Edward Burra never followed the fashion: in the thirties, when modern art was dominated by abstraction and landscape, he painted people; in the sixties, when landscape was completely out of fashion, he started to find it interesting. His life was an unusual one: profoundly disabled, he lived with his parents, and was in constant pain. Only when he was painting could he forget his body.

Yet he was also a letter-writer of genius, penning camp, witty letters that were full of energy to a wide circle of friends. Inventive, entertaining and unique, his writing expresses a man who combined profound personal loyalty with distaste for any kind of emotional grandstanding. Jane Stevenson's biography is the perfect tribute to this most original of men.