GAVIN BIRD was born in Kent in 1968 and studied art at Leeds University. After leaving University he exhibited widely, including in the New Contemporaries Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and the Royal Academy Summer Show. His work is in collections in both Europe and North America. He has lived in Lyme Regis since 1996. John Fowles first met Gavin through his nephew Tom, who was also at Leeds University. The forty-four portraits in Lyme Whorthies took Gavin eighteen months to complete.