This is a really excellent book. It covers not only the known facts of Keats life, but puts those facts into context by describing the politics and nature of the time. It also does what I love in a biography about a poet or writer, it follows and explores Keats developing creativity. By the end I felt like one of Keats friends and will miss reading about him very much. Fortunately I still have his letters to read and of course his poems are eternal.

I loved the section about the walking tour of Scotland very much… that was probably my favourite part. Before Keats became so very unwell.

No spoilers, but I think his life is known enough to say that the end is very traumatic and heartbreaking.

Although this is non fiction it almost reads like a novel. What I mean is, Keats life and times are incredible and the book is written so well you can’t really put it down. I felt I could trust Motion to stick to facts that are known and not to sneak in supposition… it treats the reader to honesty and an incredibly well researched insight.

If I had to say anything against it.. it would be that sometimes it says ‘he’ and I didn’t know or couldn’t work out which ‘he’ was meant.