A Stranger in Bloomsbury - The Autobiography of Mattei Radev

'Utterly absorbing' Penelope Lively, author of Moon Tiger 'Profoundly moving' Susan Owens, author of The Story of Drawing 'Astonishing' Francesca Wade, author of Square Haunting E.M. Forster. Duncan Grant. Vanessa Bell. Their names are synonymous with 'Bloomsbury', the elite set at the heart of twentieth-century British cultural life. Mattei Radev was an outsider: a refugee and a stowaway who escaped communist Bulgaria. Beginning life in London as a hospital orderly, a chance commission as a picture framer drew him into this charmed world and unlocked a glittering bohemia of art, literature and romance. From west of Plovdiv to just north of Piccadilly, this is the true story of his extraordinary journey and a fascinating portrait of the painters, writers, collectors and lovers he met along the way.