For someone who shuns the limelight to the extent of concealing his real name, never showing his face and never giving interviews except by email, Banksy is remarkably famous. In his home city of Bristol, an exhibition of his work saw queues of three hours to get in every day for three months. His street art in London is now the subject of guide books and walking tours. His artworks are sold at auction for six-figure sums. His enigmatic documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop was nominated for an Oscar. Even now, the sudden appearance of a new Banksy on the side of a building is a national news event.
But who is this man? How did he become what he is now? What makes him tick? How far can we get to know and understand someone who goes to such lengths to keep his distance from us?
Now, in this first full account of Banksy's career, Will Ellsworth-Jones pieces together the story of how in the space of just one decade someone whose work was regarded by many as little short of vandalism has now become something of a national treasure.
He talks to acquaintances and artistic adversaries, and discovers the extraordinary loyalty even people who worked with Banksy in his early unnoticed days still feel about protecting his identity. He tells of the extraordinary lengths people go to in order to own a Banksy
-spending thousands dismantling walls or preserving a dilapidated water tower. And he explores the contradiction of the standard-bearer for outlaw art and opposition to authority taking an increasing interest in the control of his image and his work. The result is an appropriately unofficial and utterly unauthorised biography of a genuinely enigmatic figure most of us still feel we know very well.