In 1994, Don Lamb, a revered art historian and professor, leaves the University of Cambridge for a new role at a London museum and befriends Ben, a young artist. Ben draws him into the London art scene and Soho nightlife, where Don starts to realise some painful truths, and so begins a self-destructive spiral. A beautifully dark novel which deserves a wider audience.

Pure escapism at its best.
I was so captivated that once I started reading I could not put it down!
Thank you so much to the author and publishers for this wonderful read

This started well, but went downhill after the radio panel discussion and it was far too arty-farty for me, so I didn't finish it.

This is exactly the kind of book I thought I would like (and it had rave reviews from people I admire), but I didn’t warm to it. There was something a little clunky about the writing. It still had a good story and I love the whole academia noir (of the Donna Tartt school).

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC to review. I really wanted to get into this book but I could not.

Honestly, I’m not sure about this book. I wanted to love it, I wanted to get lost in a story about the glamorous and sexy world of art, but it just fell short. I really didn’t like the main character because I just didn’t find him believable so it became much harder to be lost in the story. The story telling was also a little clunky for me.

Tiepolo Blue is set in the 1990s, and has as its lead character Professor Don Lamb who is an Oxbridge professor and academic. He is hopelessly naive including towards the machinations of his colleagues in the world of academia and then in the world of Fine Art in London.
It is both funny and sad, even tragic as we see his world collapse. Very elegantly written, I really enjoyed this and am very grateful to the author, the publisher and to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an arc.

I found this book hard to read but did finish it. The main character lives in an academic setting and this is perhaps why I found it too much. It is extremely well written but too much information in it for me. If you are an art lover, it may well be for you. It took me a long time to discover the main point of the story; I won't say what it was.

There were a lot of things I loved about this - the way the writer evoked Cambridge and the academic community, the way the reader becomes obsessed with Tiepolo along with Don, and also his slow fall from grace. I found the ending a little confusing and abrupt, but otherwise I enjoyed reading this.

Despite some antipathy for the downward heading main protagonist, the slow pace frustrated me .. but in fact when I took my time I find descriptions of this world and its comparisons to art world excellently set out ... the c detail matters! Like slow cooking, it all gets richer .. recommended especially when you are feeling like there's time! Beautifully written ...

I'm sad to say this book just didn't connect with me at all. It seemed overly academic - descriptions were so long winded and convoluted, and the story dragged on for a while really going nowhere. A lot of the book was taken up with over description of places, things and people, and if those pages had been used to develop fringe characters more then it would be vastly improved. I read until the end in the hope that it would improve but it didn't and really wasn't for me. Thanks to James Cahill, Sceptre and Netgalley for the ARC.

When a modern art installation appears in a peaceful quadrangle in Don Lamb’s place of work, and residence, Cambridge University, it starts a chain of events which changes his life completely.
I found this rather unbelievable tale very hard to get into, reading it become more of a chore than a treat. Val’s machinations were obvious to me, and should’ve been obvious to Prof Lamb, no matter how naive he was. I began to feel uncomfortable by his childish behaviour and lack of understanding, a strange thing for a professor.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this book for review.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get into this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to review.

Couldn’t get into the book unfortunately. It didn’t grab me. Thank you for the opportunity to review.

I was sent a copy of Tiepolo Blue by James Cahill to read and review by NetGalley. This is a beautifully written novel following the life and liberation of Professor and art historian Don Lamb. The sense of place throughout the book is fantastic and the characters created are all thoroughly believable. This is an incredible, heartfelt and sometimes shocking ‘coming of age’ tale of a man in his forties, academia having been his life and the art of Tiepolo being his obsession. A very adult, thought provoking read, this novel is set to become a classic.

This debut novel is thought provoking and highly critical of the self-importance of those at the top of the arts scene, as well as being a touching and melancholy study of queerness and isolation. The narrative zips along, taking the reader into a fascinating world of dedication to art history, and the protagonist's certainty of its value and importance to society, but the reader is constantly wondering at his self-delusion. He is isolated from the real world and finds it impossible to connect meaningfully with others, having lived a rarified life in academia. When thrust into the spotlight at a London gallery, he is out of his depth and becomes increasing marginalised and starts to question his whole existence. Assured writing, (although there are plot 'holes'), makes this a really interesting read. I highly recommend it.

A very well written and beautifully descriptive book.
We begin by meeting Don an art professor at Cambridge who has a long friendship with Val a fellow art enthusiast. After an art installation is installed that he doesn't like, he decides to move to Dulwich in London to concentrate on writing his book about Tiepolo and also take on running an art gallery,

I found this book to be quite a slow burner with lots of descriptions and references to art, history. I liked how the author used lots of colours linked to emotions, The book touched on lots of interesting subjects which I enjoyed learning about the art world from another point of time.

I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns of this novel that may have otherwise been a simple story of a professor leaving his post at Cambridge for a new life in London.

This book was much hyped and looked really promising, and it’s had excellent reviews since publication. I have to say, however, it left me completely cold. If it hadn’t been so highly praised I would have abandoned it after the first quarter, and I kind of wish I had. It tells the story of the downfall of Don Lamb, a respected Cambridge academic and art historian specialising in the work of Tiepolo. He lives a narrow, sexually repressed life within the confines of Peterhouse College, a microcosm almost completely removed from the real world. His closest friend is his erstwhile PhD supervisor Valentine Black, who at first comes across as a gossipy queer academic but we soon suspect he has a more sinister agenda.

Val subtly nudges Don into a series of misguided decisions which result in his expulsion first from Peterhouse, then from the museum directorship Val procures from him in Dulwich. Out in the real world, Don slowly dares to explore his sexuality, but his hopeless naivety, misplaced confidence and utter lack of judgement lead him into a rapid downward spiral.

I did not find Don’s trajectory remotely believable, and this, along with his deeply unlikeable character, meant that I just could not engage in his story with any sympathy, or even much interest. Val’s Machiavellian manipulations became fairly obvious to everyone but Don fairly early on, and I was just irritated by Don’s abject inability to see how he was being set up. The quality of the writing is undoubtedly very fine, but it takes more to make an absorbing novel. This one was not for me.

Oh how I loved you Tiepolo Blue. But oh how I've equally hated you, with your slow pace and endless introspection, just like a lazy summer afternoon watching the blue sky and wondering if it's the same blue as in Tiepolo's paintings.

Tiepolo Blue is a heartbreaking story of deception and cruel manipulations at the hands of a narcissistic, calculating and vindictive individual that will stop at nothing to realise his own aspirations(Val I am looking at you, you bastard. I hope you rot in hell!!). It is a cautionary tale packed into a discovery story -both at an inner level(self-discovery) and at the great level of discovering the world around you as you find your place in it. Despite being a revered art historian/professor, Don is a very naive, innocent even, individual. He is alone and sheltered, his world very small and restricted by very uncompromising rules. He needs a good shaking up and the changes he undertakes look like just that. Until it isn't. The end is very fitting for the overall narrative and I find that anything else but that would have felt pushed.

Overall a great story but delivered in a too slow a pace that works against it.

*Book from NetGalley with many thanks to the publisher!