RaveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)The best biographers appreciate trivia, too. They write books that don’t just provide us with dull, chronological exposés of dates, places and names, but which also include those seemingly irrelevant details that reveal the absolute essence of their subject, and which most of us, if we’re honest, find compulsively fascinating. Frances Wilson is one such biographer ... Burning Man, her new biography of D. H. Lawrence, stands out from all those that have preceded it ... This is a very feminine, intuitive biography of Lawrence—and therein lies its own genius ... Wilson doesn’t care whom she offends, or what she says, or when she says it. She is the slightly tipsy, indiscreet, female presence at the overwhelmingly male Lawrence wake, who says what she really thinks, doesn’t care who’s listening, satiates our curiosity with reliable gossip, and in so doing tells us more about the writer than we ever thought possible. At the same time, she is steeped in all things Lawrentian; so steeped, indeed, that the book reads as though she just sat down one day, started typing, and only stopped when she had told us everything she wanted to say. There isn’t a moment’s hesitation anywhere; only the best biographers can get away with that seemingly effortless light touch, while producing a work that will stand the test of time.
