A woman kneels on a bed wearing a saddle. An elegant nude leans on a cane, her neck in a surgical collar, one leg in a thigh-high cast. These are the sort of disturbing yet sexy images that made photographer Helmut Newton famous. The sultan of glossy erotica now tells his genuinely amazing and entertaining life story, decoding, along the way, the iconography of his stylishly risque oeuvre. The spoiled son of wealthy Berlin Jews, he was equally passionate about girls and photography, and lucky to escape Nazi Germany at age 18. He found refuge in Singapore, where he lived well as a gigolo, then was shipped to Australia, where he was drafted by the army and got married. Given his unabashed chronicling of carefree sexual exploits, his happy marriage and his wife's essential role in his work come as a pleasant surprise. Blunt about his sexuality, self-centeredness, and driving ambition, and generous in his chronicling of his radical approach to fashion photography, Newton is a beguiling and provocative autobiographer clearly grateful for his fabulous good fortune.