Robert Graves

A Biography
By Bruce King

The poet and author Robert Graves (1895-1985), now best known for his historical novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God, thanks to the legendary BBC TV adaptation, was recognised as one of the better Edwardian and First World War poets, although for a time his work was somewhat sidelined by the modernists.

Grave’s writings and life belong to a period where the values and beliefs of the past where rejected or no longer felt sustainable: his unconventional life, bizarre domination by a series of strong-willed women and search for poetic rejuvenation through a series of muses can be seen as a rejection of “Victorian Values”, caused by his childhood experiences and his service in the First World War, where he was seriously wounded on the Somme. His autobiography “Good-Bye to All That”, published in 1929, is one of the landmark memoirs of the war in the trenches on the Western Front.

By the time of his death, Graves was internationally famous, seen as one of the 20th century’s best poets, and whose prose works were sold all over the world. The first single-volume biography over a decade will shed new light on this intriguing and unparalleled life.

Bruce King taught at universities in England, the USA, Nigeria, New Zealand, Canada, France and Israel, while spending many summers in Deià where Robert Graves lived. He has published many books on Shakespeare, 17th-century literature, Derek Walcott and post-colonial literature. He lives in Paris where he is a freelance writer and editor.