Table of Contents

1. 14 Abercorn Place • 2. Pope Francis • 3. Euston Road in Camberwell • 4. The Spirit in the Mass (at Borough Polytechnic) • 5. Girl with Roses • 6. Leaping into the Void • 7. Translating Life into Art: Bacon and Freud in the 50s • 8. Two Climbers Roped Together: Auerbach and Kossoff • 9. An Arena in Which to Act • 10. What Makes the Modern Home so Different? • 11. The Situation in London, 1960 • 12. The Artist Thinks: Hockney and his Contemporaries

Promotional Information

'If you are interested in modern British art, the book is ­unputdownable. If you are not, read it' Grey Gowrie, Financial Times

About the Author

Martin Gayford is art critic for The Spectator. His books include Man with a Blue Scarf, A Bigger Message, Rendez-vous with Art (with Philippe de Montebello) and, with David Hockney, A History of Pictures, all published by Thames & Hudson.

Reviews

'All the good stories, and more, are here … a genuinely encyclopaedic work … Everybody interested in the subject should read it' - Andrew Marr, Sunday Times

'Superb … you hang on to every word' - Rachel Cooke, Observer

'A seminal work: limpidly written, replete with lightly worn scholarship and unrivalled intimate knowledge' - William Boyd, New Statesman

'A masterpiece … a major work of art history' - Wall Street Journal

'A wise and authoritative account of the post-war London art scene' - Artists & Illustrators

'An anecdote-rich study of the geniuses and oddballs – Bacon, Freud, Hockney and more – who revived British art after the Second World War' - The Times

'Superb, with vivid vignettes of the likes of Lucian Freud' - Daily Telegraph

'At once scholarly and wonderfully gossipy' - Choice