Painter, novelist and teacher, born in London. He studied at Kingston School of Art, 1948–9, then Royal College of Art, 1951–4. Married the painter Jean Cooke, 1953, marriage dissolved in 1977. Through the 1950s Bratby regularly showed at Beaux Arts Gallery in solo exhibitions, the first being in 1954. He won Abbey Minor, Italian Government and Royal College of Art Minor Travelling Scholarships in 1954, the year following receiving a prize in the Daily Express Young Artists Competition. Bratby taught at Carlisle College of Art, 1956, then at Royal College of Art, 1957–8. He represented Britain at Venice Biennale in 1956 and gained the Guggenheim Award, and in 1958. In that year he was commissioned to paint the pictures for the film of Joyce Cary’s novel The Horse’s Mouth.