Books

Sweden couldn’t have been as bad as depicted in Sjowall and Wahloo’s novels – after all it produced ABBA and Ikea

Limited to only 206 copies, ‘Francis Bacon: Francophile’ is an attractive book sure to be snapped up by Baconophiles

From laugh-out-louds to gripping plots, Jeremy Black recommends murder mysteries for the end of the month

While the authors of Francis Bacon’s latest biography deliver nothing new on the art, they do show how Bacon lived his life with a unique intensity

Dinah Casson’s book will inspire and galvanise anyone involved in British provincial museums

What about the past should and could be mapped, and how to do so, are vexed issues in cartographic studies

The Story of Scottish Art is not a scholarly work of art history; it gives an easy-to-read account of artists’ lives with a faintly awestruck tone

Despite its length, Philip Mansel’s biography of the Sun King is ‘a welcome prize for any reviewer’

There is a great deal to look forward to this year, and hopefully not that much to dread

Andy Friend provides a readable account of Nash’s life, but omits important detail about how the artist made others feel