The Poet's Tale

Strohm illuminates how 1386 marked a decisive year for Geoffrey Chaucer, one in which he went from accomplished coterie poet to the popular author of the work of genius: The Canterbury Tales. Strohm, one of the finest medievalists of our time, brings this turbulent moment in Chaucer's England to life. -- James Shapiro In this thrilling book, Paul Strohm lets us in on little-known secrets of living life in London in the fourteenth Century ... an imaginative recreation of everything you ever wanted to know about Chaucer. -- Terry Jones Simply a brilliant book, a superb combination of biography, social history and literary scholarship. It is a new model for literary biography, and I cannot recommend it highly enough -- Ian Mortimer Strohm's book reignited my love for Chaucer, and is sure to do so for readers who've read him before and who've never read him at all. -- Stuart Kelly * The Scotsman * Paul Strohm has written a brilliant book. -- John Carey * Sunday Times * The rewards are plenty. -- Toby Lichtig * Daily Telegraph * The best of Paul Strohm's constantly involving, frequently funny and sometimes moving little book is that, just now and again, it feels like you can catch his [Chaucer's] eye. -- Sam Leith * The Spectator * Paul Strohm's superb biography of a year in Chaucer's life... The Poet's Tale shows the biographer as avid scholarly detective... one of the joys of The Poet's Tale is Strohm's imaginative reconstruction of Chaucer's London/ -- Stevie Davies * The Independent * Strohm has produced what is certainly the most enlightening book about Chaucer that a general reader is likely to encounter: a wonderfully readable, unexpectedly thrilling story, illuminating the parts of Chaucer's life that seemed irrevocably dark, -- Nicola Shulman * Evening Standard * Strohm evokes Chaucer's world with scholarly rigour and in vivid detail, drawing parallels between the life and the literature. -- Orlando Bird * Financial Times * The greatest praise that can be offered is that it makes one want to revisit The Canterbury Tales. -- Alexander Larman * The Observer * This is an extremely good book. * The Economist * Wonderfully readable... The Poet's Tale eloquently speaks of Strohm's immersion in both the sensibility of Chaucer's poetry and the London archives. -- Anthony Bale * BBC History Magazine *