Book excerpt: Seven Years with Banksy is an illuminating memoir of the world's most celebrated graffiti artist, offering an insight into his life and work through the experiences that he and the author Robert Clarke shared together during Banksy's formative years. Clarke takes us through his first encounters with Banksy, which took place in a hotel in New York in the 1990s, and candidly describes how his friendship with this young English artist developed. Along the way, readers will discover more about the ever-mysterious Banksy - what makes him tick, why he does what he does, and why he ultimately rejects fame in favour of anonymity, setting him apart from many other popular artists of our time. This is the perfect read for any Banksy or modern-art fan.