LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN
OBSERVER THE TIMES SUNDAY TIMES DAILY TELEGRAPH MAIL ON SUNDAY FINANCIAL TIMES NEW
STATESMAN SPECTATOR THE SUNDAY TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 'Explosively enjoyable
bursting with life and art ... A central figure as wild and beguiling as any character in
literature' CRAIG BROWN William Feaver Lucian Freud's collaborator curator and close friend
knew the unknowable artist better than most. Over many years Freud narrated to him the story
of his life 'our novel'. Fame follows Freud at the height of his powers painting the most
iconic works of his career in a constant pursuit of perfection just outrunning his gambling
debts and tailor's bills. Whether tattooing swallows at the base of Kate Moss's back or
exacting a strange revenge on Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger Freud's adventures were always
perfectly characteristic. An enfant terrible till the end even as he was commissioned to paint
the Queen what emerges is an artist wilfully oblivious to the glitter of the world around -
and focussed instead on painting first and last. 'A dazzling tour de force' THE TIMES 'A
wonderfully vivid chronicle' OBSERVER 'Does justice to Freud's pitiless genius' DAILY MAIL
