Australian painter Janet Venn-Brown has led an extraordinary life. Moving to Rome in the early 1960s, she joined a circle of intellectuals and artists, began exhibiting her work – and fell in love with Palestinian activist Wael Zuaiter. When Zuaiter was murdered by Mossad in 1972, it changed Venn-Brown's life, bringing Palestinian activism to the forefront of her next four decades.

Now in her nineties, and still painting, Venn-Brown has exhibited her work widely, but her paintings have never been collected so comprehensively as they are in Peter Manning's richly illustrated book. Celebrating her life and work – her 40 years in Rome, her evolution as an artist, her political engagement and travels in the Middle East, and her recent return to Australia – this book is an important biography of an intrepid and passionate artist.