WRITING

 

 

 

 

James is a bestselling author. He has published extensively across various formats, including academic monographs, journal articles, popular non-fiction, magazines and newspapers.

 

He has published widely on modern art, British art and the cultural history of colour. His first book, British Art and the First World War, 1919-24, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015.

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His first trade book, The World According to Colour: a cultural history, was published to critical acclaim by Allen Lane in September 2021. It has since been translated into fourteen languages.

 

His most recent book, Craftland: a journey through Britain's lost arts and vanishing trades, was published by The Bodley Head (UK) in September 2025 and Crown (US) in October 2025. It was a Sunday Times bestseller, named Waterstones Book of the Year, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and shortlisted for the Nero Book Prize and Wainwright Prize.

 

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