The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 4

Donald Friend's legendary years in Bali in the 1960s and 1970s and his subsequent final decade in Australia are revealed in detail in this fourth and final volume of The Diaries of Donald Friend. In Bali he lives luxuriously, like a lorda even keeping his own gamelan orchestraa and becomes an international celebrity artist. He welcomes guests such as Mick Jagger and the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, entertains numerous other visitors who want to buy his paintings and drawings, and socialises freely with friends, including many other artists. He engages in significant building activity and property development while also producing superb illustrated manuscripts and books. And despite increasing ill-health, Friend continues to revel in his life's drama and creativity, remaining an eloquent, often charming and sometimes irascible companion. Including over 60 drawings from his diaries, many of them in colour, this volume confirms Friend's quicksilver creative brilliance and extraordinary insight. He is perhaps Australia's most important twentieth-century diarist.