Ralph Steadman, the creator of his own inimitable visions of Freud, Dante, Orwell, Alice and the Great Gonzo, now offers the (auto)biography of his artistic alter ego, the redoubtable Gavin Twinge. Twinge, last remnant of a nineteenth-century 'domestic engineering' dynasty, founder of the Doodaaa school, and pioneer of Barcode Art, Shredded Literature, Centrifugal Abstracts and the 'Philosophy of French Plumbing', is the original angry voice of contemporary British art. No light switches for Gavin - just give him the Turner Prize first and then he might show you his creation!

The question Steadman sets out to answer is- Who hurt Gavin into art? From the moment he first meets Twinge, it becomes his quest to get to the heart of the mystery and discover the lost soul of British art. Whether he is on safari by taxi in the South of France, where Gavin finds inspiration with his fellow Doodaaaists, or witness to the creation of the first Centrifugal Abstract in the skies over Margate, the intrepid biographer sticks by his subject, matching him drink for drink, as he prepares the masterpiece that will crown his life's work.