The Romantic by William Boyd (Penguin, 2023)
Fiction
The Romantic by William Boyd, which comes out in paperback this month (ISBN: 9780241994078). This is the wonderous fictional life story of Cashel Greville Ross, starting with his childhood in Ireland, school days in Oxford and soldiering at Waterloo. We see him travelling through Europe, getting caught up in the world of the Romantic Poets and losing his heart. We follow him into debtors’ prison in London, out to the New World, where he farms ice, and traipsing through Africa to Lake Victoria. We’re by his side when he’s embroiled in an elaborate scheme to smuggle Grecian antiquities and feel joy when his love is rekindled. A truly adventurous life.