Brief Lives: E M Forster by Richard Canning (2009)

[queen_ypolita]

If anyone's after a short, readable biography of the author behing Maurice, there are worse places to start than the newish (2009) Brief Lives: E M Forster by Richard Canning, published by Hesperus Press. It covers EMF's life in about 100 pages, touches his writings briefly at appropriate points, and provides a comprehensive-looking list of works consulted/further reading at the end.

I read the Furbank biography (published in the late 1970s) about ten years ago, and I can't say Canning added anything to what I already knew, but as it's been ten years, reading Canning served as an easy way to refresh my memories, and made me feel I'd like to re-read the short stories now (at some point in future when I've got the time, anyway).

ETA: I've seen a couple of pieces (PinkNews, Sam Leith in the Guardian) over the past few days abot how having sex eventually stopped E M Forster from writing more books, which I'm pretty sure is not news, but there seems to be another new biography out, by Wendy Moffat who apparently has had access to previously unconsulted private papers: E M Forster: A New Life (Amazon link).