIN FRANCIS Praise for John Berger: John Berger seems to me peerless -- SUSAN SONTAG John Berger has made the world a better place to live in. I do not say this lightly -- ARUNDHATI ROY [He] reminds us of what most contemporary writing would have us forget, which is that great writers are distinguished, ultimately, by the quality of their humanity -- GEOFF DYER There are a few authors that can change the way you look at the world through their writing and John Berger is one of them -- JARVIS COCKER Praise for A Fortunate Man: In 1967 A Fortunate Man marked the most significant step forward in the collaboration of a writer and photographer since Let us Now Praise Famous Men by Walker Evans and James Agee. Incredibly, it still does . . . A masterpiece -- GEOFF DYER It's one of my favourite books in the world, an ongoing inspiration as to how books should be written (and photography used) -- ALAIN de BOTTON A genuine tour de force . . . The intimate portrait of one man and his microscopic world reveals the faults and strains of a whole society * * Observer * * I only wish I could do justice in a few words to the richness that makes this book so compelling * * Guardian * * A book about caring that will make you care, and a book about deep healing that may heal your soul. It is also, almost 50 years on, uncannily timely -- SIMON GARFIELD
