This Rare Spirit

The first comprehensive biography of this undervalued writer, who was considered ''far and away the best living woman poet'' in her day.

Andrew Motion''s Spectator Book of the Year.

¿One of the many achievements of This Rare Spirit is its rejection of that tired view of the poet as mouse that barely roared in favour of a true sense of a spikily modern woman, bound by various obligations but resilient, headstrong, and poetically inventive . . . Copus¿s diligent, scholarly, sensitive work should help Mew¿s pipe play on for years to come.¿ Declan Ryan, Los Angeles Review of Books

''[A] supreme biography . . . It is hard to do justice to the breadth of research Copus has done here, or the compassionate, detailed conjuring of Mew and her milieu . . . An essential book, a classic work of literary biography.'' Se¿Hewitt, Irish Times

''[K]eenly intelligent, fascinating and nuanced biography . . . Save Charlotte Mew! And r