Published in November 2018 by the American University of Cairo Press, Orientalist Lives won the Art History & Criticism category in the 2019 Association of American Publishers PROSE Awards. It explores the travels and careers of Western artists working in the Middle East during the period 1830–1920, a time of great interest across Europe and North America in the colourful world of what was then termed ‘the Orient’. Drawing on a wide range of sources and contemporary accounts, James looks at the fiction and reality of the Orientalist canon, describing how different artists set about trying to understand the culture and atmosphere of the region and then present their creative renditions to an audience largely driven by a thirst for the opulent and exotic; click here for more information.