At the very centre of the life of one of thetwentieth-centurys greatest artists was themost unexpected of life-long influences.The aptly named Jessie Lightfoot shieldedthe young Francis Bacon from the brutishviolence of his bullying father, as well asfrom his worst self-immolating excesses laterin life. The tenderness, wit and warmth ofthis inimitable Nanny stands in illuminatingrelief to the sulphurous palette that definedBacons work.

Beyond the humour and heart of thisextraordinary woman who finds herselfconfronted with the shade and guile of theartworld Maylis Besserie also gives usa glimpse of Ireland in the first half of thetwentieth century, both a powder keg anda place apart from the rest of the world,whose landscapes, imagery and animalshaunted the famous painters canvases.

In the final of Maylis Besseries Irish-French trilogy, her preoccupation with theart and lives of artists who crossed bordersbetween France and Ireland has a fittingclimax as Bacon confronts the boundariesbetween the real and the imagined.

In a virtuoso feat of literary ventriloquism, Maylis Besserie follows the advice of the Greek poet Cavafy to approach the world from unique and strange angles. Through the eyes of Bacons nanny and close companion, she gives us brilliant insights into the conflicting personal, sexual, and artistic impulses that shaped a remarkable artist, rendered in the steadfast voice of someone who understood and loved the complex man behind the art. It marks a wonderful conclusion to a remarkable Irish trilogy. Dermot Bolger

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