Still Life: The instant Sunday Times bestseller and BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick

art becomes a mirror.

Those little moments that nobody else notices. Little sacred moments of the everyday.

But what it’s always about, for me, is response. It’s a painting that demands of us a response. All the best ones do.

But always the value for me will be response. How it moves one.

Saying nothing but understanding everything.

‘Luce intellettual, piena d’amore.’ What’s that mean, sir? Light of the mind, full of love.

She could feel Margaret’s gaze haunting her. The blunt edge of her jealousy.

She’d meant it as a compliment, but her words danced both ways, hot and cold, kind and cruel,

A little over a month before, they’d driven up to Orvieto, a city built on a huge rock overlooking the Paglia Valley. They’d sat on the bonnet of the jeep and drunk red wine out of their canteens as bombers roared overhead towards Mount Cetona, the boundary of Tuscany. They’d stumbled into the cathedral, into the San Brizio chapel, where Luca Signo