'In his latest work Battarbee and Namatjira, New Zealand writer Martin Edmond juxtaposes the biographies of two painters, Rex Battarbee and Albert Namatjira, as a way to explore their personal and professional relationships and to highlight the creative processes and personalities of both men. Edmond uses events in the lives of his protagonists to redefine their experiences of success and failure, creation and destruction. Their intertwined stories unfold with the inevitability of a classical Greek play – inexorable and tragic.' (Introduction)