The Joker's Hand
Synopsis

Synopsis
 
The Joker’s Hand is a behind-the-scenes dramatization of one of the most notorious scandals in the history of art––the public unveiling of Thomas Patrick Keating––whom the British Museum considered ‘the most prolific and versatile art forger of the 20th Century’.
 
London, 1963. Headstrong Jane, sixteen, an idealistic, gifted artist, resuscitates self-taught genius Tom, forty-six, from a suicide attempt, then convinces him to teach her how to paint like the Old Masters. He soon convinces her that putting a few of his fakes into auction, in her name, funds payable to her bank account, is a harmless exercise in artistic protest. No one at Sotheby’s will suspect fakery from a pretty young girl submitting pictures she “found in her auntie’s attic.” Jane soon finds her entire future hijacked. Fearful of arrest, she protests, and encourages Tom to focus on his own work. He rages over the abuses of avaricious art purveyors and insists what they’re doing is harmless. “All will eventually be revealed. He’ll take full responsibility for everything. And when he does, he’ll be seen as little more than a practical joker.”
 
Now entangled in his reckless scheme, Jane convinces Tom to get away from London, and use their rare skills to set up a proper restoration studio, in a four-hundred-year-old manor house in East Anglia. Their business soon rakes in cash, and necessarily involves entertaining, and being entertained by, a host of colourful characters––museum directors, art collectors, traders, and critics; the Glyndebourne Festival Opera; composer Elisabeth Lutyens; actor Derek Fowlds (Basil Brush, Yes, Minister); actor and Member of Parliament, Andrew Faulds; and the second Dr. Who, Patrick Troughton. At some point, Keeper of the Queen’s Pictures, Sir Anthony Blunt; rock stars Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart; iconic guitarist Julian Bream––even Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip––make pivotal appearances in their story. Despite their lively success, Tom still can’t stop his compulsive crusade against the art world—flooding the market with fakes. Jane leaves him and moves to Toronto.
  
Two years later, on page one of The Times, Tom’s plot is finally exposed. Jane is extradited from Canada. They both end up in an unprecedented and internationally publicised trial at the top criminal court in Britain, for art fraud. Panicking in the witness box, Tom breaks his promise, blames everything on Jane, then collapses with a seizure and is rushed to hospital. He gets off scot-free for failing health and becomes a beloved folk hero. She becomes a convicted felon.
 
Why this book
 
Tom Keating is the most eccentric, most fascinating, and most highly revered of all the great fakers––by artists for his astonishing technical prowess, and the public for his roguish, Robin Hood charm. Art forgery remains an intriguing subject regularly featured in news stories. A new book on the subject has been published every few years for decades––but none written by a man who knew the world’s greatest imitator––as a teacher, friend, and member of his family for over fifteen years. Michael Kelly, Jane’s brother, has lived with the knowledge that the whole adventure has been consistently distorted. Jane was portrayed either as a mesmerised, puppet of Master Keating... Or as a self-serving criminal mastermind who swindled Father Christmas. Tom effectively cheated as many earnest art collectors as the devious gallery owners he attempted to avenge.
 
Conceived on the hopes and dreams of youth­­­­­­­­­, their true story––teeming with temptation, masterful artistry, and greed––is by turns much more intriguing, hilarious, captivating, and sad. A passionate love story, and inspired quest, devolves into a public spectacle, with a climactic courtroom betrayal, and a bewildered art trade brought to its knees.
 
Anticipated audiences
 
From the summer of ’76, to the winter of ’84, nearly everyone in Britain (apart from art merchants) was delighted by steady news reports of the bearded, cockney, former housepainter––turned self-taught technical genius––who openly admitted faking over 2000 paintings by over a hundred of the world’s most revered master artists. And none of it for material gain, but rather as an obsessive vendetta against corrupt, predatory art dealers he believed victimised both artists and the buying public. Their trial at the Old Bailey in January and February 1979, was a leading news story in all the top London dailies, and often syndicated by AP and Reuters, for six straight weeks. Millions watched the award-winning series Tom Keating On Painters in the early 1980s. Hundreds of thousands continue to view these rare tutorials in his ‘Secret Techniques of the Old Masters’ on YouTube. Nearly everyone born in the last century has some colourful remembrance or enduring enchantment with the heady tumult of the 1960s and ‘70s. Not entirely unlike Downton Abbey, and The Crown, The Joker’s Hand will offer an exclusive, vivid peek into another slice of unique British cultural history, and hopefully surprise and delight many fans of high-tension courtroom drama, love, laughter, loyalty, and betrayal.
 
Where it might sit on bookstore shelves: Narrative non-fiction.