Philip Hensher

Native wood-notes wild

issue 11 October 2003

  • John Clare

    Jonathan Bate

    Picador, pp. 637

This is an exceptional biography, which is just as well, since I don’t think one could bear to have the heartbreaking story it tells recounted carelessly. John Clare is one of the great Romantic poets, but his history and origins have always meant that he was either treated with neglect or used by his admirers for their own ends.

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