Join us for a wonderful evening of bookish conversation with Lucy Steeds to discuss her phenomenal debut The Artist, winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for 2025.
An intoxicating tale of art, love and secrets set across a sun-drenched Provençal summer in 1920, Steeds' masterly debut revolves around a fabled, reclusive painter, an aspiring British journalist set on penning a piece on him, and the artist’s seemingly unworldly niece Ettie who harbours an explosive secret.Blending mystery and slow-burning romance with lush, cinematic prose and exquisite characterisation, The Artist is an absorbing study in monstrous egos, self-discovery and the power of art, filled with dextrous detail for the senses.
'A furiously romantic, sun-drenched mystery about the violent power of good art. The Artist will leave you yearning in every sense of the word' - Yael van der Wouden, author of THE SAFEKEEP
'Lucy Steeds transports the reader with her sensuous depictions of food, art, and landscape . . . an assured and atmospheric debut about creativity, female agency, and the legacy of war' - Sarah Perry, author of THE ESSEX SERPENT'I could not love this beautiful novel more . . . the final chapters left me with that delicious heart-bursting feeling, full of hope and delight' - Florence Knapp, author of THE NAMES
