Martin Gayford is art critic for The Spectator. His books include Man with a Blue Scarf (in which he recounts the experience of being painted by Freud), Modernists and Mavericks, Spring Cannot be Cancelled (with David Hockney), A History of Pictures (with David Hockney) and Shaping the World (with Antony Gormley), all published by Thames & Hudson. David Dawson is a painter and photographer who was Freud's assistant and regular model for over twenty years. He appears in paintings such as Sunny Morning-Eight Legs, 1997 (Art Institute of Chicago). He is Director of the Lucian Freud Archive.
'The artist's riotous lust for life is revealed ...The publication of Lucian Freud's letters is like the moment in Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary when Paul McCartney picks up his bass and creates Get Back out of thin air. It's letting daylight in on magic ... part of the charm of this book is the revelation - to me, at least - of his sense of humour' - Sunday Times 'A model of intelligent design ... The raw spontaneity and energy of each illustrated page conveys Freud's moods and preoccupations in a way that no biographer can match. Altogether, this is as vivid a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as we shall ever have, and compelling reading for Freud aficionados and amateur psychologists alike' - The Spectator