Charles Rennie Mackintosh is established in the Scottish iconography as an architect of originality, a designer of genius and a painter of exceptional quality. He is, however, an enigma as a man.
For the last thirty years John Cairney has been on a personal quest to find the complex man behind the facade that was Charles Rennie Mackintosh, architect and artist. Though recognised even in his own day as a genius, he was by no means a saint of high morals and mystic vision. He was a flesh and blood charmer, who attracted women as much as he irritated men. He was all artist, but also all man, with the advantages and disadvantage of both.
This book explores many hitherto unexamined aspects of Toshie's life, delving into the significance of Mackintosh's relationship with his mother, the importance of his first girlfriend, and how much his wife, Margaret Macdonald, contributed to his life. This is the life of an extraordinary talent, a great love story with personal complications, professional conflicts, triumphs and disasters, and an engulfing tragic ending.