A Warrior's Tale

- Blurb -

This edition celebrates the centenary of Williams' s birth. RAYMOND WILLIAMS (1921-1998) was the most influentialsocialist writer and thinker in post-war Britain. Now, for thefirst time, making full use of Williams' s private and unpublishedpapers and by placing him in a wide social and culturallandscape, Dai Smith, in this highly original and much praisedbiography, uncovers how Williams' s life to 1961 is an explanationof his immense intellectual achievement. "It is Smith' s ambition to set out the lonely, almost monastic pathRaymond took through childhood, army and adult educationtowards his deserved eminence. But the biographer' s greatestachievement is to find his own discerning route through whatoften seems to be a jungle of contradiction. . . This is a worthwhilebook and a very good one. "- David Hare, The Guardian"It is a remarkable piece of work and will henceforth be essentialto the understanding of the making of Raymond Williams. "- Eric Hobsbawm"Becomes at once the authoritative account. . . Smith has done allthat we can ask the historian as biographer to do. "- Stefan Collini, London Review of Books"Carrying an impressive deal of intensive research lightly. . . theportraiture throughout is graphic, richly detailed and subtlyshaded. . . in these packed, lucidly written pages. . . "- Terry Eagleton, New Welsh Review