OK, perhaps you’ve never heard of Byron Rogers, he was/is a journalist, getting on a bit now, old school, an inspired raconteur, incapable of writing a dull word and attracting the eccentric and strange like a magnet. I’m so confident that you’ll love this; I’ve recommended two of his backlist titles below and when you get truly hooked you’ll find more on Abebooks! (Look especially for An Audience with an Elephant: And Other Encounters on the Eccentric Side).
Byron Rogers' two previous biographies have been real critical and sales successes: 7000 hardbacks sold of The Man Who Went into the West, three printings of the paperback already, the award of the James Tait Black Prize and reviews praising a work of genius ; The Last Englishman hailed by Simon Jenkins as a minor masterpiece , serialised on Radio 4, five hardback printings alone. Now Byron tackles, in his own idiosyncratic and compulsively readable way, a third biographical subject: himself. Several years ago he started receiving letters forwarded to him by his then-employer, the Daily Telegraph Magazine. But these weren't the usual readers' letters. These were passionate, not to say, steamy, love letters. They were also from women he'd never met. But they seemed to know all about him, the illustrious journalist...Rogers' quest to find out about this other Mr Rogers - not your normal kind of imposter, but one who did you the double-edged favour of spreading far and wide your undeserved reputation for unbridled priapism - is what sets off this strange and hilarious memoir. For, having written two acclaimed biographies of singular, indeed maverick, literary figures - J.L.. Carr and R.S. Thomas - there remained only one eligible subject for the completion of the trilogy: B.D. Rogers...Byron Rogers' books for Aurum include his biography of R.S. Thomas, The Man Who Went into the West, which won the James Tait Black Prize, The Last Englishman, The Bank Manager and the Holy Grail and An Audience with an Elephant. He lives in Northamptonshire and in Wales.
Byron Rogers is the author of two highly praised biographies of singular, indeed maverick, literary figures – the novelist J.L. Carr and the poet R.S. Thomas – acclaimed respectively as a classic and a masterpiece.
