A fascinating premise for a book - an imagining of what happened when Dali painted one of his famous paintings.. I really want to go and see the painting in Glasgow now. And the small village in Spain where Dali lived! Ah yes, the village and the painting really came to life here and the story was interesting. There were a few dodgy moments and scenes that seemed unbelievable but on the whole I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the art references and the story which wove from two sisters travelling from england to Spain and meeting the famous man himself. Imagine if this is what really went on! You'd never look at the painting in the same way again.

I'm a Londoner living in Glasgow and whenever I have a visitor I always take them to Kelvingrove Art Gallery to see the wonderful Dali painting, Christ of St John of The Cross and I had no idea that this book was based on that painting!

This is beautifully written historical novel goes back to the 1950's when two sisters from Hull, Meredith and Ginny, travel to Spain. There they meet Dali, the stuntman who is his model for the controversial painting, and a diving loving waiter.

A story of sisters, art, passion and a dramatic romance

This is the story of Ginny and Meredith, sisters with the same father who grew up not knowing one another combined with a fictional account of Salvador Dali painting 'Christ of Saint John of the Cross. Set in 1951 it is a tale of intrigue and love in Franco's Spain.

I expected this book to be a lot better than it actually was,but by the end I was so irritated by the characters that I read it quickly just to get away from them. I’ve seen the painting that features so prominently many times, and was interested to know more about its creation,However,I found some of the ideas so ridiculous that I couldn’t take them seriously and by the end ,the whole thing became farcical.Add in a cringe-worthy sex scene and that’s about all I can say.I really like Jeremy Vine as a radio presenter but I can’t honestly say I enjoyed this novel.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.

I wanted to enjoy this book because I like Jeremy Vine. Doesn’t everyone? It needed to be good though.

I’ll start with the positives. The idea of writing a book about the painting of Christ of St John of the Cross by Salvador Dali is original and interesting. It allows Vine to look at the history of the painting and of Spain around that time. The discussion about early mental health care is also interesting. These parts are well researched but Vine lets himself down by consistently having Glaswegians refer to Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum as ‘The Kelvingrove’. A Google search of local newspaper articles will verify that it’s always referred to as ‘Kelvingrove’ or ‘the Art Galleries’ or a combination of the two. Also, and I know this is fiction but, the denouement takes place at Kelvingrove in 2001. The painting was at that time hanging in the St Mungo Museum of Religion where it was taken in 1993 and it didn’t return to Kelvingrove until 2006. Vine describes it as being hung in a small oblong room in Kelvingrove. My recollection is that it was placed there when it returned in 2006, having previously been hung on the wall of one of the main staircases.

On balance, I enjoyed the first half of the book. Sadly, once the main characters meet Dalí, it descends into a preposterous melodrama, if not farce, starting with one of the worst sex scenes I’ve ever read and which is a contender for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction award. Very few men understand women sufficiently to write from their perspective and Jeremy Vine isn’t one of them. Ginny is 16 going on 17 in 1951. I’ll leave it to other readers to decide if she would behave in the way she does. In general, I found the explanations of the plot clumsy and contrived and the ending just too twee for words.

I honestly can’t believe that this novel would have been published if it had been written by anyone else. I’m giving it 2 stars because the premise of the novel was a great idea. With thanks to NetGalley and Coronet for a review copy.

This book is an imagined fiction centering around a painting by Salvador Dali, ‘Christ of Saint John on the Cross’, a real piece of art which resides in Glasgow. The book imagines what happened around the time it was painted, in 1950s Catalonia, and centres around two sisters who are staying in a hotel there and the events that led them to meet Dalí while he was absorbed with a new project - a painting of Christ unlike one any has seen before.

The sisters from Britain did not grow up together - they are in fact half sisters who have only recently met. Meredith’s tragic past saw her mother die young and her father put into an asylum - it was a shock to her as an adult to see her father with a new family in the art gallery where she works many years later. Meredith has maintained an obsession with art, the only connection she has left to her mother who loved the modern artists. The sighting of her father who does not recognise her throws her into a spiral of depression that ends in her being committed to the very same hospital he had been admitted to many years before. There Meredith stays until her young sister learns of her existence and rescues her.

They decide to go to travelling to help Meredith with her recovery; Meredith chooses the place associated with so many of Dali’s paintings but never expects to meet him. They also meet the famous American stuntman, Russell Saunders, whom Dalí has lured to Spain to model for him; his spiteful assistant Siobhan; and a young diver called Adam who idolises Russell. The story painted between these characters is one cleverly crafted and inspires great empathy for the sequence of calamitous events which occur as a result of Dali’s art. A very well written piece of historical fiction featuring a dramatic love story.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is out on the 3rd September in the UK.

I thought that this book by Jeremy Vine was fast paced and an interesting story. Lots going on and some great characters. I had issues with a couple of things that I thought would have been picked up by editing Maybe it's not a final proof although it doesn't say anywhere that it not. Pantyhose, gel on a moustache and a plastic paint can - all in the 1950s. I do hope these have been corrected before publication. With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the oportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this title.

This one was a bit of a roller-coaster! Whilst I was genuinely interested in the whole part about Dali and the painting, I wasn't that much into the love story and the sisters duo. The story came together well enough, although the writing seemed slightly rough around the edges (including potentially the worst sex scene ever written!). But overall great idea and a nice read.

I found this a little difficult to get in to but once I did it was a great read. Set mainly in Spain it loosely tells the story of Salvador Dali's famous painting of Christ. It was really interesting learning about the artist, Spanish history and following the story of the sisters. It had excitement, secrets and intrigue and I recommend it!

This book is about a famous Dali painting- Christ of St John on the Cross, a painting which in itself is controversial and has its own chequered history. The painting , of which I learnt so much as well as about Dali himself of course a controversial character of his time, shows Christ on the cross from above- however no-one should be “above” him. Dali used a stuntman for the pose and the story is of how he was introduced to a diver to be used in the stuntman's place introduced by two sisters who were travelling having only just found each other as one had been in a mental asylum having suffered temporary blindness and mutism due to stress and trauma. This is my first book by Jeremy and I found it very well written and very interesting. I had to keep stopping to look things up- for example Dali’s famous pool shape (If you don’t know- look it up) and his dream ball. A book which has been very carefully researched, although I know Jeremy has a keen interest in both Dali and especially this particular painting. He describes the book as “ A work of fiction based on a real painting and a real story that means so much to me” and his passion shows in the writing. A wonderful summer read, brilliantly written.
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