Description

**THE SUNDAY TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEAR**
**A Financial Times Best Book of 2023**

A revelatory portrait of a great museum and the moving story of one guard’s quest to find solace and meaning in art

‘Who would have thought that the outstanding art book of you would have been written not by a curator or an art historian or even an artist – but by a museum guard?’ Sunday Times

When Patrick’s older brother dies at twenty-six, all he wants is to retreat. So, he does. He quits his job and seeks refuge in the most beautiful place he can think of: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

All the Beauty in the World recounts Patrick’s time as a museum guard, keeping quiet vigil over some of our greatest treasures and uncovering the Met’s innermost secrets. As his connection to the art and the life that swirls around it grows, so does Patrick – and gradually he emerges transformed by heartbreak, community and the power of art to illuminate life in all its pain, pleasure and hope.

‘As luminous as the old masters paintings’ Daily Mail
‘Consoling and beautiful’ Guardian
‘Marvellous’ Daily Telegraph
‘A beautiful tale about beauty. It is also a tale about grief, balancing solitude and comradeship, and finding joy in both the exalted and the mundane’ Washington Post

Publisher Review

Who would have thought that the outstanding art book of the year would be written not by a curator or an art historian or even an artist – but by a museum guard? * Sunday Times, *Art Book of the Year* * Greek vases, an Iroquois turtle rattle, Picassos. His every word about them is illuminating. The big picture is art’s power to console and unite * Financial Times *Best Books of 2023* * Consoling and beautiful * Guardian * Hauntingly beautiful … elegant … a work of art as luminous as the old masters’ paintings that comforted [Bringley] in his grief * Daily Mail Online * Bringley is a marvellous guide … All the Beauty in the World succeeds joyously * Daily Telegraph * Told with real literary gusto and an impressive command of pace and shape. After finishing this book, plenty of sensitive readers will be desperate to become museum guards * Sunday Times * An uplifting memoir that recalls his time behind the scenes there with colour, pathos and flair * Mail on Sunday * I loved Bringley’s book. It taught me how to get more out of museums, how to pay attention, and how to think differently about time * Financial Times * This absorbing memoir is also a beautifully written manual on how to appreciate art, and life. It’s a must read for art lovers * Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring * Wonderful. If you have ever been to a museum and stood motionless before an exhibit, if you’ve ever looked at a painting and found yourself crying, if you have ever wondered how a sculptor could find a human body inside a block of stone, this book is for you * Natalie Haynes, author of A Thousand Ships * This book makes me yearn to have Patrick Bringley at my side in every museum I will visit for the rest of my life. Having a copy of All the Beauty in the World in my purse will be the next best thing * Hope Jahren, author of Lab Girl * A wonderful memoir * Laura Hackett, Sunday Times * An astounding book about an astounding place * Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise * An intimate perspective on one of the world’s greatest institutions. But All the Beauty in the World is about much more: the strange human impulse to make art, the mystery of experiencing art, and what role art can play in our lives. What a gift * Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind * This book will change your experience of museums, connecting you with the stories of those who make them possible and revealing the layers of wonder that gather in the quiet halls where art meets modern life. Bringley’s keen, warm-hearted dispatches remind us – as art itself should – of our common humanity * Mark Vanhoenacker, author of Imagine a City *