Michael Holroyd: Bernard Shaw [1997] hardback

Holroyd has done a masterly job of cutting down his huge biography to a lively and manageable one-volume life - the definitive Shaw for the general reader and the student. It has verve and pace, the light and shade of his life are emphasized, digressions cut, and Shaw comes over just as much larger than life as he always was, just as contrary, and even more sympathetically and movingly portrayed. This is a dazzling portrait of the man and his age. (With index but without source notes. ) The original four-volume biography was received with acclaim by the critics: 'IN EVERY SENSE A SPECTACULAR PIECE OF WORK. . . A FEAT OF STYLE AS MUCH RESEARCH, WHICH WILL SURELY MAKE IT A FLAMBOYANT NEW LANDMARK IN MODERN ENGLISH LIFE-WRITING. ' RICHARD HOLMES, THE TIMES 'A MASTERLY EXERCISE IN BIOGRAPHICAL MAGIC' JOHN OSBOURNE 'A CONSUMMATELY ORGANIZED MASTERPIECE. . . FULL OF POLISH AND PUNCH' ROY FORSTER 'THE PURSUIT OF BERNARD SHAW HAS GROWN, AND TURNED INTO THE PURSUIT OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. ' PETER ACKROYD.