Author, Author – David Lodge

I have a long-standing love of David Lodge’s work, so it was a treat to get my hands on his latest. It is a fictional biography of Henry James, famously published at the same time as Colm Toibin's The Master and rather lost in the avalanche of praise for the other book. This is particularly piquant given that one of the major themes here is literary rivalry.

The depiction of the private life of a great author riven by self-doubt and popular indifference is extremely convincing, informed as it is by Lodge’s own experience. There are also intriguing differences between this and The Master, particularly in the depiction of James’ sexuality.