Nigel Jones
Mad About The Boys
Siegfried Sassoon has received almost excessive biographical attention in recent years. First up was John Stuart Roberts’s pioneering life – which paid rather too much attention to the poet’s late conversion to Catholicism, at the expense of his crucial war experiences. Then came Jean Moorcroft Wilson’s exhaustive two-volume blockbuster.
Wilson’s double whammy had many merits: intelligent exegesis of the poems; honesty about Sassoon’s homosexuality; hugely detailed research. But, as with many doorstep-sized biographies, in the sheer accumulation of facts, and an almost day-by-day narration of the poet’s life, the wood was lost in the trees. Now Max Egremont arrives
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Tickets are now on sale for @Poetry_London's 100th issue launch @natpoetrylib as part of the #LondonLitFest on 23 Oct. Hear live readings from an array of brilliant poets in an event that draws on the 33-year history of the magazine.
https://southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/literature-poetry/npl-presents-poetry-londons-100th-issue?eventId=882035
You only have a week left to take advantage of our 500th-issue subscription offer.
Get 5 issues for £5 now.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/lr545/
Joanna Kavenna reviews Maggie Nelson's ‘On Freedom’, ‘a very serious and beautiful book about why “freedom” has become such a vexed term, deployed so often in scenarios where it really means the opposite’.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/in-defence-of-ambivalence