Turner

The man behind the paintings: the extraordinary life of J. M. W. Turner, one of Britain's most admired, misunderstood and celebrated artists.

J. M. W. Turner is Britain's most celebrated landscape painter. Yet beyond his artistic achievements, little is known of the man himself and the events of his life: the tragic committal of Turner's mother to a lunatic asylum, his shocking love affair with a well-known actress and the devastating loss of his sister.

Franny Moyle tells the story of a man who was considered visionary at best and ludicrous at worst. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the Industrial Revolution, this is an astonishing portrait of one of the most important figures in Western art and a vivid evocation of Europe in flux.

FRANNY MOYLE has a degree in English and Art History from St John's College, Cambridge. She enjoyed a career in arts programming at the BBC that culminated in her becoming the corporation's first Commissioner for Arts and Culture. She is now a freelance executive producer and writer. She lives in east London, and is married with three children.