The poetry of A.E. Housman is being rediscovered. His volume A Shropshire Lad led him to be considered the finest poet in England. Housman's work, popular, accessible, pessimistic, fell from favour in the post-war period but as his times are reassessed there is a growing interest in his authentic voice.

In this new critical biography, Keith Jebb sets aside the conflicting biographical sketches of Housman and the assumptions of past critics to place his subject in English social history and his work in literary history.

New attitudes to Housman's personality while offering a new guide to the writing, including the neglected 'nonsense poems'.

Keith Jebb was born in Shropshire, but lives now near Oxford, where he is a freelance writer and lecturer. This study represents a remarkable publishing debut.