The richly revised second edition of Gill's biography (the first appeared in 1990), refuses the usual trajectory and instead celebrates 'a multifaceted, highly creative life of eighty years'.

Thomas Keymer, London Review of Books

A magnificent second edition, which displays the same qualities of quiet authority, tact and resistance to speculation, and thus merits consideration as a work in its own right.

Pamela Clemit, Times Literary Supplement

Reading Gill's work is a reminder of the pleasures and advantages of whole life biography.

Kathryn Hughes, New York Review of Books

Gill gives us the Wordsworth who bore life's tribulations as a philosopher, the Wordsworth renowned as a poet, but also the deeply human portrait of Wordsworth the man.

Chris Townsend, The Wordsworth Trust

Gill is the leading authority on the poet and writes in great detail about his life and work; an essential book for all students.

Robert Tanitch, The Mature Times

An essential companion to students of Wordsworth with much to offer the general reader.

Will Smith, Cumbria Life

This biography not only presents Wordsworth in the round, but also grants us a peep into his very soul.

Steve Craggs, Northern Echo

Stephen Gill's masterly and immensely readable "William Wordsworth: A Life".

Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Review from previous edition The most scholarly and up-to-date book on Wordsworth... His judgement and interests are eminently sensible and show a full picture of Wordsworth.

Nikolai Tolstoy, Daily Mail

Impressive new Clarendon biography ...William Wordsworth: A Life is every inch the new definitive work. Gill has taken full account of Wordsworth studies in the past 30 years, blended the new materials with the old, and come out with a book that is scholarly, readable, likely to last.

Jonathan Wordsworth, Sunday Times

excellent biography of Wordsworth ... Gill is master of the very extensive primary and secondary sources, and a particular expert on the manuscripts, which the poet subjected to constant revision.

William Scammell, The Listener

not least among the virtues of this excellent biography is the way in which Stephen Gill balances the inner against the external man ... This is the kind of biography which any writer would be delighted to inspire, let alone deserve ... it is a measure of the significance of this biography that its seriousness matches that of Wordsworth itself.

Peter Ackroyd, The Times

all stolid good sense

Blake Morrison, The Bookseller

thorough, scholarly biography

Anthony Powell, Weekend Telegraph

Stephen Gill's new biography ... is enormously well-informed and avoids extravagant speculation, ... It provides an entertaining, shrewd, and manageably-sized narrative of Wordsworth's life

Peter Swaab, Sunday Telegraph

Stephen Gill's admirable biography ... it succeeds, where such biographies often fail, in transforming the life into the work by actively exploring, not avoiding, the complex problems that Wordsworth's self-account presents to his biographer.

London Review of Books

lively, painstaking book

Archie Hind, Glasgow Herald

Gill has already proved himself as an editor of Wordsworth's manuscripts and now turns that research to elegant profit.

Anthony Lane, Independent

It is difficult to see how a biography of Wordsworth could be enthralling, but Stephen Gill has made his so. This densely particularised and humane biography returns us anew to the poet's questions with an inwardness and sympathy few previous writers have displayed.

Isobel Armstrong, Southampton University, TES

the first comprehensive biography of Wordsworth since Mary Moorman's 30 years ago.

Blake Morrison, Observer

not many biographies are so admirably devoid of pretentiousness, silliness, and banality.

Chloe Chard, Weekend Financial Times

in Stephen Gill's monumental work, exacting, controlled, measured and profound, we have a moving portrait of a great poet the confirming of whose reputation has been substantially advanced by Gill's scholarship and judgment.

Bruce Arnold, Irish Independent

Gill is an immensely learned, scrupulous and judicious guide ... It is a mark of a good biography that the peripheral figures - the friends and acquaintances - are brought to life by a few swift, bold strokes ... A new biography of Wordsworth was certainly needed, and this one will be an indispensable companion for Lake Poet enthusiasts. Its insights are astute and its choice of quotation excellent; it could not have condensed more information into a single volume, yet it never becomes a mere procession of facts ... this volume is fluent and comprehensive.

Jonathan Bate, Country Life

a large, very readable study by Oxford scholar Stephen Gill who makes use of much fresh material.

Michael Field, The Star

thorough and scholarly biography ... Many books have been on Wordsworth, but this one takes a fresh look at contemporary records and the mass of material which has been unearthed since the last serious biography, a quarter-of-a-century ago.

John Hurst, Cumberland & Westmorland Herald

What Gill has done, very well, is to match the poetry to the poet's development. Gill, with his illuminating extracts, saves us from our own ignorance.

Anthony Hern, London Evening Standard

this biography clears new and central ground for future academic revaluations of the poet and his work ... It renders Wordsworth newly accessible and calls attention to his reciprocal relation to, and profound effects on, the national life.

New York Times Book Review

a lovingly told story

Christopher Hall, The Countryman

a thorough and detailed study of Wordsworth's life in relation to the poetry ... Gill is a thoughtful critic as well as a careful biographer ... sympathetic study.

J. B. Pick, The Scotsman

When dealing with politics or family matters Gill can be very shrewd, and especially so in his subtle account of the growing strains between Wordsworth and Coleridge after 1800. And on textual matters Gill writes with an authority well beyond that of any previous biographer. Many of his poetry discussions are first rate, sensitive and illuminating.

Norman Fruman, Times Literary Supplement

an eminently accessible as well as definitive study of the poet's life.

Sunday Times

not a general biography of the Great Lakes poet, nor is it merely a critique of his work ... It is an authoritative and readable study ... of Wordsworth's writing in an effort to lay bare the poet's life as a writer of poetry "full of human understanding and experience." ... a fascinating and enlightening study ... few will deny it's value in bringing the man and his work into fresh perspective.

Evelyn Holtzhausen, Cape Times

This isn't a critical book ... and discussion of the poetry is carefully fused with Wordsworth's self-discussion. ... this biography is good value ... Always well-written, it wears its substantial scholarship lightly

Simon Petch, Sydney Morning Herald

Stephen Gill ... has written what must now be the definitive biography ... a multitudinous life about which, even after reading this thorough and admirable biography we still wish we knew more.

David Parkin, Yorkshire Post

a model literary biography

Bernard Bergonzi, The Tablet

compendious new biography of William Wordsworth ... solidly constructed

Chicago Tribune

the biography is both scholarly and readable ... If William Wordsworth: A Life brings new readers to the poems or old readers back it will have succeeded admirably in its aim.

Peter Dyson, University of Toronto, The Globe and Mail

Gill has performed a remarkable act of revisionary scholarship by shifting the bulk of the story to the years at Rydal Mount ... this is a distinguished work of literary biography ... The biographer's wide-ranging knowledge of the period adds immensely to the success of this study. It will be many years before another biography of Wordsworth is required.

Jay Parini, USA Today

He offers a more factually meticulous version of the poet's early years to stand beside the mythopoeic self-presentation of the poetry. He understands the importance of Wordsworth's inner life. Gill's biography quietly but memorably reveals the drama of Wordsworth's life.

Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor

fine new biography ... Mr Gill's biography is up-to-date in its scholarship ... It neither sentimentalizes nor oversimplifies.

Richard Locke, Columbia University, Wall Street Journal

all stolid good sense

John Linklater, The Bookseller

this biography contains much to interest scholars

Henry Bartlett, The Courier-Mail

it is robust and intelligent on his marvellous body of poetry

Observer

Gill's narrative is well-paced and well-written. Gill's account is comprehensive and engaging, and skilful in its corporation of biographical detail. The Wordsworth specialist, as well as the general reader, will come away from it refreshed and inspired.

Charles Rzepka, Boston University, Essays in Criticism

eloquent and straight-forward retelling of Wordsworth's life

J.D. Gutteridge, Notes and Queries

triumphantly reconciles a vast amount of material to produce a life of Wordsworth that is sensitive to modern scholarship and faithful to the age in which the poet himself lived ... Stephen Gill has written a biography of Wordsworth for our times, and it will remain the standard life of the poet for many years to come.

Nicholas Roe, University of St Andrews, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLI, No. 164, Nov '90

An assured blend of old and recently-researched material which combines fluently into a vibrant study of the poet. Mr Gill avoids wild speculation and brings us the essence of the man thankfully devoid of spurious conjecture.

Tony Firth, Yorkshire Post

a unique look at this Romantic poet

Windsor Star