THE SECRET PAINTER

Joe Tucker s Uncle Eric was a beloved yet unconventional figure throughout Joe s life A shambolically dressed man who lived with his mother for almost eighty years he had an almost compulsive need to charm strangers with working men s club comedy routines and appeared to exist only for daily trips to the bookie and yet had also amassed over five hundred of his own remarkable paintings without anyone ever realising his achievements Towards the end of his life Eric requested an exhibition of his work As Joe and his family sorted through hundreds of paintings of street scenes circus and theatre performers and busy pubs they began to ask more questions about Eric s life why had this fanatically sociable man never left his mother s home Had Eric ever experienced love when he painted it so beautifully And what had driven him to create so much yet share it so rarely In this touching funny and thoughtful investigation of the nature of expression the ownership of art and the secret life of those nearest to us Joe Tucker brings us into his uncle s extraordinary and compelling world Perhaps more importantly he also brings Eric Tucker s life s work into ours