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!

I have mixed feelings about this book. I read the first part quickly ,but found the second part quite slow and harder to get through. Set in the early 90s,it tells the story of a Cambridge academic,Don Lamb, whose life changes when he criticises an art installation which appears in the quadrangle of his college.
Encouraged by his colleague and one time mentor,Valentine Black ,he takes a new post as director of a small prestigious gallery in Dulwich.This sets off a chain of events which change Don’s life in ways he could never have imagined.
I loved the depiction of London ,and Dulwich in particular ,but became increasingly frustrated by Don’s lack of awareness of the implications of his behaviour and wasn’t entirely convinced that someone supposedly so intelligent would be as easily led as he was.The ending was very rushed after a long build up.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.

It's been a couple of weeks since I finished this book and I gave to admit that despite all the hype I have mixed feelings about it. I found some parts of the narrative quite la oured and the art information a bit laborious. It's worth sticking with though to the end if you can. Not an easy read.

I loved the premise of this book and it didn't disappoint. It may have been a little predictable but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of it. The protagonist was so well drawn as was the setting that I was sucked in immediately and even though his unravelling was predictable I was with him every step of the way. A very enjoyable read.

When Don gets pushed out of Cambridge for expressing his opinion, his life begins to unravel. A story of facing the future by acknowledging the past. Finding yourself comes at a price. Very well written.

I finished this late last night and I'm still processing in my mind. I'm not sure quite what I thought. I struggled through much of it, finding it quite tedious. And yet - there was something that kept me going. What would become of Professor Don Lamb. He'd lived a cloistered life, born to elderly parents, straight from school to Cambridge University and he'd never left, becoming professor and a renowned classical art historian. His life is dedicated to the work of the artist Tiepolo, and every spare minute spent writing a book. Until his calm, ordered world is turned on its end by a "sculpture" on the college lawn, or as he sees it - a collection of junk. The knock on effect this has on his life is phenomenal. With the encouragement of friend and fellow professor Valentine Black, Don finds himself director of a London museum and living in Valentine's house in Dulwich with the mysterious Ina and her Mamma. His world widens when he meets art student Ben, and he begins to explore his sexuality for the first time in his 43 years. In many ways a sad tale, but also a belated coming of age. I was not expecting the ending to be as it was. Many revelations in a short space of time and Don's world unravelling. Intriguing and I'm glad I persevered. #netgalley #tiepoloblue

3.5/5
Tiepolo Blue is centred around art historian Don Lamb, as he leaves his privileged bubble in Peterhouse College, Cambridge for a new role in London. Don is a complicated character. On the one hand he is extremely arrogant, and I found myself feeling little sympathy towards some of his missteps throughout the narrative. Yet he’s also very lonely and isolated. Even when he’s at Cambridge, you get the sense that aside from Val, he lacks very few deep connections with his colleagues. Don’s complicated character is let down by the pacing of the novel, you could sense that unravelling was just around the corner, but rushed when it finally happened. Nevertheless, an interesting read that will definitely make waves this summer.

Don Lamb is a distinguished professor of Art History in the Cambridge college where he has lived and worked since he went up as an undergraduate. A classicist, he is appalled by a piece of modern "sculpture" on the college lawn and his disdain of it upsets the master's wife and sets in motion his departure from Cambridge and a place is found for him as director of a museum in South London. Don knows little of London and indeed little of life outside academia, being a celibate, in the closet homosexual. As he explores London and life he rapidly begins to find out how much there is to get wrong. His long term supporter and benefactor begins to take on shades of a malevolent puppet-master. How much of a sacrificial Lamb will Don be?A considerable book, reminiscent of Iris Murdoch at her best.

I enjoyed this book and I found the main character endearing but I also found him irritating. Don is an expert art historian with a good life in Cambridge focussing almost entirely on the blue skies in Tiepolo’s paintings. Then a new exhibit arrives in the quadrant of his college. It is a contemporary piece that enrages Don and he goes on Radio 4 to share his outrage. Unfortunately that leads to his demise as a Cambridge don but does lead to a new life as a Gallery director in London.

His excursions around London are brilliantly captured and his trip to Goldsmiths really had me holding my breath. His friends are less than helpful even though he lives in a house belonging to his greatest Cambridge ally. It’s hard to believe that a man in his 40’s is so naive and inexperienced as Don is portrayed but after a few pages you forget that and start to hope he finds some kind of fulfilment. No spoilers here, you’ll have to read for yourself.

Beautifully written and conceived and recommended for the way it captures a certain time and a certain naïveté.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

This is an intriguing read, threaded through with unrequited love, obsession, longing, gossip and political machinations.

Don is the golden boy of art history at a Cambridge college until he falls from grace in an argument over a modern art installation. His friend and colleague, Valentine, finds him a role as director of an art gallery in Dulwich. It is at the gallery that he finds an immediate and intense connection with an art student called Ben. Don, who always felt he was in control, begins to experience a completely different and challenging life.

This is a beautifully written novel, rich with cultural references about art and academia. Don is a complex and not entirely likeable character. Ben is provocative and challenging. Behind them both lurks Valentine.

This is an atmospheric and emotional book which drew me in completely.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Initially, I wasn't too sure about this book. I loved the premise - but when I started reading it, I found it a little dry and different to penetrate. Thankfully, this didn't last for long.

In 'Tiepolo Blue', James Cahill's debut novel, we have Don - a Cambridge art history professor in his 40s (he does, however, seem older) who is stuck in his ways - and very much the art snob. At his college, Peterhouse, an art installation appears on the lawn - 'Sick Bed' - and this shakes Don to the core. He is trying to lead his solitary life and work on his book - and when he is invited onto Radio 4 to participate in a discussion about art, he can't hold back. His outburst essentially ends his career at Cambridge. He leaves to take up the position of director at the Brockwell Gallery in south-east London.

One of Don's colleagues, Valentine Black, gets Don the job - and allows him to stay at his villa in Dulwich, Mont Calm - too good to be true, perhaps. Don doesn't really fit into life at the gallery - and essentially, all the way through the novel, he is discovering, fairly subtly, his own sexuality - and realising that he is attracted to men, that he is gay. He gets befriended by Ben, someone who is helping set up an exhibition at the gallery, and he then moves to live with Don - quite perplexing, really, and it is never really explained how this happens, but I guess it's Cahill showing how someone who is confused and vulnerable can be open to all sorts of things.

What follows is Don falling apart, unravelling, unable to cope with what life throws at him. He makes horrendous mistakes; he belittles his deputy, Michael Ross, who has been head-hunted from the Frick in New York. He ruins his life and can't retrieve what's lost, not that this seems to bother him. He is, finally, 'free', and this is something that Ben said he needed.

Cahill has created an intelligent book here - the setting of Mont Calm and Dulwich is integral to the plot. In addition, Don is a weak character, someone who is open to abuse. We're left wondering about Val Black's role, about Michael, about Ben, and about the men Don meets in SoHo, and how these encounters have impacted on him. Essentially, this book made me think about vulnerability - and how even an esteemed individual can lose his way, very much like Don does, although perhaps this is for a good reason. I very much enjoyed this - it is, in some ways, slightly implausible that this is set in the 1990s - it feels more early 1980s - but then, people's lives are complicated, and so much goes on behind closed doors that it is difficult to know if something is accurate or not. Perhaps a first-person narrator would have worked better - I'm not sure. Regardless, this is an intriguing and thought-provoking insight into the art world, and the inner world of one man's mind.

It's been a while since I finished this book and I am still not sure what I really think of it. On the one hand it was a slog to get through the majority. On the other, my persistence did pay off with what I read in the latter stages. I just fear that many may give up along the way. If anything I guess what I am trying to say is that this book is very much about the destination, the journey being fraught with obstacles. Which reflects nicely the life, and indeed the coming of age of the main character Prof Don Lamb. I say "coming of age", obviously he is a tad older than most for this description, but it is nonetheless. He is a bit of a later starter, repressed and naive. Set in his ways and pretty oblivious to real life, that which can be found outside the gates of the Cambridge college in which we first meet him. A life that, by the end of the book, seems a world away...
I think one of my main issues was that I pretty much failed to connect to Don. We are poles apart in character admittedly but that hasn't stopped me from connecting with some of the most obscure (to me) characters before. Just, in this case, there was nothing. And that's OK. Usually. But I think in this book, where it is all about him it was a pretty big hurdle to get over. One which I never manged to overcome. He was also just a little sad for me too... In a character driven novel, some connection with said character is a must...
It's a book that, now I read them, has the whole spectrum of reviews and ratings. Some rave, others condemn. I am in the middle of that pack, as my rating suggests! It's hard to say that I enjoyed the book. It was a marathon for me after all, but I did take things from it. It did impact my life and I did finish it.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I was not quite as enthralled by this novel as I had expected to be.

There is some fine writing, but also too many passages which are overwritten and overwrought. There is some pertinent and pert commentary on the interlinking worlds of Fine Art, art criticism and art practice, but also some tedious showing off of expertise in those areas.

The cut and thrust and cut-throatery of Academe is well-evoked as is the poverty of real thought in some parts of that cloistered world.

Don Lamb is thrown to the wolves, a sacrificial animal who in part brings about his own destruction, naive to a fault, ultimately both too beloved and too unloved.Yet herein lay the problem. While at times I felt for Don and suffered with him, ultimately I found him unbelievable as a character, his actions often inexplicable and too random.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the digital review copy.

This books feels to me like a clever and thoughtful companion piece to Alan Hollinghurst's 'The Line of Beauty', a book I adore, with a similar sense of a sweltering summer, sexual energy, and lingering darkness, but it also takes a trip into unreliability and memory that I found riveting and the best kind of unsettling.

I was gripped by the way this story unravels to show us the life of Don Lamb, a professor at Cambridge who is obsessed with the artwork of Tiepolo, and whose various disgraces and scandals seem to layer as he progresses through life.

His move to London yields even more of these scandals, alongside a slow-burning realisation about his sexuality and about what he has been too oblivious to see along.

His obliviousness, and/or hyperfocus, was one of the most fascinating things about this book for me, and a character even picks him up on this, asking why he focuses on the skies in Tiepolo's pictures, and not the people living in the scenes. This thread is followed neatly throughout the book, as we realise that far more has been buried deep within Don, or even just wilfully ignored.

There is something terrifying and lurking underneath this book, much like the art he spends all day observing.

Indeed, his life is almost entirely about seeing and not seeing, missing out on the obvious whilst having a deep understanding of the abstract.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Not for me I'm afraid, the author is obviously a very knowledgeable academic and seems to delight in letting the reader know this on every occasion. I'm sure other art scholars will enjoy it, but I found it very difficult to get into or feel engaged with any of the characters and didn't finish the book.
Thank you to netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an advance copy of this book

Could not put this book down. An addictive read. Beautiful writing and a pleasure to read.
Took a wee bit to get into it but it's worth the perseverance

An intriguing novel that continues to wrong foot the reader right to the end.
At first I thought the story started off like a Kingsley Amis academic novel with a curmudgeonly Professor who is obsessed with his own art interests and is closed to everything else. Don resigns from his post after a clash about a modern art installation in his courtyard. He is manoeuvred into a directorship post for an art gallery in Dulwich by his long-standing friend Val, who has an unrequited love for him. Then it becomes a story of obsession and yearning as Don falls in love with Ben, an art student, and he explores the love he has always denied himself.
There are some increasingly grotesque scenes, where you are not really sure whether some are hallucinated or real; based on his desire and jealousies.
There is some wry humour. I was particularly amused by the introduction of a an early dial-up computer for the art gallery and the first ever use it gets is to look at porn.