Simon Heffer

Settling Scores

Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century

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Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 666pp £30 order from our bookshop

Benjamin Britten’s centenary this year would not be complete without a new biography that its publishers are selling as the definitive life of the greatest British composer of the 20th century. Sadly, any reader who swallows either contention may be disappointed.

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