Forever England: Life of Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke became for many the embodiment of a generation that was all but wiped out between 1914 and 1918. He became a legend largely due to one of his sonnets: "If I should die, think only this of me / That there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England". The poem, and all that it represented, became the focal point of a nation's grief for its lost youth. Brooke died in 1915 on board ship in the Aegean Sea on his way to fight at Gallipoli. Winston Churchill wrote his obituary. In this book, Mike Read writes about Brooke's days from his life at Rugby, through his time at King's College, Cambridge, to The Orchard, The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, America, Canada, the South Seas and the Great War. His poems emerge dramatically from a tangled love life, a nervous breakdown, an eminent circle of friends, Fabian politics and a South Seas love affair that produced a previously unrecorded daughter. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…