Embankment I: "Timeless"
The Strand Magazine, a glossy publication aimed at lovers of mystery and crime fiction, seems to love Michael Alford. Over the last four years, his distinctive scenes of London life have graced no less than six of the magazine’s covers, including its recent 10-year anniversary issue, which showed a detail of his luminous Embankment I.
But what is it about Michael’s paintings that attracted the magazine?
As Strand editor Andrew Gulli explains: “When I first ran across Michael’s work, I was shocked to find a living artist who was able to paint in a style which, in my opinion, is timeless.”
Gulli, who’s made something of a name for himself by rediscovering lost works by Graham Greene, Dashiell Hammett and Agatha Christie, certainly has an eye for a classic. The Strand Magazine has its roots in the past, beginning life in 1891 London, publishing fiction by writers including Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle. Today it features up-to-the-minute articles, interviews and short works by some of our best contemporary mystery and crime writers.
“I think Michael Alford is like a contemporary Atkinson Grimshaw,” Gulli says, evoking the name of a British Victorian artist known for his paintings of night scenes and landscapes. “Yet at the same time the power in his work is very much his own. The first two issues of the Strand had cover illustrations by Grimshaw. Besides him, Michael is the only artist we’ve ever used more than once.”
And what does 2012 hold in store for the Strand? “More work by Michael, I hope,” says Gulli modestly. “And some more unpublished literary gems.”
The Strand Magazine is available by subscription.
Andrew Gulli (with co-editor Lamia Gulli) is the driving force behind No Rest for the Dead a thrilling collaboration between 26 top mystery writers, all for a good cause. All proceeds from the book go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Order.
