I didn’t think it would be possible to write a new, fresh and original book about Venice, but Martin Gayford has managed it in his Venice: City of Pictures which comes out officially on October 5th. 

It adopts just the right tone of voice – deeply knowledgeable about the experience of visiting Venice, contantly thoughtful, alert both to the city and the different ways that it has been depicted, beginning with Gentile Bellini and ending with Paula Rego and Howard Hodgkin.

He writes as if he knows the artists personally, which in some ways he perhaps does after a lifetime of visiting Venice, reading about them, meeting them, going to the Biennale and, above all, looking at their art. It speeds up towards the end, but he still manages to say interesting and unexpected things about, for example, Carlo Scarpa.

I can’t think of a better way of introducing Venice and it makes me want to get on a plane at once.