The Two Roberts

'Deeply affecting . . . A vivid and moving portrait' The Times

Damian Barr

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• eBook ISBN:
  9781837260836
• Year: 2025

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2025
A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK
A BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2025 FOR THE GUARDIAN, THE OBSERVER, THE HERALD AND THE BBC

'Crackles with creative rebellion' DOUGLAS STUART
'immersive, intelligent, immensely sensual' ELIF SHAFAK
'A novel that brims over with generosity and warmth' OBSERVER

He will stay like this forever, Robert's arm draped round him. They will be forever twenty.

Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is on his way. After years grafting at Lees Boot Factory, he's off to the Glasgow School of Art, to his future. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls – and never leave his side.

Together they will spend every penny and every minute devouring Glasgow – its botanical gardens, the Barras market, a whole hidden city – all the while loving each other behind closed doors. With the world on the brink of war, their unrivalled talent will take them to Paris, Rome, London. They will become stars as the bombs fall, hosting wild parties with the likes of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Elizabeth Smart. But the brightest stars burn fastest.

Stunningly reimagined, The Two Roberts is a profoundly moving story of devotion and obsession, art and class. It is a love letter to MacBryde and Colquhoun, the almost-forgotten artists who tried to change the way the world sees – and paid a devastating price.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Prologue The top of Kildoon Hill, Ayrshire
• Part One Glasgow School of Art 1933–1938
• Part Two Sketches from Europe 1938–1939
• Part Three Scotland, Again 1939–1941
• Part Four London, At Last 1941–1947
• Part Five Westgate House, Lewes 1947–1949
• Part Six Tilty Mill, Essex 1950–1954
• Part Seven No Fixed Abode
• Epilogue 47 Museum Street, London
• Afterword
• Acknowledgements