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The Visitors' Book: In Francis Bacon's Shadow: The Lives of Richard Chopping and Denis Wirth-Miller
Denis Wirth-Miller and Dicky Chopping were a couple at the heart of the mid-twentieth century art world, with the visitors' book of the Essex townhouse they shared from 1945 until 2008 painting them as Zeligs of British society. The names recorded inside make up an astonishing supporting cast - from Francis Bacon to Lucian Freud to Randolph Churchill to John Minton. Successful artists, although not household names themselves, writing Dicky and Denis off as just footnotes in history would be a mistake. After Denis's death in 2010, Jon Lys-Turner, one of two executors of the couple's estate, came into possession of an extraordinary archive of letters, works of art and symbolically loaded ephemera the two had collected since they met in the 1930s. It is no exaggeration to state that this archive represents a missing link in British art history - the wealth of new biographical information disclosed about Francis Bacon, for example, is truly staggering.
The Visitors' Book is both an extraordinary insight into the minutiae of Dicky and Denis's life together and what it meant to be gay in pre-Wolfenden Britain, as well as a pocket social history of the era and a unique perspective into mid-twentieth century art. With reams of previously unseen material, this is a fascinating and unique opportunity to delve into post-war Britain.
The Visitors' Book is both an extraordinary insight into the minutiae of Dicky and Denis's life together and what it meant to be gay in pre-Wolfenden Britain, as well as a pocket social history of the era and a unique perspective into mid-twentieth century art. With reams of previously unseen material, this is a fascinating and unique opportunity to delve into post-war Britain.
400 pages, Paperback
Published December 5, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 26, 2025
4.5, rounded up.
I only came to read this tome as it was mentioned in the afterword of The Two Roberts, as a similar tale of two OTHER queer painters who were longtime partners and came to prominence in the post-war years, and since I so thoroughly enjoyed THAT book, thought - why not?! It is a fascinating history, not only of Chopping and Wirth-Miller, but also their social circle (including the two Roberts) and Francis Bacon, who was Denis's best friend and often takes center stage (perhaps a bit TOO much!).
The other major fault I disliked is that the author - who was an art pupil of Chopping, knew the couple well for the last 25 years of their lives, and was their literary executer - goes on a few too many tangents when trying to elucidate all of their OTHER bohemian friends and acquaintances over almost a century - but he eventually gets back to the focus on Dicky and Denis. Another minor glitch is that he misidentifies the two Roberts in a photo on p. 88!
But what astonishing lives they led, including being one of the first couples to achieve a gay civil partnership, after 70 years together, when such became legal in the UK in 2004. Chopping also became wealthy and famous as the illustrator for most of Ian Fleming's James Bond book covers: https://art-tales.org/james-bond-007-..., and wrote/published two novels on his own, both of which look interesting. Oddly enough, in the Barr book, an Ian Fleming is mentioned frequently, but THAT one is another Scottish painter, NOT the novelist - they were almost the same age!
I've now somewhat become enamored of the Bohemian Soho/Fitzroy scene of the 40's and 50's and am about to continue on in my deep dive with some books by and about the scandalous Julian Maclaren-Ross.
I only came to read this tome as it was mentioned in the afterword of The Two Roberts, as a similar tale of two OTHER queer painters who were longtime partners and came to prominence in the post-war years, and since I so thoroughly enjoyed THAT book, thought - why not?! It is a fascinating history, not only of Chopping and Wirth-Miller, but also their social circle (including the two Roberts) and Francis Bacon, who was Denis's best friend and often takes center stage (perhaps a bit TOO much!).
The other major fault I disliked is that the author - who was an art pupil of Chopping, knew the couple well for the last 25 years of their lives, and was their literary executer - goes on a few too many tangents when trying to elucidate all of their OTHER bohemian friends and acquaintances over almost a century - but he eventually gets back to the focus on Dicky and Denis. Another minor glitch is that he misidentifies the two Roberts in a photo on p. 88!
But what astonishing lives they led, including being one of the first couples to achieve a gay civil partnership, after 70 years together, when such became legal in the UK in 2004. Chopping also became wealthy and famous as the illustrator for most of Ian Fleming's James Bond book covers: https://art-tales.org/james-bond-007-..., and wrote/published two novels on his own, both of which look interesting. Oddly enough, in the Barr book, an Ian Fleming is mentioned frequently, but THAT one is another Scottish painter, NOT the novelist - they were almost the same age!
I've now somewhat become enamored of the Bohemian Soho/Fitzroy scene of the 40's and 50's and am about to continue on in my deep dive with some books by and about the scandalous Julian Maclaren-Ross.
January 9, 2026
A book both fascinating and appalling, which opens with one of the most heart rending scenes I have ever read.
The reason I read this book is because 'Dicky and Denis' were the landlords of a good friend of mine in the early 90s when she was living in a curious little house (where I went to stay)... with a Francis Bacon painted directly on the wall... because it had been Francis Bacon's house and sometime studio before he sold it to them. (This is not the Storehouse with the visitors' book, where Dicky and Denis themselves lived when they weren't swanning around elsewhere)
I hadn't realised that Dicky and Denis were artists and creatives in their own right rather than just 'of that world''friends of' It was a pity that more of Richard Chopping's work doesn't appear in the photos but I was very glad to have seen Denis Wirth-Miller's.
It's an intensely personal story, a very unromantic but nontheless touching love story and also a depiction of another world, before homosexuality was decriminalised. There is a phenomenal volume of alcohol consumed in these pages (making the level of actual sexual activity quite remarkable), far fewer other drugs. And good Lord, the sex, so, so much sex (some of it eg Dicky's bizarre cornflour concoction made for Bacon to address the deemed dysfunctions of his lover hilarious, repellant and tragic... and then there's the box of 200+ uniform buttons taken as trophies of sexual encounters... and oh I've just remembered Dicky's pages and pages of documented trysts.
These were not particularly privileged men and Denis in particular had burdens to carry from the start (further compounded by his experience of imprisonment) They cobbled together the connection between body and soul. I particularly enjoyed hearing about Dicky as an art teacher, he sounds to have been rather splendid and quietly very significant. Amidst the chaos of their lives, and that of their circle it was remarkable to see mention of retirement and careful financial investments (and the impact of a stock market crash). I also hadn't imagined books of flower paintings and Ian Fleming James Bond covers.
It's not a world that holds any attraction at all for me but we see how individuals supported one another and kept in touch with one another (as well as being abusive in all ways)... people could have huge fallings out and forgive, or at least move on. I did think that everyone seemed to have an implausible number of close friends. There is also the thought-provoking view advanced that the transgression was the point - Denis is reported not at all happy at the change in the law... although the couple were, much later, one of the first to make a civil partnership, in their late old age. Perhaps what he suffered (and he insisted he was on that occasion innocent) felt to have less meaning?
The book did get baggy at points - lists of names, back and forth to France, sums of money gambled and loaned. It is a book about a group of people who were in my eyes profoundly unhappy, but I am happy to have read it.
The reason I read this book is because 'Dicky and Denis' were the landlords of a good friend of mine in the early 90s when she was living in a curious little house (where I went to stay)... with a Francis Bacon painted directly on the wall... because it had been Francis Bacon's house and sometime studio before he sold it to them. (This is not the Storehouse with the visitors' book, where Dicky and Denis themselves lived when they weren't swanning around elsewhere)
I hadn't realised that Dicky and Denis were artists and creatives in their own right rather than just 'of that world''friends of' It was a pity that more of Richard Chopping's work doesn't appear in the photos but I was very glad to have seen Denis Wirth-Miller's.
It's an intensely personal story, a very unromantic but nontheless touching love story and also a depiction of another world, before homosexuality was decriminalised. There is a phenomenal volume of alcohol consumed in these pages (making the level of actual sexual activity quite remarkable), far fewer other drugs. And good Lord, the sex, so, so much sex (some of it eg Dicky's bizarre cornflour concoction made for Bacon to address the deemed dysfunctions of his lover hilarious, repellant and tragic... and then there's the box of 200+ uniform buttons taken as trophies of sexual encounters... and oh I've just remembered Dicky's pages and pages of documented trysts.
These were not particularly privileged men and Denis in particular had burdens to carry from the start (further compounded by his experience of imprisonment) They cobbled together the connection between body and soul. I particularly enjoyed hearing about Dicky as an art teacher, he sounds to have been rather splendid and quietly very significant. Amidst the chaos of their lives, and that of their circle it was remarkable to see mention of retirement and careful financial investments (and the impact of a stock market crash). I also hadn't imagined books of flower paintings and Ian Fleming James Bond covers.
It's not a world that holds any attraction at all for me but we see how individuals supported one another and kept in touch with one another (as well as being abusive in all ways)... people could have huge fallings out and forgive, or at least move on. I did think that everyone seemed to have an implausible number of close friends. There is also the thought-provoking view advanced that the transgression was the point - Denis is reported not at all happy at the change in the law... although the couple were, much later, one of the first to make a civil partnership, in their late old age. Perhaps what he suffered (and he insisted he was on that occasion innocent) felt to have less meaning?
The book did get baggy at points - lists of names, back and forth to France, sums of money gambled and loaned. It is a book about a group of people who were in my eyes profoundly unhappy, but I am happy to have read it.
May 29, 2023
Francis Bacon is a Titan of 20th century art, so much so that his paintings overshadowed any context of the man himself. The power of a Bacon triptych can obliterate its creation. It just is. It is almost impossible to imagine the chaos that surrounded the art and its maker, but this book does a great job of exposing the structures of friends, enemies, lovers, critics and patrons who exist in the background in order for the artist, or more importantly the art itself, to exist without distraction. The book also acts as a queer history of England from WWII to the 21st century, from the dangerous stealth liaisons to marriage equality. Foremost it gives Dicky and Denis a moment for their own complex, 70 year long relationship to be celebrated and wondered at, a work of art itself.
February 1, 2023
It must have been difficult to organise the amount of detailed material that was available to him, but he has doe this elegantly and coherently,. It must have been difficult to balance empathy and distance when writing about people he knew, but he has done this with integrity. The writing is good.
It would have been lovely to have better quality illustrations.
Perhaps a little detail could have been left out to make it a bit shorter.
The emotional quality is good, strong but not sentimentalised.
The context is dealt with well because he knows a lot.
It would have been lovely to have better quality illustrations.
Perhaps a little detail could have been left out to make it a bit shorter.
The emotional quality is good, strong but not sentimentalised.
The context is dealt with well because he knows a lot.
May 8, 2023
This book will take you through the lives of Dicky Chopping and Denis Wirth-Miller, whilst at the same time taking you through the wider political and historical perspectives of the time. As a young Queer person from Colchester, this book was a very insightful read for me.
May 24, 2021
An absolutely fascinating insight into the extraordinary lives of Wirth-Miller, Chopping and Bacon. A well written book documenting such interesting lives.
August 17, 2016
Chopping and Wirth-Miller's co-biography evokes another artistic world - of alcoholic excess and transgression. It was a time when transgression really was transgression, and homosexual sex was illegal. And the penalty high. There is little that is not fascinating about this couple's life together, from the year that they spent at Benton End as the pupils of Cecil Morris and Lett Haines to Dicky's and Dennis' respective friendships with Frances Partridge and Francis Bacon.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews