Rosenthal knew many of his subjects personally and some became friends: Michael Ayrton; Arthur Boyd; Ivon Hitchens; Thelma Hulbert; L. S. Lowry; Sidney Nolan; Paula Rego. There are also essays on Wyndham Lewis, Jack B. Yeats and the paintings of August Strindberg. There is a profile of Walter and Eva Neurath, founders of the art-book publishers Thames & Hudson, the author's first employers; an essay on Anti-Semitism in England; and an obituary of Matthew Hodgart, who at Cambridge, influenced and developed Rosenthal's knowledge and passion for literature.