''Painfully honest on what it means to be a woman who puts art first, no matter what'' Olivia Laing

I''m not a portrait painter. If I''m anything, I have always been an autobiographer.

In Self-Portrait, Celia Paul reveals a life truly lived through art. She moves effortlessly through time, in words and images, from her arrival at the Slade School of Fine Art at sixteen, through a profound and intense affair with the older and better-known artist Lucian Freud, to the practices of her present-day studio. This intimate memoir is, at its heart, about a young woman navigating the path to artistic freedom, with all the sacrifices and complications that entails.

''Powerful'' Zadie Smith

''Engrossing'' Vogue

''Captivating... Mesmerising'' New York Times

Shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize