Absolutely brilliant biography & I cannot recommend it enough. It is captivating from the start to the end. Bate demonstrates why Clare should have more recognition and he leaves the reader completely shocked that a lot of Clare's work was not published until over a hundred years after his death. Bate has excellently recorded Clare's life by critically analysing not only Frederick's biography on the poet but also remaining correspondence between Clare and his publishers/ friends. I will definitely be reading Bate's other books.