Sammy Mountjoy, artist, rises from poverty and an obscure birth to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War Two, he is taken as a prisoner-of-war, threatened with torture, then locked in a cell of total darkness to wait. He emerges from his cell transfigured...
"I was standing up, pressed back against the wall, trying not to breathe. I got there in the one movement my body made. My body had many hairs on legs and belly and chest and head, and each had its own life; each inherited a hundred thousand years of loathing and fear for things...
Question everything in this philosophical tale by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by John Gray A Penguin Classic Sammy Mountjoy is an artist who has risen from poverty to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery...
Release Date: Mar 3, 2026