The Latest Books
The following books became available in 2008. They can be purchased through Amazon.com, or at CreateSpace, or directly from John Graham at a discount.
A Short History of Painting
A Short History of Painting discusses and illustrates those influences that have affected painting over the course of history from Paleolithic times to the present. Materials and their availability, religious and social changes, the markets for paintings, changing styles and the public acceptance of subject matter and certain landmark painters have all changed painting as techniques evolved.
The book is well researched and is fully illustrated in color. 55 pages 6" x 9" softback with a stiff cover.
The Returning - a novel of expectations
We meet Lim Yok, the son of a Kowloon farmer, Cindy Rogerson, daughter of a British banking firm, Su Wu, a child of the harbor, and Peter Marshall, an Australian activist who is now a lecturer. These young people live in Hong Kong as the time approaches for the territories to be returned to the People's Republic of China. As they become politically active they each go through their own trials and tribulations and meet eachother in exciting times.
The book follows their lives up to the fatal day of the Returning on July 1st 1997. The story starts in 1985 and revisits the scene in 1991, 1995 and 1997.
257 pages 6" x 9" with a still full color cover.
Versmissen - a 16th Century love affair with Art
This is the story of a Flemish painter, Petrus Versmissen and his son, Jacobus, and daughter, Ambrosia. It is an adventure story set in a period following the Reformation … a turbulent time when Western Europe was torn by innumerable wars. The reader will discover what it was like to live, love, paint and travel in those times when the art of paitning reached its peak around Antwerp.
The book is well researched and it provides a bibliography of the period. 197 pages 6" x 9" with a full-color stiff cover.
Tweak a Dragon's Tail - an adventure in China.
An engineer, Toby, from Hong Kong, follows his mentally disturbed brother into China. He fears the worst: illegal entry without a passport to be sure but perhaps also an act planned against the People's Republic. Toby's colleague, Donna, his lover, helps in his quest while a mysterious college student, Kathy, invades the scene.
The path leads deep into China. The story is a vivid picture of what the country and its people were like in the seventies: full of intrigue under a totalitarian regime.
Guangzhou, Guillin, the unbridled Yangtze and Chongking lead to Beijing and a triple-whammy ending.
296 pages 6" x 9" with a full color stiff cover.