Angus Mcbean : Facemaker

Facemaker is the first full-length biography of Angus McBean, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th Century, whose surreal and romantic portraiture of iconic film stars and musicians is still imitated throughout the world in fashion images and pop videos. Drawing from a multitude of direct sources and recorded interviews, Adrian Woodhouse tells the authoritative, unexpurgated story of McBean’s dramatic life, from his humble origins in South Wales to his arrest, trial and imprisonment during World War II for homosexuality; from his rise, fall, and resurgence in the world of photography to his final years in Suffolk. Full of scandal and controversy, and rich with previously untold anecdotes and revelations about his famous subjects like Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Maria Callas, and the Beatles, Facemaker provides the private and the official portrait of a man who helped define the look of an age.

Adrian Woodhouse is a journalist, writer, and lecturer in photography, the media, and the arts. Previously the editor of the Londoner’s Diary in the Evening Standard, he contributes to Country Life, Homes & Gardens, Tatler, and Telegraph Magazine. His other books include Beresford Egan, Eighties In the Shade, and Susie Cooper.