Queer Saint: The Cultured Life of Peter Watson

When Peter Watson was murdered in his bath by a jealous boyfriend in 1956, the art world lost one of its wealthiest, most influential patrons. This compellingly attractive man, adored by Cecil Beaton; a man who was called a legend by contemporaries, who was the subject of two scandalous novels, and who helped launch the careers of Francis Bacon, John Craxton and Lucian Freud, fell victim to a fortune - hungry lover. Elegant and hungrily sexual, Peter Watson had a taste for edgy, disreputable boyfriends. He was the unrequited love of Cecil Beaton's life - his 'queer saint' - but Peter preferred the risk of edgier, less sophisticated lovers, including the beautiful, volatile, drug - addicted prostitute Denham Fouts. Peter's thirst for adventure took him through the cabaret culture of 1930s Berlin, the demi - monde and aristocratic salons of pre - war Paris, English high society, and the glitz of Hollywood's golden age. Gore Vidal described him as 'a charming man, tall, thin, perverse. On