London's First Graffiti Book

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I haven't been sleeping on this one, honest! Just maybe been a touch bitter I didn't get down to the launch at Village Underground, which was pretty much a who's who of London's finest writers. I heard they had to divert buses from going around that way - whenever a bus stopped at the lights about 300 twitchy fingered spray-can operatives descended to give the paintwork a thoughtful touch-up.

Due to the recent and rather lucrative explosion of street art / graffiti / vandalism, or whatever you like to call it, into mainstream culture, there's probably several thousand people literally kicking themselves to sleep at night cos they didn't make this book.

Out of that multitude, there's probably only about 1% that could've done it right and done it well. Despite some of the debatable inclusions and omissions the book may or may not have made, this is undoubtedly an exclusive and special publication.

Giving an exceptional insight into this ever-increasing sub-culture, Crack & Shine offers up some stories from one of the most elusive, secretive and creative individuals ever to lurk in London's lanes and shadows. This is the ONLY London graffiti book ever published, with over 50 amazing pictures by Will Robson-Scott, and thus sets the benchmark for the rest to follow.

I'll leave you with the sentiments of Elk:

"When compared to the visual internet presence of current urban artists one realises how times have changed. It really blows my mind how many incredible pieces of art have been painted on tubes that were not photographed and are lost forever. It's mad to look back on so many years of our lives that no one knows about."

www.crackandshine.com