Tennyson's Gift

Description

From the bestselling author of 'Eats Shoots & Leaves', an unexpectedly moving, luminously wise and brilliantly funny novel about a Victorian Poet Laureate. In July 1864, a corner of the Isle of Wight is buzzing with literary and artistic creativity. A morose Tennyson is reciting 'Maud' to empty sofas; the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron is white-washing the roses for visual effect and the mismatched couple, actress Ellen Terry and painter G. F. Watts, are thrown into the company of the remarkable Lorenzo Fowler, the American phrenologist, and his daughter Jessie. Enter mathematician Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), known to Jessie as the 'fiendish pedagogue', and Lynne Truss's wonderfully imaginative cocktail of Victorian seriousness and riotous farce begins to take flight.

Lynne Truss began her writing life as a literary journalist, editing the books section of The Listener magazine between 1986 and 1990. Since then she has kept a high profile as a journalist, writing for The Times as a critic, columnist and sportswriter (shortlisted for Sportswriter of the Year 1997); for Woman's Journal (Columnist of the Year, 1996); and more recently as a critic for the Daily Mail and The Sunday Times, where she is a regular book reviewer. She has published six books, including three novels, With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed, Tennyson's Gift and Going Loco. Her book on punctuation, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, was the publishing phenomenon of 2003. She has also written many scripts for BBC Radio 4, including dramas, sitcoms and talks. She appears regularly on the network presenting features and taking part in discussions.

'A comic novel of subtle distinction... A richly entertaining book, and at times a very moving one' The Times 'An enormously entertaining novel, with some terrific writing throughout... a fast-moving farce which allows her sideswipes at the foibles of the famous. It is a delicious confection with some marvellous one-liners' Sunday Telegraph '[A] wonderfully inventive jeu d'esprit... This epic of the Isle of Wight's literary apogee is virtually the perfect summer book. No deck-chair will be complete without it' Independent 'An enormously entertaining novel, with terrific writing throughout.' Sunday Telegraph 'A rollicking read. It is mischievous, light-hearted and fun' Literary Review 'Terrific... 'Tennyson's Gift' is witty, surprising, oddly compassionate and hugely assured.' Sunday Times