My Books

The Rising Down

The Rising Down

'A masterpiece of observation, detection, and meditation' - Fiona Stafford

Winner of the British Academy Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, 2025. Faber, March 2024. Order from ...
Time & Place

Time & Place

A Pocket Book on the Art of Calendars

I worked with the arts and environment charity Common Ground and some wonderful contemporary artists to make a ...
Weatherland

Weatherland

'A brilliant, beautiful and sensual book' - Sunday Times

Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, ten times Book of the Year, and adapted in ten parts for Radio 4 ...
Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

A short introduction to the life and work of Virginia Woolf. Available in 10 languages.

'A miracle of clarity and concision' Washington Post ‘A wonderfully perceptive, unpretentious study which is ...
Romantic Moderns

Romantic Moderns

English Writers, Artists & the Imagination From Virginia Woolf to John Piper

Winner of the Guardian First Book Award and a Somerset Maugham Award Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper ...
Modernism on Sea

Modernism on Sea

Art and Culture at the British Seaside

'An immensely enjoyable feat of cultural beachcombing, fresh, diverse and enlightening.' John ...
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Essays and Features

Introduction to ‘Fenwomen’ in Virago Classics

I introduce a new edition of Mary Chamberlain's landmark work of rural and social history.

Under the Same Sky: JMW Turner

JMW Turner’s ethereal landscapes are works of conceptual collage – yet the magic of his painting came from his ...

Thomas Girtin: Bright Waters

An essay for the Royal Academy celebrating the lucid watercolours of Turner's great friend and rival.

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More from Alexandra

On Woolf

Secret Life of Books podcast on the The Waves

'Woolf in Winter', a published lecture on seasons, rituals, ice and love. 

'A Walk of One's Own', four radio programmes following Woolf on foot.

On artists

Ashmolean NOW exhibition from November 2026: Samuel Palmer and Garry Fabian Miller. My catalogue essay is called 'Magic Circles'.

Art, War, and Resurrection. An essay for Revisiting Modern British Art, ed. by Jo Baring. This work on 'resurrection' grew from thinking about illness, revival, and not getting better.  

On history

A rural history classic from Virago: I introduce a new edition of Mary Chamberlain's Fenwomen, now reissued in a 50th anniversary edition. 

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