Andrew Motion

The short, unhappy life of Ivor Gurney — wounded, gassed and driven insane

Kate Kennedy finally does justice to the neglected poet, whose musician’s ear for the sounds of the war captures the reality of trench life like no other

Ivor Gurney in uniform. He crowded his work with everyday details of trench life, giving it a documentary realism that is unique in poetry of the first world war [Bridgeman images]
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  • Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney

    Kate Kennedy

    Princeton University Press, pp. 488, £30

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