Conradi, P: A Very English Hero The Making of Frank Thompson

A very moving account of the all-too-brief life of a warrior-poet Antony Beevor An elegy for a lost generation, and a fascinating social and political history of a peculiar period in our recent past ... it's impossible to put down Conradi's impressive and moving account of Thompson's life without a feeling of regret. **** Simon Griffith, Mail on Sunday Inspiring ... Intensely absorbing, steeped in human interest and peppered with outlandish characters Sunday Times [An] excellent, absorbing biography ... Mr Conradi tells the true story, movingly and well ... He convincingly portrays an attractive, brilliant and courageous personality, an intellectual with a heart who loved laughter, an idealist who merits the title of this book Economist [A] magnificent and tragic biography Anne Sebba, Jewish Chronicle Impeccably researched ... A fine description of the biographer's role, and generous quotations from Frank Thompson's letter and poems recreate his bulky, restless, energetic presence. But it is Conradi's own more subtle presence that locks the reader into the narrative ... A pensive, moving and very personal book Frances Wilson, Observer Moving and gripping, told with great lucidity and sympathy ... a story of heroic times and hopes Margaret Drabble Superb Times Literary Supplement