AND The Reader Over Your Shoulder

Robert Graves (1895-1985), poet, classical scholar, novelist, and critic, was one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. Athough he produced over 100 books he is perhaps best known for the novel I, Claudius (1934),The White Goddess (1948) and Greek Myths (1955). Graves was born in Wimbledon, South London. His father, Alfred Percival Graves, was a school inspector, and his mother, Amalie von Ranke Graves, was a great-niece of the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1866). He was educated at Charterhouse, and awarded a B.Litt by St. John's College, Oxford after his return from World war I, where he served alsongside Siegfried Sassoon. Robert Graves died in 1985 in Deja, the Majorcan village he had made his home (with the exception of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War) since 1929.

'There is eloquence, wit and a formal shapeliness in abundance from first to last.' - Michael Glover, Financial Times 10/02/01. 'While poetry schools came and went, Graves went on writing until his death in 1985, in an elegant, classically inspired style.' - Andrew Crumey, Scotland on Sunday 07/01/01. 'No one else offers his precise combination of eroticism, nightmare and epigram.' - Sean O'Brien, The Guardian 13/01/01.