Bohemian rhapsody

Francis Bacon – Anatomy of an Enigma Michael Peppiatt Constable, 448pp, £12.99 “Includes confidential new material”, cries this updated edition of Michael Peppiatt’s 1995 biography, just in time for the Tate’s blockbuster exhibition. So, one might expect to thrill to boozy tales of Soho bohos, shudder at anecdotes of East End rough trade, and have the heartstrings pulled by tales of doomed love affairs. Not quite. Peppiatt’s biography was one of the less scurrilous of those that emerged after the painter’s death in 1992, striking a balance between high-mindedness and lurid detail. Bacon himself once remarked that “it would take a Proust” to write his biography. Peppiatt is no Proust, but he adroitly debunks Bacon’s self-created myth of... [read full story]