There is something of a Francis Bacon season going on here at Hatchards, with 'Bacon in Moscow' chosen as our non-fiction Book of the Month, multiple new releases across various genres covering the artist's work, and a new exhibition entitled 'Man and Beast' across the road at the Royal Academy.

In this episode, we invited author Max Porter ('Lanny,' 'Grief is the Thing With Feathers') and the author and art curator James Birch ('Bacon in Moscow') to discuss the life and works of the famed 20th-century figurative artist.

Mr. Birch first met Bacon when he was a little boy, and maintained a close relationship with him until the end of his life. In July of 1986, he successfully curated an exhibition of the artist's work in the former USSR, allowing more than 400,000 Soviet citizens to view Bacon's work for the first time.

Mr. Porter's devotion to Bacon's work began when he was a teenager, and he spent the better part of the 2020 national lockdown writing an imagined memoir about the last days of the artist's life. The resulting novella, 'The Death of Francis Bacon,' is an extraordinary series of six "written pictures" transmuting Bacon's unsettling imagery into the written word.

Both of these authors' fascinating new books can be purchased in signed, exclusive editions in the shop and on our website.

Hosted by Ryan Edgington and Matt Hennessey.