Bill Jacklin was one of the most exciting and individual artists of the generation that first came to prominence in the 1960's. In an era of Pop Art he chose to be an abstract artist. When he had acheived succeess in this style, and everything seemed to be going his way, he felt irresistably impelled to return to a type of realistic representation, and so found himself ostracized as a traitor to the cause of abstraction. He was an obsessed painter and something of a loner socially and artistically. This book, both biographical and critical, is based on a detailed study of the work and conversations with Jacklin, and provides a mid-career survey of this important British and American artist.