"Actor, writer and performance artist, Quentin Crisp was born Denis Charles Pratt in 1908 and rose to fame upon releasing his extraordinary biography The Naked Civil Servant.

By his own account, Crisp was effeminate in behaviour from an early age. As a young man in London he supported himself in a variety of ways, amongst other jobs working as a prostitute and a tap-dancing teacher. Quentin Crisp was exempt from military service during World War II, when he was employed by a government-funded art school as a nude model (hence becoming a "naked civil servant").

Crisp's self-evident homosexuality, defiant exhibitionism and refusal to keep his sexuality private (he was renowned for his flamboyant effeminacy, long hair, long fingernails, and make-up) made him an infamous character of 1930s London.

Critically acclaimed author Paul Bailey presents a portrait of this unique and uniquely amusing character paying tribute to one of the twentieth century's true English eccentrics. Having known Quentin Crisp for over 30 years, Paul will discuss Crisp's surprising rise to fame, his various careers, the autobiography, Crisp as an authority on style and etiquette and his dramatic change of character in his final years."