Picasso, Gaugiun and Augustus John are but a few great artists with insatiable sex lives and but a few mentioned in Nigel Cawthorne's book Sex Lives of the Great Artists. Cawthorne brings to life the stories of the sexuality of the sex and other men in the world of art. From the opening page to end of the book Cawthorne is able to paint a picture of what separates these artists from so many others. You'll read about men like Renior, Van Gogh, Leonardo, Michelangelo to name a few. The book gives you a small, but powerful look at what made these men tick. You'll be captured by the exploits, from the Van Gogh ear story to Goya, Dali and Lautrec. Cawthorne has certainly done a great work of investigating men whose legend made not be everything you might expect. Price to fit just about every budget and making a great gift for just about anyone, Sex Lives of the Great Artists is certainly one to have in your personal library. Cawthorne's revealing insight will unquestionably turn more than one head with this book.

This is a simply a revolutionary book, and no doubt the greatest book written in 1998! Never in my live have I seen a book so ingeniously written by a man with such a sophisticated mind. Nigel Cawthorne is a true genius! This is the 19th time I read this book and simply enjoy reading it. I am currently a music professor with a doctorate degree and I have studied music for about 53 years now with over 60 compositions sold on CDs. I have done several research papers, but never have I talked about their sex lives. Now since I read this book I find having knowledge of the composers "private" and sex lives are far more important than learning about there music. People don't understand how important it is to learn about other peoples sex lives. One important thing Cawthorne didn't mention that disappointed me was about his own sex life. Yes to everyone it would sound strange if he mentioned about it. ...

This book is very interesting reading for people who like Brittish Royalty. Very shocking things, like Charles II and his many mistresses. Overall a very good boook, though there are a few mistakes in it.

I thought this might be a tabliod type expose, but to my delight, it really is a thorough, factual work. Each and every president is covered and the historic research is evident. Many sections are dry and boring only because those presidents weren't particularly sex driven men. But the notable exceptions like Lyndon "Bull Nuts" Johnson, Jack Kennedy and others make this an eye opening and shocking account of what our presidents really are doing behind closed doors. After reading this book, you want to give this country back to King George! 5 stars to Nigel for his tireless research and fact finding.

This book is not in-depth, but it's not intended to be. However, it should whett your appetite and you might find yourself ordering more books to get more detail on some of these stories. I had some trouble following the chronologic lines, but all in all, this book is worth reading.

This book was amazing. From reading this I found out about people: what they will, can and do do. It was great to learn about Charles Manson, how he was such a frightening character and yet, he produced a family feeling. This book is......There aren't any words for it! You'll just have to read it to find out.

I have a theory about how one learns without benefit of a structured environment and an instructor. The first book on any subject should be one that covers the topic briefly with accurate information using proper terminology and lots of pictures to convey meaning and hold one's interest. From there, the books should be more detailed until the scholarly texts are easy to read. I would recommend "The Art of Japanese Prints" by Nigel Cawthorne as a delightful first book on Japanese prints. Much information and terminology (i.e. all the proper terms for Japanese prints: surimona, hashira-e, kacho ya, bijin-ga, nishiki-e, kirazuri,etc.)is given in this 94 page book concerning traditional Japanese woodblock prints. There is not a two-page spread that does not have at least one color print. One can easily see why Japanese prints are so desirable.

Absolutely beautiful. As an artist I am always looking for inspiration and I have found it in the choice of prints and the treatment of these prints on trace paper and in metalic form.

The book is itself as beautifully put together as the prints which are its subject.

I have read Nigals book many times, more for my on information then anything. This book gives a definitive explantion and reasons behind why the U.S. Government refuses to deal with LIVE POWs rather then the remains of MIAs.

It is well researched and has given hope that the Vitnamese will one day come forward with men that I believe and KNOW are still under supervision by their captors. I could write more on this subject as I was one Nigal's informers.

This book ought to stay in print, not just because of Bill Clinton's escapades (or because of recent revelations about Thomas Jefferson) but because it is very entertaining. A good one to dip into and select incidents from, to amuse friends on a quiet (or not so quiet) night.

This book emphasizes on the attitude of the popes towards the sex lives of their priests. Many popes were concerned with the celibacy of their priests and forbade marriage for priests. However, they used to sell them licenses for keeping mistresses. Usually, they were prepared to tolerate priests who kept incestuous relations with female relatives or raped women in the church. "When a woman fainted during confession and the priest seized the opportunity to rape her, the Inquisition found that this, technically, was not a case of soliciting." The pope's only concern was that priests would defile the sacrament when handling it afterwards.
The passages about the sex lives of the popes themselves are mainly based on hearsay. Cawthorne accuses several popes of incest with either their sisters or bastard daughters, like pope Alexander VI Borgia, who retired with his daughter to "an interior room and remained locked up together for more than an hour". In secret she gave birth to a baby that was hidden, but that doesn't prove that her father was the father. Many other popes seem to have had preferences for young boys, prostitutes or sex-and-food orgies in general.
Despite many unproven accusations, the book clearly shows that many popes were mainly concerned with their own pleasures and did not give a damn about Christian values. Anyway, the book is good reading stuff.

Perfectly easy written for the common reader. Whoever is an open minder or wonder about the teachings of the church should read this book. The Catholic church is going under a struggled to keep its believers and this book tells us why. The writer tells us about the influence Queens had over the popes and how poorly Popes were following the church's own rules (orgies,murder,money,same sex lovers...etc.) just to have the power the position of a Pope had. However, somethings have change within the church now our days. Priests are still longing for a normal sexual life while keeping their faith to God and their preaching, but since celibate is still a mayor rule for priests, they find themselves commiting crimes involving children and honest belivers. Nothing is being heard about orgies anymore or about homosexual popes or about queens ruling over popes. On the other hand, I must recognized the work the two privious Popes have done for the church and its integrity. I just hope that the next pope follows the truly believes of Jesus for the sake of us and reforms the Catholic church. I truly enjoyed this book because I was on guilt stage for being lesbian and not following the bible or attending mass. Now that I know I'm not worse than those popes, I feel more confident as to what to respond to anybody who says homosexualism is a sin. I recomend this book to everybody!

"Sex Lives of the Popes" reads fluidly and easily. Others may find that a weakness in the lack of endless "scholastic" efforts to document every work by reference to "previous scholars." Well, for the minority among us who are "academia," that may be of interest. But for the ordinary reader, there is sufficient substantiation, and the book retains its vitality instead of succumbing to mind-numbing scholarly endedavor. It's real, and revealing, and surely an anathema to all the scholars of the "Holy Mother Church," to which the work may lend a new meaning. If one isn't a hidebound statistician, or a blindly faithful Catholic Cleric, then this book will be a great source of wondrous information, with relevance to the religious events and practices of the past centuries as well as to the present day's less than presentable (reported and unreported) practices of many of the Church's selected clergical leaders. By all means, everyone should read this book, in the interests of presentation of all the facts, whether they agree with the book or not. For example, do you know why the new pope must sit on the "saddle" before he's confirmed by the Cardinals? And did you know that there was a female Pope? It's a great book. Rush out and read it.

This is a very unusual book. There is the early Ike Turner of Clarksdale and Sun Studios and Modern Studios of California. A fascinating look into the birth of rock and roll.

Then there is the Tina era and a no holds barred portrait of Ike's desires as a man. Fame, substance and women. It is reminiscent of the Miles Davis autobiography as the courage to acknowledge his desires and actions is everpresent.

Finally is the Tina fiasco cleanup. I admire Ike for writing this book. He is not takin it lying down. He is affected by the experience but does not whitewash it. And he feels he has not been dealt with square.

At times the narrative is unconvincing. But I think it is healing his spirit to write his book. There is goodness and devil in everyman and Reading this one reminds me of the devil in me as well as the goodness in Ike.

And lastly do not miss the Little Richard introduction. Unbelievable!!!

Well, let me say this, if you are a Tina Turner fan like I am, then you will have to put your faithfulness to the side to read this book, because there are always two sides to a story.

The first thing I want to say is Ike tried to use Tina's style in telling his side of the story. I guess he figured, "if she could do it, I can too". And this style did not do him justice. It made him look like a low life womanizer, don't give a hoot about life and that everyone is picking on him or was/still out to use and get him. I feel that he could have gotten another co-writer or a contributer to help write his side of the story.

I did not like this book, because they jumped from one year to another and back to an earlier year and left the reader wondering what happened in between. The book really got confusing.

Second, Ike did admit that he did hit Tina, he said he did not abuse her, but he hit her. I do believe that he did not abuse her until after he became addicted to cocain. And I a glad to see that he apologize for his actions.

I think that he should have stayed away from the movie "What's Love Got to Do With it", and focus more on answering questions in her book "I, Tina" because it was obvious (if you read the book), that the movie was somewhat ficticious.

I wanted his book to go into more details on his life with Tina, though I know that he had a life before and after her and I wished he could have shown more pictures. I think he was too detailed in his child hood sex life. He should have just told who and how he lost his virginity and not described how it felt. When he did this, I felt I was reading porn.

He could have given a little more detail on why him and Ann Thomas seperated. I also wanted to learn more on his relationship with his children's mother (Lorraine) and also, touched on his relationship with Little Richard, Gladys Knight and other R&B artist he toured with at the Apollo, the Howard Theater, etc.

I don't think the book deserves 4 stars because of its writing style, but I gave it four stars because of his efforts to "Get the Record Straight".

Ike Turner is considered by many to be one of the most influential musicians of his time. Following the allegations of abuse by Tina he has also become one of the most despised. His talent was quickly forgotten, or more accurately, ignored.
I first bought this book out of curiousity wondering whether he would have a hope in hell of defending himself.
The truth is this book doesn't really excuse anything Ike has done, but goes a long way in explaining some of his actions.
Ike was exposed to so much sex and violence at such a young age it is possible to understand sometimes why he behaved the way he did. It would have been far easier for him to just lash out and blame Tina for everything or insist she was the one lying (After all that's exactly what she did, (Even though she chose to stay with him for 18 years, so was he really that evil, I don't think so.)
I for one admire him for admitting to as much as he did knowing it wouldn't do much to enhance his character. There in a certain humanity in that and a dignity that only comes with experience.
Nobody least of all Ike is denying the pain he's caused Tina, his kids or anyone else,in the past. But any decent open-minded person can see he has his own pain to deal with and i think that is what he's trying to do here.
Even at such a late stage in his life he is finally learning about real love and success.
Tina was given her break, a second chance to build a new life and career away from her past, all Ike wants now is his chance to do the same thing. Should anyone deny him that?...