Strip back the layers of varnish and discover the man behind the masterpieces, the personality that drove one of the greatest minds in history.

Donovan, as he did with Mozart: The Man Behind the Music and Much Ado About Shakespeare, sets out to discover the person behind the myth.

Using Leonardo's own massive supply of notebooks as well as myriad other writings from the time, Donovan shows why, as well as what, Leonardo created in so many areas of life. Like no other biography, this book full of Bixley's original drawings shows the real Leonardo.

The author says "I really hope that my book presents to the world a vision of the Leonardo I've come to know through my years of research: the curious child, the arrogant teenage upstart, the fantastical daydreamer, a hilarious sharp-witted entertainer, a procrastinating painter, and a bloody-minded scientist who was defiant of authority and the status quo. He was a colourful character with a fiercely independent personality and one of the greatest gay icons who ever lived."