James Cahill, art critic and author of novels TIEPOLO BLUE and THE VIOLET HOUR, has written his first major non-fiction book THE BEVERLY HILLS HOUSEWIFE: Hockney’s Californian Muse and the World Beyond the Pool, to be published later this year by Thames & Hudson.

Marc Valli, Publishing Director, Trade Division at Thames & Hudson, bought World All Languages from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. THE BEVERLY HILLS HOUSEWIFE will be published in hardback on 27 August 2026 in the UK and 3 November 2026 in the US.

In the summer of 1966, David Hockney visited a wealthy Los Angeles art collector and dedicated patron of contemporary music. Her name was Betty Freeman. He had intended to paint her swimming pool, but was more entranced by Freeman herself.

Hockney immortalized Freeman in his painting Beverly Hills Housewife (1966–67), a sunlit vision of the collector on the terrace of her home. Evoking the light and glamour of 1960s Los Angeles, and the first in a celebrated sequence of large-scale portraits that spanned the following decade, this seductive painting has always carried an air of mystery. Who was the woman in pink?

Like Hockney driving through the Hollywood Hills, James Cahill meanders – interweaving the artist’s discovery of Los Angeles with Freeman’s own evolution from aspiring pianist to collector, philanthropist and photographer – but never loses focus on the art. Oscillating between art history and anecdote, this is an eclectic study of an artist, his mercurial muse and the beginning of a friendship that would shape the course of each of their lives.

‘I am thrilled to be working with Marc Valli and the entire team at Thames & Hudson on THE BEVERLY HILLS HOUSEWIFE,’ said James. ‘Revolving around a single painting, the book traces David Hockney’s rise to greatness, Los Angeles in flux, and above all, the bond between the artist and his beguiling subject, Betty Freeman. It’s also my own love letter to LA, the city where I’ve been living for the past three years.’

‘I have known James Cahill for many years,’ added the book’s editor Marc Valli. ‘When commissioning him to write for Elephant magazine I was always struck by how he was able to combine in-depth art history with an understanding of the challenges face by living artists. He has since added a powerful string to his bow with fiction. In this new book, Cahill combines all three aspects of his work: great art history, strong characterization and a captivating narrative line.’

Isobel Dixon added: ‘With a single iconic painting as pivot, James Cahill takes us on a fascinating artworld journey – through David Hockney’s 1960s LA and the Hollywood Hills, tracing the making of a legend, probing the allure of collecting. All along the way this book has been in the safest of hands with Marc Valli and the dedicated, inspiring Thames & Hudson team in both the UK and the US. I’m delighted that readers around the world will be discovering the story of THE BEVERLY HILLS HOUSEWIFE soon.’

About James Cahill

James Cahill is a British author and critic. He originally studied classics and English at Magdalen College, Oxford, followed by a master’s degree in contemporary European art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and a PhD in classics at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of critically acclaimed novels THE VIOLET HOUR (2025) and TIEPOLO BLUE (2022; shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and selected for H.M. The Queen’s Reading Room), and writes regularly for publications including Artforum, the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator. Cahill has curated several exhibitions spanning contemporary art and classical antiquity. He is based between London and Los Angeles.

Praise for James Cahill

‘The spirit of E.M. Forster is alive and well in James Cahill.’ – Edmund White

‘I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of James Cahill’s writing and storytelling.’ – Santanu Bhattacharya

‘Cahill writes with an artist’s attention to colour and detail, but also with an acute awareness of surface glitter, be it the gleaming facades of 21st-century London or the confected personas we present to each other and ourselves.’ – Claire Alfree

Kat Lister’s new non-fiction book FRAGILE BODIES: Art Born of Bodily Trauma, exploring the impact of physical adversity on the lives of seven extraordinary artists who confronted and transformed their suffering into creativity. Jenny Lord, Executive Publisher of Orion Literary, won UK and Commonwealth rights in Kat Lister’s in a hotly-contested auction, from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann. FRAGILE BODIES will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in Spring 2027.

‘What a privilege it is to be delving into the lives of these extraordinary artists whose stories tell us so much about what makes us human,’ said Kat. ‘Using my own history as a gentle guiding hand, I am keen to delve into the complexities of this sensitive subject, its shadows and light. I can't think of a better home for Fragile Bodies than at W&N, under the matchless stewardship of Jenny Lord who has worked with so many writers who have inspired me over the years.’

‘Kat is a beautiful writer with the mind of a magpie and I was utterly seduced by her beguiling investigation,’ added Jenny Lord. ‘I am so looking forward to collaborating with her at W&N.’

Art can be a response to pain, a way of making sense of the body when it turns against itself. From Henri Matisse’s cut-outs, created when he was no longer able to hold a paintbrush or stand at his easel, to the fragmentary hope of Derek Jarman’s garden in the years he spent living with HIV, via the ephemerality of Eva Hesse’s tragically curtailed sculptural life, these stories illuminate the fragile interplay between the body’s betrayals and the soul’s resilience. Through biography, cultural criticism and personal reflection, Lister explores how bodies in crisis can yield unexpected beauty – and how art can offer resistance when words or medicine fall short.

Drawing on her own experience of illness and grief, as both patient and caregiver, Lister weaves her story into those of her subjects to ask: how does trauma influence the act of creation? What are the ethics of turning pain into art? And how do we understand creativity when the body becomes a battleground? FRAGILE BODIES is a meditation on vulnerability, resilience and the human drive to create meaning – even in life’s harshest moments.

About Kat Lister

Kat Lister is a writer and editor who has worked in magazine media for nearly two decades. She began her career as a music journalist and went on to specialise in global women’s issues, writing for publications including Vice, Vogue and The Feminist Times. She regularly writes essays, arts features and profiles for an array of publications including the Guardian, the Observer, the i paper, the Independent, The Quietus and The Big Issue. Her first book, THE ELEMENTS: A WIDOWHOOD, was published 2021 by Icon Books.

Praise for THE ELEMENTS

‘A vivid, painful but beautiful articulation of grief… a deeply moving and thoughtful book.’ – Sinéad Gleeson

‘It knocked me for six: the honesty in it, the frankness, the detail, the research, the feeling, and such stunning writing … it’s not just about losing someone. It’s about rebuilding.’ – Jude Rogers

‘A staggering book. Kat writes with such hypnotic lyricism.’ – Terri White, author of COMING UNDONE

‘Masterfully crafted… the author lays out her heartbreaking grief in poetic paragraphs that will stay with her readers for days.’ – Booklist

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