Lucy Steeds - The Artist | Tuesday 11 March, 6.30pm

A furiously romantic, sun-drenched mystery about the violent power of good art. The Artist will leave you yearning in every sense of the word.

Yael van der Wouden, author of Booker-shortlisted The Safekeep 

Lucy Steeds is a graduate of both the Faber Academy and the London Library Emerging Writers Programme and we are incredibly excited to be welcoming her to Collected to discuss The Artist, her first novel, which was inspired by a single sentence in an art history book: I know of no notable female forgers in the history of forgery...

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The year is 1920. The place is a remote farmhouse in Provence, home to the reclusive painter Edouard Tartuffe and his niece, Ettie. Into this strange, silent house walks Joseph: a young journalist hoping to write an article about Tartuffe. But the more he entangles himself in the peculiar household, the more Joseph's curiosity grows...
 
Ettie cooks and cleans for her uncle. She prepares his studio, scrubs his paintbrushes, and creates the perfect environment for him to work. She has never gone further than the local village. She is sharp-eyed and watchful. But beneath her cool exterior, Joseph senses something simmering. Ettie, Joseph and Tartuffe circle each other throughout the hot, crackling summer, until finally they collide.

The Artist is about two people grabbing the other by the hand and pulling each other into life.