Accompanying the exhibition of the same name at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh (until Oct 27), this fully illustrated book charts the career of one of the most successful artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Belfast-born and trained in Glasgow, London and Paris, Sir John Lavery went ‘on location’ to New York, Morocco (where he acquired a villa, surrounded by beautiful gardens), Palm Springs, Venice, Switzerland, Spain and Monte Carlo to create an oeuvre which includes society portraits, impressionistic landscapes and idyllic scenes of leisure. While living in Glasgow, he befriended the artists known as the Glasgow Boys (he is sometimes referred to as the “Belfast-born Glasgow Boy”, with whom he shared an interest in subjects of modern life. He always travelled with his easel and recorded everything, from daylight raids on London during WWI to tennis parties in the South of France.