When Anthony Blunt died in 1983, he was a man about whom almost anything could be - and was - said. As Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures and Director of the Courtauld Institute, Blunt's position was assured until his exposure in 1979 left his reputation in tatters. Miranda Carter's brilliantly insightful biography gives us a vivid portrait of a human paradox. Blunt's totally discrete lives, with their permanent contradictions, serve to remind us that there is no one key to any human being's identity: we are all a series of conflicting selves.

About the Author
Miranda Carter was educated at St. Paul's Girls' School and Exeter College, Oxford. She worked as a publisher and journalist before beginning research on her biography of Anthony Blunt in 1994. She lives in London with her husband and two sons. Anthony Blunt: His Lives (2001), her first book, won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Orwell Prize, and was shortlisted for many other prizes, including the Guardian First Book Award and the Whitbread Biography Award. In the US it was chosen by the New York Times Book Review as one of the seven best books of 2002.

Reviews
Astonishingly good * Daily Telegraph *
Highly impressive... sensitive and compelling... Miranda Carter has written a richly informative biography which, in the end, does not fall into the trap of tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner - not only because she is not seeking to pardon him, but also because there is something here that is still quite impossible to comprehend * Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph *
A compelling biography... Miranda Carter's skill at scouring the different compartments of Blunt's life is deeply impressive * Julian Barnes, New Yorker *


Awards
Winner of The Orwell Prize 2002 (UK). Short-listed for Whitbread Biography Award 2003 (UK) and Guardian First Book Award 2001 (UK) and CWA Dagger for Non-Fiction 2002 (UK). Long-listed for BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize 2002 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9780330367660
Author Miranda Carter
Format Paperback
Page Count 608
Imprint Pan Books
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 415g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 41mm