Duchess of Cork Street, by Lillian Browse (DLM, £17.99 in UK)

Lillian Browse, from South Africa, started with ambitions to be a ballet dancer, but instead she drifted into the London art …

Lillian Browse, from South Africa, started with ambitions to be a ballet dancer, but instead she drifted into the London art world. In the immediate post-war milieu she became an influential figure, setting up the gallery of Rowland, Browse and Delbanco which staged many notable shows and had many of the best British artists of the time. She also, for a time, worked under Sir Kenneth Clark in the National Gallery, gaining experience in how to set up and run exhibitions. Many famous names weave in and out of her narrative, including Sickert (on whom she wrote a book), Jack Yeats, William Nicholson, etc. An impressionistic picture of a milieu which is gone - Cork Street today is a shadow of its old self.

Brian Fallon

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