Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma, by Michael Peppiatt (Phoenix Giant, £14.99 in UK)

There have been numerous books about Bacon in the past decade, most of them ephemeral, but this is on a higher level and is based on a good deal of personal contact. Though Peppiatt only got to know Bacon in the 1960s, the painter talked to him freely about his childhood in Ireland, and about his early life in general, including much which is unfamiliar. There is also much of interest about Bacon's struggle to establish himself as a painter in postwar London, his love affairs, his gambling (unavoidably) and his later world fame. Written by an art critic and respected journalist, the book is knowledgeable without pedantry, and readable without muckraking.