The Lives of Lucian Freud: FAME 1968 - 2011

The second half of William Feaver's Baillie Gifford Prize-shortlisted work of biography: the definitive story of the epic life of one of the twentieth century's most important artistsWilliam 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 and dissatisfied 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 and horrible 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 and attended his own retrospectives, what emerges is an artist wilfully oblivious to the glitter of the world around - and focussed instead on painting first and last.'As entertaining, and full of twists and turns, as a picaresque novel … It has amazing zip and gusto, and leaves you wanting more' CRAIG BROWN, MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Freud and Feaver seize you by the elbows, bundle you into a Bentley, haul you round the nightclubs, feed you oysters, Guinness and amphetamines and order you Russian tea and eggs the next morning. I didn't know whether I'd been roughed up or ravished' THE TIMES, BOOK OF THE WEEK 'As gossipy and strange as the man himself … Brilliant' LYNN BARBER, DAILY TELEGRAPH'Sparkling ... An extraordinary tranche of anecdote and aperçu' SUNDAY TIMES