Famed as the most beautiful undergraduate in Oxford, Lord Alfred Douglas, or Bosie as he was always known, remains one of the most notorious figures in literary history. This fascinating and passionate biography explores the mass of contradictions that made up his life.
A genius yet a failure through his tormented youth, Bosie's deep and enduring friendship with Oscar Wilde continued throughout the trials and subsequent imprisonment of Wilde and on until his death in 1900. Soon after, Bosie surprisingly eloped and started a family, finding brief tranquillity in this and his poetry; he was associated with the Bloomsbury group, George Bernard Shaw and Marie Stopes.
His growing interest in religion and his spiralling debts cut short his happiness and soon battles with the remainder of the Wilde circle, his father-in-law and indeed his libelling of Winston Churchill led to his own imprisonment, followed by a semi-reclusive state until his death in 1945.
Douglas Murray has succeeded where Bosie himself failed in securing the release of a Home Office file which was to be sealed until 2043. It holds the key to Bosie's state of mind while in prison and the most remarkable original workings of some of his best poetry. With new material and fresh insight, Bosie is here seen as a significant poet whose tragedy extended far beyond his lover's death a century ago, into a world which could never forgive or forget him.
