Greig to write Freud memoir

Charlotte Williams - The Bookseller

Jonathan Cape has acquired a memoir about the British painter Lucian Freud, who died last month, written by his friend, Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig.







Publishing director Dan Franklin acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Breakfast with Lucian through Ed Victor via an auction. The book will be published in autumn 2012, and will include some of Greig's own photographs.
For 10 years, Greig was among a group of Freud's close friends who met for breakfast on Saturday mornings at Clarke's restaurant on Kensington Church Street. The book will be based on conversations had over these meals, as well as on Greig's knowledge of Freud's paintings.
Greig will also be drawing on hours of recorded conversations with Freud, on topics such as art, debt, enemies, death threats, poetry, first love and death. Other discussions included Freud recounting his escape from Nazi Germany, falling out with Jerry Hall, painting David Hockney, hanging out with the Queen, his views on fatherhood and his reasoning as to why Velazquez was the greatest painter.
Greig will also use interviews and memories from those who knew Freud, including some of the rest of the breakfast club. Franklin said: “You see Lucian Freud in a completely different light . . . He (Grieg) would often go with his children [to the breakfasts]. The photographs of them with Lucian are very very moving . . . It is a very intimate portrait.”