The Daughter at the Bar: What Jessica Craig-Martin's Memoir Preserves of the Art World's Past

I Regret I Am Able to Attend: A Life Among Artists (2026), Jessica Craig-Martin's first book, is a 288-page record of the 1970s and '80s art worlds of London and New York written by someone who was there but had no professional stake in it. According to the Los Angeles Review of Books, that position — daughter rather than dealer, watcher rather than maker — is exactly what makes the book worth reading as history. The child of an artist, the review argues, may be the artist's most clearheaded critic. The claim matters for readers who care about how culture gets documented. Official histories of an art scene are written by its winners. Craig-Martin's book, published by Random House, comes from the person waiting in the car outside the pub with a bag of crisps and orange Tango while the parents drank.

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