Genuine Fake: A Biography of Alan Watts

Among the leaders of the 1960s ‘San Francisco Renaissance’, none was more charismatic than Alan Watts. His books became the bibles of the hippy movement, and his teachings, including Eastern religion, introduced thousands to new ways of seeing themselves. From interviews with his contemporaries, friends and relatives, and from a study of his writings, Monica Furlong has drawn a fascinating portrait of the man who was, in his own words, ‘a philosophical entertainer, a genuine fake, an irreducible rascal’.