R.B. Kitaj has long been recognised as a major figure in British and international art, and particularly associated with the School of London, a phrase he coined. He was the first American since Sargent to be elected to the Royal Academy. His complex work is often literary in inspiration, but he is also recognised by many as being a modern master of draughtsmanship. The book emerges from an intense collaboration between author and artist in the form of interviews, and from Kitaj's own writing about his pictures in what he calls his prefaces. The book displays not only Kitaj's dexterity as an artist, but his also the restlessness of his mind.