This biography of Mark Gertler reappraises an extraordinary artist, a figure who fascinated his contemporaries. He is the sinister sculptor of D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love, the dashing Byronic hero of Aldous Huxley's Chrome Yellow, and the egotistical painter of Katherine Mansfield's Je ne parle pas Francais. Gertler was admired and encouraged by Walter Sickert, Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and Henry Moore. He was championed by the flamboyant Lady Ottoline Morrell, and his magnificent haunting pictures were keenly collected.