Isidore Isou was a young Jew in war\-time Bucharest, and barely survived the Romanian Holocaust. He made his way to Paris where in 1945 he founded the avant\-garde movement Lettrism, described as the missing link between Dada, Surrealism, Situationism and May 68. In Speaking East Andrew Hussey presents a colourful picture of the post\-war Left Bank, where Lettrist fists flew in avant\-garde punch\-ups in Jazz clubs and cafés and Isou, as sexy and as charismatic as the young Elvis, gathered around him a group of hooligan disciples who argued, drank and had sex with the Parisian intellectual élite. This is a vibrant account of the life and times of a pivotal figure in the history of the avant\-garde.