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.

Siegfried Sassoon's life has been recorded and interpreted in literature and film for over half a century. But this poet, First World War hero, friend to Robert Graves and mentor to Wilfred Owen, was more than the embodiment of a romantic ideal.

Passionately involved with the aristocratic aesthete Stephen Tennant, married abruptly to the beautiful Hester Gatty, estranged, isolated, and a late Catholic convert, his private story has never before been told in such depth. Egremont discovers a man born in a vanished age, unhappy with his homosexuality and the modernist revolution that appeared to threaten the survival of his work, and engaged in an enduring personal battle between idealism and the world in which he moved.

Shortlisted for the 2005 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Autobiography

The authorized biography of a literary legend, written with unique access to all of Sassoon's previously unseen papers.'Unmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoon' D. J. Taylor, Independent

About the Author
Max Egremont was born in 1948 and studied Modern History at Oxford University. As well as four novels, he is the author of two biographical studies, The Cousins, which won the Yorkshire Post First Book Award, and Balfour: A Life of James Arthur Balfour. Max Egremont lives in West Sussex with his wife and four children.

Reviews
'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
'Egremont's work outclasses his predecessors . . . this is an outstanding and original biography' Max Hastings, Daily Telegraph
'Unmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoon' D J Taylor, Independent
'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



Book Information
ISBN 9781447243281
Author Max Egremont
Format Paperback
Page Count 656
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 475g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 131mm * 40mm