"A Life of Picasso Volume 1" was hailed as the finest biography of an artist ever published. Ecstatic reviews were accompanied subsequently by the Whitbread Prize for Biography. The book was also shortlisted for the NCR Award. The first volume had strongly emphasised Picasso's Spanish roots from Malaga to Barcelona. The book ended in early 1907 with the 25-year-old Picasso having completed 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', described by Richardson as the most innovative painting since Giotto and the first masterpiece of the twentieth century. The great painting serves as the starting pointing of Volume 2. Volume 2 covers ten pivotal years in Picasso's life, and at its heart is Cubism. The book includes Picasso's relationship with Cocteau, his affair with Fernande Olivier and the influence of women on his art. The book ends as Picasso gets on the train to join Diaghilev in Rome in 1917.