Book description
Part of the outstanding biographical series - edited by Richard Holmes
- that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography.
Every book is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and
vividly alive.
In this pioneering series, Richard Holmes, the world's leading Romantic
biographer, sets out to recover the great forgotten tradition of English
biographical writing. 'I have had no time for dusty tomes,' writes
Holmes, 'I have looked for brevity, intelligence and style. Above all, I
have sought out great biographical writers: biographers with passion,
biographers who have found a way to the heart and soul of a memorable subject.'
Jack Sheppard was an 18th-century Houdini - a handsome young escape
artist who broke out of his cell on Newgate's grim Death Row three
times. Jonathan Wild was the infamous Thief-Taker General who helped to
recapture him and many other criminals, only to be tried and executed
himself for racketeering, among scenes of mayhem at Tyburn.
Daniel Defoe, the master of adventure fiction, was fascinated by 'True
Confessions' and the workings of the criminal personality (including its
daring, its stoicism and its humour). He was the first to retell these
stories, based on personal interviews in Newgate, which also include a
thrilling (sometimes hour by hour) reconstruction of events. Richard
Holmes is Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East
Anglia, and editor of the Harper Perennial series Classic Biographies
launched in 2004. His is a Fellow of the British Academy, has honorary
doctorates from UEA and the Tavistock Institute, and was awarded an OBE
in 1992.
His first book, 'Shelley: The Pursuit', won the Somerset Maugham Prize
in 1974. 'Coleridge: Early Visions' won the 1989 Whitbread Book of the
Year, and 'Dr Johnson & Mr Savage' won the James Tait Black Prize.
'Coleridge: Darker Reflections', won the Duff Cooper Prize and the
Heinemann Award. He has published two studies of European biography,
'Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer' in 1985, and
'Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer' in 2000. His most
recent book 'The Romantic Poets and their Circle' was published by the
National Portrait Gallery in 2005. He lives in London and Norwich with
the novelist Rose Tremain.
