A Conversation with Gavin Cologne-Brookes

A discussion of paintings by Gavin Cologne-Brookes (Bath Spa) exhibited in the Vere Harmsworth Library.

Gavin Cologne-Brookes is Emeritus Professor at Bath Spa University. He is the author of The Novels of William Styron: From Harmony to History (1995), Dark Eyes on America: The Novels of Joyce Carol Oates (2005), Rereading William Styron (2014) and American Lonesome: The Work of Bruce Springsteen (2018). Since 2019 he has divided his time between Wiltshire and Paris, devoting much of it to oil painting, especially portraiture. Beyond American authors, among his subjects are novelists Maggie Gee, Samantha Harvey and Fay Weldon, artist Michael Pennie, poet John Strachan and historian Olivette Otele. Other author portraits have been used on book covers, including William Hughes on That Devil’s Trick (2015) and William Heyen on The Presence I’ll Be: Journals 2001-2006 (2020). Gavin’s first exhibition was “Paintings 1995-2011” at Corsham Court, Wiltshire. His most recent exhibition was as part of “Timeless Visions,” Zari Gallery, London, September 2022.

A viewing in the Vere Harmsworth Library will be followed by a discussion and reception in the RAI Common Room.