Siegfried Sassoon: Scorched Glory is the first survey of the poet's published work since his death and the first to draw on the edited diaries and letters. We learn how Sassoon's family background and Jewish inheritance, his troubled sexuality, his experience of war - in particular his public opposition to it - his relationship to the Georgian poets and other writers, and his eventual withdrawal to country life shaped his creativity. Sassoon's status as a war poet has overshadowed his wider achievements and the complex personality behind them. This critical evaluation of Sassoon's work is long overdue and will provide a valuable starting-point for future reappraisals of a writer for whom life and art were fused.

PAUL MOEYES

List of Abbreviations - List of Illustrations - Preface - PART 1: UNLEARNED ILLUSIONS - Prologue: Family Ties - Young Nimrod - An Officer and Temporary Rebel - Georgian Poet - Satirical Intent - Through the Wicket Gate - PART 2: BACKWARD STEPS - Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man - Memoirs of an Infantry Officer - Sherston's Progess - The Past Revisited: the Autobiographies - PART 3: HOMECOMING - God's Treasure - Epilogue: A Stranger on Earth - Notes - Index