Voices in Stone

Description

Iconoclasm is in the air. Bitter debates rage on the streets and online over the proper fate of statues commemorating controversial figures, whether slave traders, imperialists or Confederate generals. It is an important question—but to answer it, we must look beyond this final chapter in a monument’s story.

Paul Brummell argues that statues can only be understood by exploring their changing roles throughout an entire, often complex, lifetime. Why do sculptors create human likenesses in metal or stone? Do our interactions with icons affect their significance? What happens when durable images outlive the worldviews of their sponsors? Why do some believe that rubbing intimate bronze body parts can bring luck? Can statues move, talk—or even kill? And what should we really do with those we no longer want?

From a colossal golden Buddha in China to a centrally heated Swedish actress, Brummell tells the vibrant story of the world’s most intriguing public monuments, from ancient times to today.

Reviews

‘Voices in Stone will reignite interest in many a statue we have driven or walked past with barely a glance. From that old geezer on a prancing horse to that over-endowed recumbent lady, it will have you examining them with delight. Buy the book: it’s glorious.’ — Dame Prue Leith, broadcaster, cookery writer and former chair of the Royal Society of Art

‘Brummell gives voice to generations of statues, transforming them from passive witnesses into vibrant storytellers of their own complex histories. An absorbing, funny and enlightening read. I will never look at statues in quite the same way again.’ — Dame Menna Rawlings, President of Queen’s College, Cambridge, and former UK Ambassador to France

‘This intelligent examination of the birth, life and possible death of statues is entertaining and instructive. It provides the essential historical context for contemporary debates about their destruction in the USA, the UK or the former Soviet Union.’ — Charles Clarke, former UK Home Secretary and editor of Understanding the Baltic States

‘The golden era of public statues may be over and controversy surrounds many that stand in towns and cities across the UK. Brummell’s book forensically delves into the history and complexity of these intriguing works of art to discover why they exist.’ — Baroness Floella Benjamin, actress, writer, presenter and Chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee

‘Like its author, Voices in Stone is sane and satisfying, readable and reasonable, fun and funny. Brummell has an eye for the arresting detail, which makes everything—from Shelley’s Ozymandias to Edward Colston—fresh and thought-provoking. A wonderful book.’ — Lord Simon McDonald, former Permanent Under-Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic Service at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

‘Statues have a power that portraits always seem to lack. They form a public art gallery that we cannot avoid and award a prominence possibly out of proportion to the subject’s historical celebrity. They merit far more attention—and even controversy—and certainly more on-site explanation of the individual being celebrated.’ – Simon Jenkins, Guardian columnist, and author of A Short History of England

Author(s)

Paul Brummell is a British career diplomat and the current UK High Commissioner to Mauritius. Previously Ambassador to Latvia, Romania, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, he was also UK High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.