The Red Sweet Wine Of Youth

The poetry that emerged from the trenches of WWI is a remarkable body of work, at once political manifesto and literary beacon for the twentieth century. In this passionate recreation of the lives of the greatest poets to come out of the conflict, Nicholas Murray brilliantly reveals the men themselves as well as the struggle of the artist to live fully and to bear witness in the annihilating squalor of battle.

Bringing into sharp focus the human detail of each life, using journals, letters and literary archives, Murray brings to life the men's indissoluble comradeship, their complex sexual mores and their extraordinary courage. Poignant, vivid and unfailingly intelligent, Nicholas Murray's study offers new and finely tuned insight into the - often devastatingly brief - lives of a remarkable generation of men.

“With lightly worn learning and considerable erudition, The Red Sweet Wine of Youth recuperates lesser-known writers such as Julian Grenfell and TE Hulme, and situates them alongside Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon . . . A fine account of the poetic sensibility of the period-- Thomas Marks , Daily Telegraph”

Murray is the best kind of literary biographer . . . A rich and compelling patchwork of responses to the conflict - Financial Times - David Evans

With lightly worn learning and considerable erudition, The Red Sweet Wine of Youth recuperates lesser-known writers such as Julian Grenfell and TE Hulme, and situates them alongside Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon . . . A fine account of the poetic sensibility of the period - Daily Telegraph - Thomas Marks

Nicholas Murray is the acclaimed biographer of Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold (Hodder), Andrew Marvell, Aldous Huxley and Kafka and, most recently, a book about Victorian travel, A Corkscrew is Most Useful.

From the romantic longing of Rupert Brooke to the East End pragmatism of Isaac Rosenberg, the poetry that emerged from the trenches of WWI is a remarkable body of work, at once political manifesto and literary beacon. In a challenge to the widely held assumption that the poets of the First World War were universally 'anti-war', The Red Sweet Wine of Youth argues that it was the heroic rhetoric of traditional war poetry rather than war itself that angered poets such as Sassoon and Owen, men of great personal courage. Touching, vivid and unfailingly intelligent, The Red Sweet Wine of Youth brilliantly reveals the struggle of the artist to live fully and to bear witness in the annihilating squalor of battle. 'With lightly worn learning and considerable erudition, The Red Sweet Wine of Youth recuperates lesser-known writers such as Julian Grenfell and TE Hulme, and situates them alongside Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon . . . A fine account of the poetic sensibility of the period' Thomas Marks, Daily Telegraph 'A rich and compelling patchwork of responses to the conflict' David Evans, Financial Times eBook logo 9780349121437

The poetry that emerged from the trenches of WWI is a remarkable body of work, at once political manifesto and literary beacon for the twentieth century. In this passionate recreation of the lives of the greatest poets to come out of the conflict, Nicholas Murray brilliantly reveals the men themselves as well as the struggle of the artist to live fully and to bear witness in the annihilating squalor of battle.Bringing into sharp focus the human detail of each life, using journals, letters and literary archives, Murray brings to life the men's indissoluble comradeship, their complex sexual mores and their extraordinary courage. Poignant, vivid and unfailingly intelligent, Nicholas Murray's study offers new and finely tuned insight into the - often devastatingly brief - lives of a remarkable generation of men.

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