Siegfried Sassoon by Max Egremont
The life of Siegfried Sassoon has been recorded and interpreted in literature and film for over half a century. He is one of the great figures of the First World War, and "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man" and "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" are still widely read, as are his poems, which did much to shape our present ideas about the Great War. Sassoon was a genuine hero, a brave young officer who also became the war's most famous opponent, risking imprisonment and even a death sentence by throwing his Military Cross into the Mersey. He was friend to Robert Graves, mentor to Wilfred Owen and much admired by Churchill. But Sassoon was more than the embodiment of a romantic ideal; he was in many senses the perfect product of a vanished age. And many questions about his character, unique experience and motivations have remained unanswered until now.
‘Egremont’s work outclasses its predecessors. . This is an outstanding and original biography’ Max Hastings, Daily Telegraph
‘Sassoon is the ultimate ambiguous man, and Egremont does him full justice . . . he has honoured him with a biography of subtle affection and truth’ Sebastian Barry, Financial Times
‘Unmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoon’ D. J. Taylor, Independent
‘Comprehensive and perceptive . . . Egremont has produced a thorough, sympathetic, balanced, engrossing account’ Alan Judd, Spectator
‘Egremont is the first biographer to gain unimpeded access to the poet’s previously unseen papers . . . Like a great arc-light, this biography illuminates a room previously lit by torches’ John Stuart Roberts, Sunday Times
‘Sassoon is the ultimate ambiguous man, and Egremont does him full justice . . . he has honoured him with a biography of subtle affection and truth’ Sebastian Barry, Financial Times
‘Unmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoon’ D. J. Taylor, Independent
‘Comprehensive and perceptive . . . Egremont has produced a thorough, sympathetic, balanced, engrossing account’ Alan Judd, Spectator
‘Egremont is the first biographer to gain unimpeded access to the poet’s previously unseen papers . . . Like a great arc-light, this biography illuminates a room previously lit by torches’ John Stuart Roberts, Sunday Times
Max Egremont studied history at Oxford University. As well as four novels, he has written biographies of Arthur Balfour, Major-General Sir Edward Spears and Siegfried Sassoon, and Some Desperate Glory: the First World War the Poets Knew. His Forgotten Land: Journeys among the Ghosts of East Prussia (2011) has been described as ‘a work of consummate artistry’ (the Spectator), ‘a story for our time’ (the New Statesman), ‘remarkable, fascinating reading’ (the Sunday Times), ‘beautifully written’ (the Wall Street Journal), and ‘the very best form of travel writing’ (the Mail on Sunday).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780330375276 |
| ISBN 10 | 033037527X |
| Title | Siegfried Sassoon |
| Author | Max Egremont |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Year published | 2006-10-06 |
| Number of pages | 680 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |