Byron in Love, By Edna O'Brien

The antidote to the fashion for doorstopper biographies that leave out nothing are compact "lives" written by well-known authors of today. Sometimes they can be just as revelatory as any 700-page authority, and as Edna O'Brien mentions in her introduction to this one, there is also something fascinating about writers writing about other writers.

This was clearly a labour of love for O'Brien, who waded through the 12 volumes of Byron's letters and journals, as well as numerous biographies of the poet and of his unfortunate wife, Annabella Milbanke, who obtained a divorce citing "unnatural practices", and exposed Byron's affair with his half-sister, Augusta.

But I think O'Brien's love for her subject sometimes prevented her from digging too deeply into his psyche. Byron, we are not surprised to learn, was "in love" with someone for virtually all of his life, and perhaps that state was the spur for his greatest poetry. But he could also be callous and cool when in love and these emotions, too, were a spur to the poetry. This may be a worthwhile addition to O'Brien's oeuvre, but not necessarily to the ever-growing library of work on the poet himself.