This short book served as a catalogue for an exhibition at the Tate in London in 1999 and is one of the more sensitive explorations into Francis Bacon's artistic thoughts. Though known to approach unfixed canvas (in his much talked about trashy studio) with brush and paint and palette knife in hand and attack his story until it was complete, Bacon actually spent a considerable amount of time sketching ideas which often became his huge scaled painting. David Sylvester opens this Pandora's box with a pithy introduction and Matthew Gale presents a sophisticated, scholarly examination of this heretofore unknown aspect of Francis Bacon. The plates of the sketches, all included in the atalogue, prove startling even to the most ardent Baconophile. This is a treasure chest of nascent thought and aborted ideas.....and makes for splendid reading.