Richardson is not afraid to correct errors and sheer wrong-headedness in the writings of others – he appears to have read everything ever written about Picasso – and does it with deftness, brevity and wit. His charm was almost palpable and was certainly mesmeric. On page after page there are examples of Picasso's intransigence, born largely out of his huge intelligence, which gave him not only a creative edge but also an extraordinary worldly and political wisdom which enabled him to run rings rounds his dealers, his publishers and the hangers-on who wanted, unsurprisingly, a piece of him. His Picasso is a sun-worshipper, happiest when on one of the Mediterranean beaches he frequents and includes in his paintings. Conversely he reveals Picasso's deeply superstitious nature, his religiosity, his generosity towards those in trouble and his fear of both illness and death. He makes clear that the priapic, even sometimes satyr-like Picasso was deeply sadistic both towards his women and towards the homosexual men who were hopelessly in love with him, such as Max Jacob and Cocteau. He deals frankly with the downs and ups of his relationships with his rivals, notably Braque, Matisse and Brancusi. While Richardson clearly worships Picasso he is no hagiographer. The book ends with Picasso's first major retrospective exhibitions, when he was already 50, in Paris and then Zurich in 1932. Olga was probably the first beautiful woman to resist his advances and resolutely continued that way until assured of becoming the first Madame Picasso. Volume III begins with Picasso and Jean Cocteau going to Rome in 1917 to work on Diaghilev's ballet Parade and Picasso meeting one of the principal dancers of the Ballets Russes, Olga Khokhlova.

Happily his principal collaborator Marilyn McCully is still young and will doubtless conclude the task. If I were a betting man I'd reckon on a volume five being likely.

The author is already 83 and, while one wishes him a long life, it's difficult to know when volume four will appear and even whether it will be the last. Richardson's first volume appeared in 1990, the second in 1997 and this, the third of a projected four has taken a further 10 years. Richardson, like the others, is English and bears out the view that Britons outstrip Europeans in general and the French in particular when it comes to tackling the life and works of the school of genius. John Richardson's monumental life of Picasso dwarfs in length – and, possibly, time spent in composing it – such biographical classics as George Painter's Proust, David Cairns's Berlioz and Hilary Spurling's Matisse.

A Life of Picasso by John Richardson