The unspeakable Skipton - Pamela Hansford Johnson

Daniel Skipton is a Pioneer in Art. He's also a rogue who hasn't done an honest day's work in his life. Instead, he bullies support out of aging relatives he's never met and harangues his publisher for advances on non-existent projects. The world owes Skipton a living, but it doesn't want to pay up. Outraged by life and choked with anger, our self-proclaimed literary genius lives by his wits in the Belgian city of Bruges. Along with a pack of disreputable allies-among them, Wouvermans the "antiques dealer" and Mimi the "performance artist"-he swindles a group of nave English tourists into unwittingly supporting his meager lifestyle. As Ruth Rendell makes clear in her introduction, The Unspeakable Skipton is a wickedly funny sketch of the artist at his worst.