John Craxton

“A revelatory biography...reminds us that Craxton and Lucian Freud were once “thick as thieves”, 19-year-olds in wartime London carousing together at the Ritz in baggy blue jeans.”—The Daily Telegraph

“This beautifully produced book is a feast for the eyes and senses, full of reproductions of Craxton’s paintings of Greece, the country he loved most on earth.”—Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Daily Mail ‘Book of the Week’

“An account meticulous in detail and filled with incident...Craxton maintained a lifelong aversion to the prolix formulations of art critics, and it is easy to see how Collins, who excels at succinct yet suggestive glosses, was his ideal writer.”—James Cahill, Times Literary Supplement

"A beautifully written book...Craxton spent most of his life wanting to live in Greece and when he finally got there it was everything he wanted it to be. Even reading it feels like being bathed in sunlight."—Mark Gatiss, The Times

Winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2022

Longlisted for the William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History 2022