London, You're Beautiful

David Gentleman is a painter and printmaker, working in many mediums. He has designed British postage stamps and coins, and the platform-length mural, blown up from his wood engravings, well-known to Londoners, at Charing Cross on the underground. His studio is at the top of an early Victorian house in Camden Town between the crowded, rackety Camden Lock and the green spaces of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill.

Exquisite and original as always, David Gentleman gives us delights and surprises on every page -- Claire Tomalin So many of David Gentleman's drawings are for me familiar territory. I've lived in three of the locations he pictures and even have my hair cut in his barber's. David has spent a lifetime depicting with wit and affection a London he has made his own, in this book looking at some of its neglected corners. So London, You're Beautiful is a tribute which, if I can't quite endorse, it's only because beauty often brings with it exasperation. So for me (and I suspect for him) it's London, You're Beautiful -- so how about taking a bit more care of yourself? -- Alan Bennett I cherish David Gentleman's marvellous new book of watercolours -- Libby Purves The Times He delivers a poetry of exultant concentration...Gentleman is an artist-designer who has worked across an exceptionally wide range of formats -- Julian Bell Guardian The artist and illustrator, 82, has been responsible for some of the most-seen public artworks in this country ... Just as memorable, in a different vein, is the work in Gentleman's gorgeous new book of watercolour paintings -- Nancy Durrant The Times Well-known for his captivating illustrations...a highly talented artist The Lady Perhaps the last of the great polymath designer / painters Camden New Journal Selected as a Guardian Literary Event of 2012 Guardian