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Deeply intimate memoir-biography of the most important artist of the twentieth century

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Michael Peppiatt first met Francis Bacon in a pub in Soho and was immediately swept up into the controversial painters world. Over oysters and champagne, they embarked on a friendship that would endure for thirty years. This is the story of their lives, closely intertwined and recalled at their most extraordinary moments.
From Bacons electrifying early exhibitions through the chaos of drink, drugs and gambling, Peppiatt became deeply involved with the ground-breaking genius. This intimate and revealing memoir brings vividly alive the art worlds of Paris and London and one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.

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This fine portrait of the artist is both gossipy and poignant . [and] one of the best art books I have read, by turns atmospheric and waspishly gossipy but also profound and poignant. Michael Prodger The Times 20150829

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Michael Peppiatt graduated from Cambridge, where he edited Cambridge Opinion and wrote exhibition reviews for the Observer. In an international career spent between London, Paris and New York, Peppiatt has written regularly for Le Monde, the New York Times, the Financial Times, Art News and Art International magazine, which he re-launched as its new publisher and editor from Paris in 1985. He is the author of over twenty books including the definitive Bacon biography, Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma (revised edition 2008). In 2005 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Cambridge for his work in the field of twentieth-century art. Peppiatt has also curated numerous exhibitions worldwide, and he is currently at work on a major retrospective contrasting the achievements of the two modern artists he most admires: Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon.

Michael Peppiatt studied at the University of Cambridge, where he began his career as an art writer by writing exhibition reviews for the Observer. In an international career as a writer and curator, he has curated numerous exhibitions of Francis Bacon´s and other artists´ work and been published in Réalités magazine, Le Monde, the New York Times, the Financial Times, Art News and Art International, which he bought and relaunched in 1985. He is also the author of the definitive Bacon biography, the 1997 Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma. In 2005 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Cambridge for his published work in the field of twentieth-century art. He is a member of the Society of Authors and the Royal Society of Literature, and in 2010 he joined the international board of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

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