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