Fakery, fraud, kidnap, murder and the Russian Mafia are all part of the picture for the innocent artist-hero of this delightful crime caper. 

 

Pat Phelan is an ageing artist who has never made it big, but who somehow manages to live on air in a North London suburb. When not running art classes for amateurs, Pat wrestles in the shed at the bottom of his garden with his life’s work: a series of visionary canvases of The Seven Seals. When his wheeler-dealer son Marty turns up with a commission from a rich client for some copies of paintings by modern masters —from Derain to Modigliani— Pat reluctantly agrees, as it means extra cash to get his ex-wife Moira off his back. 

 

However the deal with Marty is not what it seems, and what follows is a complex chain of events involving fakery, fraud, kidnapping and murder. 

 

Based on her long career in art journalism and her first-hand experience of the cut-throat world of ‘celebrity art’ that has come with the rampant monetisation of the art market, Gascoigne’s The Horse’s Arse can be read and enjoyed as both an exposé of corruption and a crime caper with a strong dash of satire.