Bob and Roberta Smith

When Bob and Roberta Smith was elected a Royal Academician in 2013, he had a more complex relationship with the Academy than most. He remembered well the feeling of suspense as his parents, both artists, waited to find out if their submissions had been accepted for the annual Summer Exhibition. The outcome brought jubilation or despair, but rarely to both, which led to its problems. In The Secret to a Good Life, Bob and Roberta Smith introduces his mother, Deirdre Borlase, and her encounters with the often sexist and classist art establishment of postwar Britain. Her story has led her son to ruminate on drawing, politics and the challenge art can pose to authority, as well as to reminisce on his experience of growing up in a household with two painters for parents. In the colourful signwriting style for which he is best known, Bob and Roberta Smith tells a poignant and political family story and answers the question: what is the secret to a good life?

Patrick Brill OBE RA (born 1963), better known by his pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith, is a British contemporary artist, political campaigner, musician and Associate Professor at London Metropolitan University. His previous books include Bob and Roberta Smith: I Should Be in Charge (2011) and Make Your Own Damn Art (2005).