Norman Coates was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and studied at the University of Cape Town. He came to the UK and found work as a theatre designer, creating work in the West End and around the world. His adaptation of Goodbye, Mr Chips toured internationally.

Norman’s life partner, Mattei Radev, died in 2009, having being bequeathed a fabulous array of modernist and impressionist paintings now known as the Radev Collection, with paintings by over 65 artists including Braque, Picasso, and Ben Nicholson, as well as Bloomsburyites like Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell who Mattei came to know personally.

How did this young man, who fled Communism in 1950 by trekking across Bulgaria and stowing away on a Glasgow-bound ship with only some chocolate and a bag of lemons, end up owning these paintings? Norman, who lived with Mattei for nearly forty years, has now reconstructed his extraordinary story by mining Mattei’s extensive collection of papers, letters and journals – including the 120 letters that emerged from Mattei’s decade-long affair with E. M. Forster, despite the near fifty-year age gap. It is a remarkable feat of Gertrude Stein-esque ventriloquism which not only does justice to Mattei’s circuitous route to making a small mark on history, but is also a fascinating, moving and often funny book in its own right.

Beyond the Frame will be published in 2027 by Profile.