He was 'THE WICKEDEST MAN ALIVE'.
He went to Oxford University at the age of 12
He slept with his first prostitute at 13
He was an alcoholic by 14
He was imprisoned in the Tower at 18
He was acclaimed a war hero at 19
He died of syphilis at the age of 33
He was English history's first celebrity.
He was John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester: Poet, dandy and libertine.
BLAZING STAR is a compelling portrait of a remarkable and complex man, and of a cultural golden age that often spilled over into depravity.
Head of Zeus * Biography
03 Jul 2014 * 408pp * £6.99 * 9781781852644
REVIEWS
'Insightful and illuminating ... engagingly partisan and elegantly informative'
The Times
'An informative and enlightening biography'
The Sunday Times
'This racy tale is told in scholarly but lively detail by Alex Larman in a beautifully written first book'
Daily Express
'The most comprehensive portrait of Rochester yet'
Daily Mail
'Very good, assiduously researched and well written'
Scotland on Sunday
'Challenges the accepted wisdom that has prevailed for centuries that Wilmot was a dastardly blighter in his conduct and a pornographer in his poetry, painting instead a portrait of one of English literature's brightest lights who died, as bright lights do, far too young'
Good Book Guide
Author
ALEXANDER LARMAN is a historian and journalist. He is the author of Blazing Star (2014), the life of Lord Rochester, and writes for the Observer, the Telegraph and the Guardian, as well as the New Statesman and the Times Literary Supplement.
ALSO BY Alexander Larman
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