A moving and exasperating account of a life both extraordinary and painfully mundane. Ossie Clark's diaries speak of luxurious holidays and parties with Mick and Bianca Jagger and thier contemporaries; he was the pearl in the oyster of the late sixties and seventies fashion jet set. He was hugely influential, yet lived most of his life as a financial disaster. The diaries detail an intense lifelong rivalry with artist David Hockney, bankruptcy, poverty, dole offices and days without food. He was a man who was actively and promiscuously gay, yet had a lifelong love for Celia Birtwell the mother of his two sons. Clark writes unflinchingly of his drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, depression and failure. His life was a consistent fight with his darker sides yet reveals an incredible ability to seek optimism and joy in life's simpler pleasures. A true product of his time, he was a genius and an irresponsible hedonist.
The diaries come to an abrupt end when Clark is murdered by his boyfriend.
Ossie Clark's diaries provide an intimate look at a life which should have been much greater and far more rewarding than it was.