Helping Contemporary Art in its Struggle to Be Understood

Playing to the Gallery

'I have never read such a stimulating short guide to art' Lynn Barber, Sunday Times 
 
Now Grayson Perry is a fully paid-up member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he's called this book Playing to the Gallery and not 'Sucking up to an Academic Elite'). Based on his hugely popular BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures and full of pictures, this funny, personal journey through the art world answers the basic questions that might occur to us in an art gallery but seem too embarrassing to ask.

This book is full of good jokes, full of cartoons, full of memorable epigrams, but above all full of thought-provoking ideas that make you want to pause on every page and say: "Discuss." I have never read such a stimulating short guide to art. It should be issued as a set text in every school

Punchy, mischievous ... Hugely entertaining. You could, genuinely, take an aphorism or a quote from every second page ... This is splendid, transgressive stuff ... a love letter to art ... a thing of pleasure: petite, luxuriously printed, a mischievous little hymn to 21st-century inclusivity

It reveals Perry to be not just an artist but a wordsmith, too... It is acute and funny at the same time. This, I think, is why people love Perry so much.

A polemic for inclusivity... The great thing about Perry's statement of it here is that you are always convinced that he believes it and lives by it

It's unputdownable! It's really relevant to anyone who does anything ... A great book ... Grayson is brilliant

Grayson Perry's first art prize was a large papier-mâché head he awarded to himself as part of a performance art project at college in 1980. Since then he has won many other awards, including the Turner Prize in 2003. He is now one of Britain's most celebrated artists and has had major solo exhibitions all over the world. His 2013 BBC Reith Lectures were the most popular lectures since the series began.

Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Girl

Grayson Perry

The intimate, funny, unsettling autobiography by one of Britain's most talented and provocative artists, written in his own voice by a close friend.

The most remarkable aspect of Grayson Perry's biography is the resilience of the human spirit to which it testifies... There are lovely moments in this book and what really comes across is what a lovely man Grayson Perry is

Gripping and splinter-sharp account of the Turner prize-winning potter's early life and artistic growth

[A] delightful autobiography... this short charming book ought to be required reading for anyone with artistic ambitions. For everyone else, it can be enjoyed simply as one of those heartwarming tales of happiness and success wrested from the jaws of potential disaster

One of the most gripping and intelligent accounts of an artist's growth I have ever read

Charming... oddly reminiscent of Nigel Slater's recent book, Toast

Brave, moving and raunchy. Terrific stuff

Grayson Perry, the controversial winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, is best known as a ceramic artist, but he also works with embroidery and photography. He lives in London and is married with a daughter. Wendy Jones is a teacher and a writer.

Every inch of Grayson's childhood bedroom was covered with pictures of aeroplanes, and every surface with models. Fantasy took over his life, in a world of battles ruled by his teddy bear, Alan Measles. He grew up. And in 2003, an acclaimed ceramic artist, he accepted the Turner Prize as his alter-ego Clare, wearing his best dress, with a bow in his hair. 
 
Now he tells his own story, his voice beautifully caught by his friend, the writer Wendy Jones. Early childhood in Chelmsford, Essex is a rural Eden that ends abruptly with the arrival of his stepfather, leading to constant swerving between his parents' houses, and between boys' and women's clothes. But as Grayson enters art college and discovers the world of London squats and New Romanticism, he starts to find himself. At last he steps out as a potter and transvestite.

An eloquent and witty tour guide through the fun house that is masculinity ... He's just the man for the job

A funny, engaging, and at times penetrating trek through the tricky landscape of contemporary masculinity ... [Perry is] a cultural luminary

Pithy and insightful ... The Descent of Man fits into the tradition of the 18th-century treatise, a plea for a new, enlightened social order in the manner of Mary Wollstonecraft or William Hazlitt

[Perry] is thoroughly engaging and charismatic ... His personality shines through

GRAYSON PERRY FOR KING AND QUEEN OF ENGLAND. Imagine how BRILLIANT our country would look if he was.

Thoughtful, clearly written and a joy to read

With its non-macho slender girth and personal, engaging approach, [The Descent of Man] is a breeze of a read, and one that makes you see our male-manufactured world a little differently ... Grayson Perry has written the very book I wanted to write

Grayson Perry

Praise for The Descent of Man

An eloquent and witty tour guide through the fun house that is masculinity ... He's just the man for the job

An eloquent and witty tour guide through the fun house that is masculinity ... He's just the man for the job

A funny, engaging, and at times penetrating trek through the tricky landscape of contemporary masculinity ... [Perry is] a cultural luminary

An eloquent and witty tour guide through the fun house that is masculinity ... He's just the man for the job

An eloquent and witty tour guide through the fun house that is masculinity ... He's just the man for the job

A funny, engaging, and at times penetrating trek through the tricky landscape of contemporary masculinity ... [Perry is] a cultural luminary

An eloquent and witty tour guide through the fun house that is masculinity ... He's just the man for the job

An eloquent and witty tour guide through the fun house that is masculinity ... He's just the man for the job

A funny, engaging, and at times penetrating trek through the tricky landscape of contemporary masculinity ... [Perry is] a cultural luminary

Books by Grayson Perry

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter