The “reptile Freud” is laid bare in a biography that reads like fiction as it charts the painter’s wild, dangerous youth

The “reptile Freud” is laid bare in a biography that reads like fiction as it charts the painter’s wild, dangerous youth

As entertaining, and full of twists and turns, as a picaresque novel … Its amazing zip and gusto leaves you wanting more

William Feaver has done a brilliant job

Hard-edged, clear-eyed, as Freud would have relished. Much is recounted in the artist’s own sardonic words, buoyed by fantastic gossip; it flows fast and long, and you close it reluctantly

This exceptional book is far from standard biography … A compendium of high-grade gossip about everyone from Princess Margaret to the Krays, a tour of the immediate post-war art world, a snapshot of grimy London and a narrative of Freud’s career and rackety life and loves … Leaves the ready itchy for volume two

Here’s a story to keep you stuck in that fireside seat … Follow the adrenaline-fuelled course of the first half of his fabulously unconventional, unscrupulously promiscuous, relentlessly ambitious and often fantastically scurrilous life as he swirls about in a milieu of grand society and riveting gossip. The second half of this biography is expected soon, so that’s next Christmas sorted

An exceptional level of fact… a robust and intricate evocation of the man at work

This is far from a standard biography. At times like a Jilly Cooper novel, at others a socio-economic spotlight on the times

A superb and engrossing book

This is a tremendous read. Anyone interested in British art needs it … An extraordinary book

The amoral antics of the painter, as reckless in life as he was fastidious in the studio, mesmerise in this lively account

Superb, sparklingly intelligent

As gripping as any novel, illuminating both about Freud’s work and about his fairly startling personal life

The pleasure of this book is infernal

Irresistible … Freud and Feaver seize you by the elbows, bundle you into a Bentley, haul you round the nightclubs, feed you oysters, Guinness and amphetamines and order you Russian tea and eggs the next morning. I didn’t know whether I’d been roughed up or ravished

Not just a great art biography, but wonderful social commentary about London in particular and Britain in general in the postwar period

Sparkling … An extraordinary tranche of anecdote and apercu … Feaver’s wonderful biography comes close to Freud’s own definition of his art: “A picture should be a recreation of an event rather than an illustration of an object”

Superlative … Every page of this volume affirms his distinction … This is Lucian Freudian biography, packed with stories

While he has … filled his book to the brim with the excitement and strangeness of Freud’s life, he sees him as painter rather than playboy … He uses his extensive interviews with Freud subtly and judiciously … the paintings hold their strength, their mystery, their distance. Freud, too, in Feaver’s version, maintains his own strength, his mystery, his distance. His biographer makes no effort to delve into his inner being and explain his work accordingly. Freud’s outer being gives him more than enough to go on

Rich in gossip and written with effortless style

Lucian Freud was unique; unique in intensity, in affection, in interest and in fun. This brilliant and compendious biography has the same qualities. It does justice to Lucian

Mesmerising, almost surreal in its headlong layering of detail, memory and gossip. Propelled by Freud's sardonic recollections, and lit throughout by William Feaver's impeccable, penetrating analysis of the work, this is a monstrously brilliant portrait

In William Feaver’s The Lives of Lucian Freud, based upon decades of conversation with the painter, we hear Freud’s remarkable voice on almost every page. The result is a vivid, intimate biography of one of the 20th century’s most storied artists

Here, Freud gets to tell his version of events with panache

Sensational … Rich with gossip and stories

A rich and elaborate biography

A fascinatingly hybrid form of biography … An epic cultural history, seen through the prism of someone hypnotically fascinating in real life

One of the most intimate biographies of an artist ever written … Full of pithy observations, with just enough historical and social background to open up individual paintings and drawings to analysis … A delight

William Feaver is a painter, curator, broadcaster and author, and was the art critic for the Observer for 23 years. He is on the Academic Board of the Royal Drawing School where he also tutors. He has produced films with Jake Auerbach including Lucian Freud Portraits. His book Pitmen Painters was adapted for the stage by Lee Hall. He curated Lucian Freud's 2002 retrospective at Tate Britain and in Venice, Barcelona and Los Angeles, and the 2012 exhibition of Freud's drawings in London and New York. He also curated the 2002 John Constable exhibition at the Grand Palais with Freud. He has sat, weekly, for Frank Auerbach since 2003. He lives in London.