Jonathan Keates is a prizewinning biographer and novelist, well known as a reviewer and as a writer on Italian culture and history. He teaches at the City of London School and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Readers cannot go wrong if they choose Keates's account, which is always thoughtful and well-informed, and simmers with an unashamed passion for the music itself Sunday Telegraph An 18th-century mix of pleasure and instruction... As well as having magisterial critical judgements, this is a book rich in dry humour and telling anecdote Spectator The music is the thing and Keates gives it full volume The Times Keates appraises his works with passionate scrutiny, capturing superbly the increasing solitude of Handel's English years Sunday Times This expanded edition of a book Keates published 23 years ago takes in a wealth of new knowledge, and combines biographical and musicological analysis in a way that will appeal both to the general reader and the aficionado... With its astute commentaries on the operas, this book makes a brilliantly lucid guide to Handel's evolving art Independent