Eternal Boy

[Dennison] skilfully covers the facts, producing a vivid impression of this strange, shy, awkward figure. The result is a highly readable book * Literary Review *
Heartbreaking biography * The Times *
Drawing on telling quotes from Grahame's works, Dennison's book more than meets the challenge of a walled-off man. The result is a sensitively probing and nuanced portrait that makes sense of the darker character furled in the dreamer * New Statesman *
Eternal Boy tells me much I didn't know. It is a very deftly written biography, snappy, thorough and to the point * Mail on Sunday *
A haunting new biography... Compelling' * Daily Mail *
Dennison, in this finely written book with its sometimes bejewelled vocabulary [...] has dug deep into some of the complex truths that underpin The Wind in the Willows and give it its layers of resonance -- Simon Callow, Sunday Times
Fine new biography... Dennison also writes with atmospheric detail' * Herald *
Dennison, who has been lauded for his biographies of Vita Sackville-West and Beatrix Potter, maps the life of The Wind in the Willows author * This is England *
A halcyon imagining on the part of a man trapped within a loveless marriage and desk-bound as a senior official at the Bank of England: a gorgeous template for a life he was unable to lead * The Daily Telegraph. *
Dennison's sensitive, but astute new biography transforms the facts of Grahame's life – some that are well known, others fresh – into eloquent truths about a man who refused to grow up * Country Life. *
Poor Kenneth Grahame," you'll sigh at the end of this biography of the author of The Wind in the Willows * TLS *
By keeping tightly focused on Grahame, Dennison has produced a book that is brief, brisk and very readable * Spectator *
Dennison analysed [The Wind in the Willows] as autobiography, a reworking of the Odyssey, lyric, nostalgic and aggressively conservative * Daily Telegraph *
Grahame's adoration of Nature and landscape was a personal creed that made him passionate about conservation, says his biographer Matthew Dennison * Country Life *
Matthew Dennison's excellent biography is nicely titled. His convincing perception of Grahame is that of a man who never really grew up * Tablet *
Dennison's short, gripping and consistently surprising biography of Kenneth Grahame ably explains how a stuffy bank clerk produced arguably the greatest children's book ever written, The Wind in the Willows * Observer *
The touching story of The Wind in the Willows author Kenneth Grahame * Choice, December Round Up *
Briskly paced and deftly crafted, studded with both finely turned phrases and sharply pointed judgements. As a biography, it elegantly avoids both hagiography and hatchet-job... For a century, Kenneth Grahame has had acolytes aplenty; Dennison's cool-eyed scepticism needs to be heard' * The Arts Desk *
[A] fine biography... Eternal Boy relates this unhappy story movingly and carefully' * Financial Times *
An illuminating biography * Countryman *