Alan Judd

From Iris to Sofia

A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson

By

Bloomsbury 419pp £18.99 order from our bookshop

Spin-off biographies are dangerously tempting. Researching a major subject always reveals rabbit holes down which the biographer could happily disappear, never to rejoin the main burrow. Often it’s a mistake to go back to the warren at all. But if the author is as accomplished as Peter Conradi, acclaimed biographer of Iris Murdoch, then it’s a journey worth taking.

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