''I have read all W. Scott''s novels at least fifty times,'' wrote Byron. ''...grand work. Scotch Fielding, as well as great English poet - wonderful man! I long to get drunk with him.''
A. N. Wilson''s subtle, entertaining and frequently provocative critical biography looks back through the indifference which has surrounded Walter Scott in recent times, and the distortions of his Victorian idolaters, to recapture the freshness of Scott as he appeared to his contemporaries.
Despite his staggering output as a novelist, poet, biographer, historian and anthologist - not to mention his copious letters, and the celebrated Journal - Scott only embarked on his literary career in early middle age. In the face of constant ill-health, and financial and domestic troubles, he successfully combined the life of a bestselling, much-loved and enormously influential author with that of a lawyer, landowner, Border farmer, part-time soldier and paterfamilias. A. N. Wilson makes clear t
