Bobby and Robert and their talented pals and all their astonishing art are going on tour!

Robert Colquhoun and Robert Macbryde: Artists, Lovers, Outsiders is the exhibition I curated for Charleston. It closes in Lewes on April 12. It’s then touring to Nottingham and Kilmarnock, the first time Charleston have toured a show. THRILLING!

The exhibition features over 100 paintings, works on paper and bits of archive—some never seen in public before. I am so grateful to all our lenders, public and private. To everyone who has been to see the show already. And to the teams at Charleston, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery and the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock. Touring a show is a huge amount of work and it’s taking very talented and committed folk to make it happen. It would be impossible without the Colquhoun and MacBryde families and Scottish Artist Davy Brown. A full list of credits and thanks to follow!

On May 2 the exhibition opens at Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery and runs there until 6 September. On September 25, the Two Roberts will finally return to Scotland at the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock, hometown of Robert Colquhoun. It will run there until January 2027.

I am delighted to say that works by artist Robert Montgomery, fellow son of Ayrshire and Glasgow School of Art graduate, will also tour with the show. His work quite literally sheds light on Colquhoun and MacBryde and is a revelation. I am so honoured to be able to include it.

I’ll be sharing more info my newsletter soon. Sign up here.

More timings and info to follow, but I just wanted to share this good news as we head into Easter.

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I’ve curated an exhibition that goes along with my novel. It’s called Robert MacBryde & Robert Colquhoun: Artists, Lovers, Outsiders and features over 100 works by them, their friends and lovers.

It’s open now at the Charleston gallery in Lewes - just across from the train station. It runs until April 12, 2026. It also includes new work by contemporary artists Davy Brown and Robert Montgomery – including stunning new paintings and a light sculpture that will make you cry (good tears).  

It’s the Roberts’ first major exhibition in England since 1962—since their relationship was illegal. The last Sunday of every month is Pay What You Can Day. So, if you can get to Lewes on any of those days, you can pay whatever you can and that includes nothing.  If you’re visiting another time, here’s a special discount code. When booking online, enter the code BOOKTOUR20 to get 20% off on full price tickets. Save on tickets, spend on cake.

Also taking place at Charleston in Lewes (upstairs) is Soft Play, the first big show by the brilliant young Scottish artist Trackie McLeod. Google him and you’ll find a piece by him called Big Light and you’ll see why I love what he is doing. Like the Roberts and me, he’s gay and Scottish and working-class and I love imagining us all out for a drink together.

Curating is very much a team effort, so I want to thank all our lenders as well as Emily Hill and Shannon Smith at Charleston and the whole team of technicians and front of house.

PS there should be signed copies of the Two Roberts in the gift shop!

PPS We very much hope to tour it, so watch this space.

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This exhibition is their first in England since 1962.

It’s all about the Two Roberts, Colquhoun and Macbryde. It traces their incredible journey from 1930s Glasgow to wartime Europe, through London in the Blitz, to tragedy... Tracing their spectacular rise and fall, it puts them back where they were—at the centre of a wild creative set in a rapidly changing world.

It includes their time in Lewes, where they lived from 1947-49, supported by the Miller sisters, patrons connected to the Bloomsbury Group. Paintings, lithographs, drawings and archive celebrate their personal and artistic bond and puts them in context with contemporaries.

The show will open on October 22 2025 at Charleston in Lewes and tickets are on sale in the new year. There are so many folk to thank but this couldn’t happen without the Charleston team, Much Ado Books or the artist Davy Brown.

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