Publisher's Synopsis
'The art of the biographer is to probe beyond the façade which the subject has skilfully presented, to himself, as well as to others, over a lifetime, in order to discover the whole person behind the image,' writes Brian Masters at the start of his memoir. Having written a dozen books on subjects as varied as Molière, Marie Corelli, the mistresses of Charles II, Rabelais, Camus, E. F. Benson and Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, in middle age Masters turned to true crime, writing rigorous and intelligent books about two serial killers, Dennis Nilsen and Jeffrey Dahmer, and one about the wife of another, Rosemary West.
Brian Masters portrays his own life with the honesty of an experienced biographer, unflinchingly describing his childhood in the bombed out streets of south London; the years as a protégé of one of the first radio stars, Gilbert Harding; hitchhiking across America dressed in a suit and bowler hat; discovering his sexuality - all the while trying to work out his gravitation towards disastrous relationships and his desire to understand the motivations and impulses of the people he has written about.
The book is both an inquiry into the events and forces that formed him and an entertaining portrait of many friends and acquaintances, an eclectic list that includes his 'adopted' son Gary, John Ogdon, the pianist, Natalie Makarova, the ballerina, and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.
