A totally fresh look at the life and career of Van Gogh. The Desperately Seeking treatment is a great way to get a quick sense of the shape of Vincent's extraordinary life, and dispels many of the myths. By any measure he was a bit random. Educated privately by his very respectable parents, he spent time training to be an art dealer, became a teacher in Ramsgate and London when that failed, turned crazily to religion, went and lived as a quasi-preacher in the most depressed part of Belgium, enjoyed a spell at art school in Paris (when his prostitute habit was financed by his long-suffering brother) headed to the south of France – the period of the yellow house and the ear – before spending his final years, when his paintings did begin to be celebrated, in bucolic bliss just north of Paris. He was also probably killed accidentally as a result of a teenager's prank with a revolver – not the suicide which so many specialists have suggested, such is the sentimental view of him. Wonderful Van Gogh art and photos throughout and fascinating maps.