This is an auction for WAINWRIGHT THE POISONER by Andrew Motion.

Amazon.com review:

“In a time rich in unlikely characters, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847) was one of the strangest of all. A painter, writer, well-known London dandy and friend of most of the major figures of the Romantic era (from Blake to Byron, Keats, Lamb, De Quincey and Hazlitt), he was also almost certainly a murderer, possibly several times over. Arrested and convicted of forgery - evidence was lacking to prove the murders - he was transported for life to the barbarous penal colony of Tasmania, where he died in obscurity. Behind him he left only rumors and fragments of documents, and a legend of evil that fascinated such writers as Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. With a brilliant blend of creative imagination and scholarly sleuthing, Andrew Motion evokes Wainewright's double life in a tour de force of the biographer's art. As a distinguished biographer (of Philip Larkin and John Keats, among others), Andrew Motion has been notably successful in pinning down the often-elusive details of Wainewright's life. As a first-rate poet (he succeeded Ted Hughes as Britain's Poet Laureate), he shows himself equally skilled in the imaginative investigation of Wainewright's bizarre psyche. The result is a richly memorable exploration of the darkerside of human nature, of the roots of crime, of the nature of biography itself.”

More very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Hardback 2000.

305 pages.

Good condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95 (ordinary post) or $5.95 (tracked mail). If you are on rural delivery and want tracked mail, the shipping cost will be $8.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.