Maggi Hambling and James Cahill, The Violet Hour

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear one of Britain’s most significant and controversial artists, Maggi Hambling, in conversation with art historian, James Cahill about his new book. A story of deception, power play and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking: who is granted admission to a world that only seems to glitter and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass? Join us for what is sure to be an honest, sharp and raucous discussion.

 

This event will include an audience Q&A and after the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed by James.

In partnership with The Minories.

 

Sunday 22nd June, 4.00pm
Venue: The Minories, 74 High Street, Colchester, CO1 1UE
Tickets: £12 / £10 concessions (Students, Under 27s and Unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

 

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This event is part of our Day on the Wild Side at The Minories, Colchester, on Sunday 22nd June.

12.00 – 3.00pm Storytelling and Family Fun in The Minories Garden

2.00pm Tony Peake, Derek Jarman: The Authorised Biography

4.00pm Maggi Hambling and James Cahill, The Violet Hour

6.00pm Radhika Howarth, Flavours Without Borders at The Commons Community Kitchen & Cafe at The Minories

 

Find out more about A Day on the Wild Side at essexbookfestival.org.uk/a-day-on-the-wild-side/.

 

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The Violet Hour by James Cahill

 

Artists are slaves to their vanity. But in the end, in time, they see things as they really are.

Thomas Haller has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of: shows in London and New York, paintings sold for a fortune. The vision he presents to the world is one of an untouchable genius at the top of his game. It is also a lie.

Who is the real Thomas Haller? His oldest friend and former dealer, Lorna, might once have known – before Thomas traded their early intimacy for international fame. Between his ruthless new dealer and a property mogul obsessed with his work, the appetite for Thomas and his art is all-consuming.

On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But the sudden death of a young man has put everyone on edge, and a chain of events begins that will lead the friends back into the past, to confront who they have become.

A story of deception, power play and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking: who is granted admission to a world that only seems to glitter and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass?

 

‘An enthrallingly intricate novel . . . impressive’ – Guardian

A biting satire of the art world’s glamour, pomp and greed . . . lucid and evocative’ – Daily Telegraph

‘I really loved The Violet Hour . . . On one level it functions as a highbrow whodunnit, and grippingly so, but it’s much more than that, building into a meditation on mortality and the unreliable consolations of art, love and materialism’ – Patrick Gale, author of Mother’s Boy

 

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Maggi Hambling

The painter and sculptor Maggi Hambling (born 1945) lives and works in London and Suffolk. Hambling became the First Artist in Residence at the National Gallery, London, and in 1995 won the Jerwood Painting Prize (with Patrick Caulfield).

Her public sculpture includes A conversation with Oscar Wilde London, Scallop, a sculpture to celebrate Benjamin Britten (Aldeburgh, Suffolk – which was awarded the Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture) and , most recently, for Mary Wollstonecraft, unveiled in 2020 on Newington Green, London. Museums that have held solo exhibitions of her work more recently include the National Gallery and the British Museum, London, and in 2019 both retrospectives were held at CAFA Museum, Beijing, and the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China.

Hambling has established a reputation over the last four decades as one of Britain’s most significant and controversial artists, a singular contemporary force whose work continues to move, seduce and challenge.

 

 

James Cahill

Dr James Cahill is an author, critic and art historian. His debut novel, Tiepolo Blue (2022) was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, and was selected in autumn 2024 for the Queen’s Reading Room. His second novel, The Violet Hour, was published in February 2025. He contributes to publications including Artforum, the Brooklyn Rail, the Burlington Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement and the Daily Telegraph. Based between London and Los Angeles, he is currently writing a book on David Hockney’s 1967 painting, Beverly Hills Housewife.

 

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