Book description
For someone who shuns the limelight by concealing his real name,
never showing his face and never giving interviews except by email,
Banksy is remarkably famous. In his home city of Bristol, in Los
Angeles, in London, in New York, wherever there is a Banksy exhibition
there is always a huge queue. His book of his art, Wall and Piece, has
sold over a quarter of a million copies. Such is the commercial value
of his work that people have hacked an entire wall off a building
because it bears some of his graffiti. But who is this man; how did he
become what he is now; what makes him tick? How far can we get to know
and understand someone who goes to such lengths to keep his distance
from us? Now, in the first full-length book about Banksy's life and
career, Will Ellsworth-Jones pieces together a picture of the world in
which he operates. He talks to both friends and enemies, those who
knew him in his early unnoticed days and those who have watched him
try to come to terms with his new-found fame and fortune, and asks
what, ultimately, this enigmatic character and his life's work add up to.
Will Ellsworth-Jones was chief reporter and then New York
correspondent for The Sunday Times as well as holding senior editorial
positions at the Telegraph magazine, the Independent magazine and Saga
magazine. His previous book for Aurum was a history of conscientious
objectors in the First World War, We Will Not Fight. He lives in London.
