Good afternoon,
 
I am incredibly proud to be working with esteemed literary academic Dr Gill Gregory ahead of the publication of her memoirs by Free Association Books (September 2015). The bold move to write her memoirs in the context of her love of art and in a style that manages to remain incredibly free from psychoanalytical jargon, despite her upbringing as daughter of a prominent psychoanalyst, is already being warmly welcomed within the literary, art, art history and psychoanalytical worlds. 

There are many revelations and discoveries of note within the pages of The Studio. For example, the book recounts Dr Gregory's discovery of collections of paintings on both her mother's and father's side of the family. In recent years, she discovered The Stoop Bequest - a bequest made by an uncle in her mother's family to the Tate in 1933. This was the first significant collection of modern art to be held by the Tate. 

Advance press copies are currently on their way to the publisher and we would be happy to put in a request for you to receive one of the limited number of books being printed early. We can also arrange for an interview with Dr Gill Gregory, who has agreed that she could make herself available for a more in-depth feature article from her Dulwich home, or at the University of Notre Dame in London where she teaches 19th and 20th century British literature. Advance copy and interview requests can be directed to Helen Lewis, Director at Literally PR: helenlewis@literallypr.com.

I really hope this is of interest to you and look forward to discussing further ideas and options with you about The Studio: A Psychoanalytic Legacy. 

Kind regards,
Helen Lewis
Director - Literally PR Ltd 
 

Advance Information Sheet
 

The Studio

A Psychoanalytic Legacy

By Dr. Gill Gregory

Genres: Memoir, Literature, Art History, Psychoanalysis

Published: 1^stSeptember 2015, Free Association Books

"A poetic memoir that maps the struggle to be free from a paralysing past by way of an exploration of paintings and psychoanalysis."

The Studio: A Psychoanalytic Legacy, published in September 2015 by Free Association Books, is a unique and exciting work, referencing Freud and other psychoanalytic writers to examine a difficult past - loss, trauma and the complexities of life are addressed and explored. Each chapter takes a painting as its focus, holding it up to the light as the author's engagement with each work is interwoven with memoir and her thoughts on the psychoanalytic processes that inform her life.

The Studioexplores Gregory's love of paintings, her engagement as a patient in psychoanalysis and as the daughter of Dr. Basil Gregory, a psychiatrist who pioneered group analytic therapy at St. Mary's, Paddington in the 1960s. Despite having firmly established herself as a valued writer and academic, it took a long time for Gregory to recover from the trauma of her brother's very severe epilepsy. Up until 15 years ago she struggled to overcome many addictive problems. Gregory was inspired to writeThe Studioafter reading Andrew Marr's A Short Book About Drawing. Time spent with Michael Morpurgo, who taught her on an Arvon writing course many years ago also contributed to its creation. Morpurgo is quoted on the cover sleeve of her poetry book, In Slow Woods. Dr Gill Gregory explains: "The Studio attempts to recover a 'child's eye' view of the world. I dip into the volumes of Freud I inherited from my father [Dr. Basil Gregory, a psychiatrist who pioneered group analytic therapy at St. Mary's, Paddington, in the 1960s] like a child playing with her toys. I introduce my book as though I were a child showing her readers around an exhibition of the paintings that have meant so much to her."
  

About the author

Dr Gill Gregory is a lecturer at the University of Notre Dame in London, SW1. Her teaching focuses on nineteenth and twentieth-century British literature. As a biographer, poet and literary critic, she has published in a range of genres. Her latest book, The Studio: A Psychoanalytic Legacy, combines memoir, art history and psychoanalytic ideas.

Gregory reviewed for The Times Literary Supplement 1998-2005 and her publications include The Life & Work of Adelaide Procter: poetry, feminism & fathers (1999), The Sound of Turquoise (2009), In Slow Woods (2011) and The Studio (2015). Dr. Gregory's poems and articles are published in a range of literary critical books & journals, including Critical Survey, The Dickensian, English, Poetry Review, Stand Magazine, Tears in the Fence and Women: a cultural review. The Sound of Turquoise won first place in a competition for historical memoir judged by Rachel Cusk, Kathryn Hughes and Hanif Kureishi. She lives in Dulwich, London - very close to the Dulwich Picture Gallery.  

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Advance copies for review, interviews with the author (telephone, Skype, face-to-face), images & editorial commissions to be discussed with:

Helen Lewis, Director, Literally PR Ltd

helenlewis@literallypr.com

+44 (0) 8709619069

"Gill Gregory's poetic memoir maps the struggle to be free from a paralysing past by way of an exploration of paintings and psychoanalysis. The Studio breaks the mould of autobiographical writing like Marion Milner's On Not Being Able To Paint, and tells a story that is at once lyrical and scholarly, emotionally gripping and historically intriguing - moving above all. This is an outstandingly gifted and rare book."

Isobel Armstrong, Professor Emeritus at Birkbeck College, University of London

The Essential Details

Price: £24.99 hardback

ISBN: 9781853432217

Available for pre-order:Publisher's website

Release Date:1^stSeptember 2015 (national sales & distribution)