"McFadyen describes himself as a realist, and his intense paintings describe the urban backdrop. Human figures used to be central to these works, but having made pictures about London, New York, Berlin and Belfast, the locations have in many ways become the subject. In these monumental paintings, the central characters of his early work are replaced by commercial buildings, walkways, vomitories and the natural landscape." Although never part of any group or movement, McFadyen sees his main precedent as the line of British realism that includes Sickert, L.S. Lowry, the so-called School of London, and younger contemporaries such as Richard Billingham. He is close to the debate about painting and its relationship to contemporary art practice. He is also interested in those who have parallel concerns in other media. This book places the artist not simply within the recent history of British art, but also within the wider context of realism in film, the contemporary novel and music - from Hogarth to Punk and beyond.