Product Description

Robert Fraser - taste-maker, hedonist, lousy businessman, promiscuous homosexual - was the celebrated art-dealer responsible for introducing the London art world to Peter Blake, Jim Dine, Richard Hamilton, Bridget Riley and Andy Warncl among others. In this exceptional biography, Harriet Vyner recreates not only an extraordinary, seminal figure but also an exciting and colourful era - Sixties London. Told through the voices of those who knew Fraser best - Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Kenneth Anger, Dennis Hopper and Vyner herself - Groovy Bob was acclaimed on first publication as a brilliant biography and portrait of the most exhilarating period in British social history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #508625 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Robert Fraser is one of those very minor characters from the 60s, whose life nevertheless offers glimpses of many of the biggest names of the time, often from unusual angles. Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Dennis Hopper, Paul McCartney, Kenneth Anger, all crossed his path at one time or another. Fraser was a heady, contradictory mixture: an Old Etonian and an ex-officer of the King's African Rifles who, after having done his time in such conventional fields, arrived in Swinging London and became a noted art dealer and gallery owner. He lived in a flat in Mayfair and took a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce to work each day, only a few streets away. He was also a promiscuous homosexual, drug addict and fringe member of the pop circles of his day. The composition of the book is daring but very successful, made up almost entirely of the recollections of those who met, worked or partied with Fraser, arranged chronologically to form one of the most vivid portraits of the decade that I've ever read. It all comes across as an infuriating mix of excitement, irresponsibility, arrogance, self-indulgence, immaturity and thrills. And there are some nice one- liners, especially from the great Keith Richards. Recollecting a character from those mad times who eventually committed suicide, Richards explains, "He shot himself because he realised who he was."--Christopher Hart

Review
'More than any other figure I can think of, Robert Fraser personifies the Sixties as I remember them.' Paul McCartney

About the Author
Harriet Vyner was brought up in London, Yorkshire and Sussex. She knew Robert Fraser from the late 1970s until his death in 1986. She lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Superficial but fun
Rather like its subject, it would seem. This biography is a compilation of quotes from those who knew '60s art dealer Fraser, many of them well-known, indeed better-known than he, in their own right (Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Jim Dine, Peter Blake). This makes for a colourful and interesting read, but sometimes one might wish for a little authorial intervention, some more critical insight. Kind of a pop biography of a pop person, with the charms and the limitations of the mode. Maybe. Buy it second-hand for 50p and read it on a train.

An original, engaging biography of an orignal man
I'd never heard of Robert Fraser until I stumbled across this book. A very original bio - written as a series of interview comments from those who knew him from school, through the army, his early art dealer days and the rock stars he rubbed shoulders with. A really original way to write a bio and it provides an insight into the times and the changes in British culture - from the Empire through to the "Swinging 60s",

Each comment provides a different perspective on Bob which adds to the impression and sometimes conflicts. You end up with an incomplete image of him which is probably more consistent than the one-dimensional, cut-and-dried image that most bios provide.

A fantastic book. I put it forward for my book group. Everyone was sceptical but everyone enjoyed it and was enthralled by this fascinating unknown man.