First published in 1985, this hugely entertaining portrait of Lawrence, the writer and the man, long unavailable, will be gladly received back into the literary fold. There is never a dull moment in this incisive biography, but Burgess was incapable of being dull. Instead he makes the case most eloquently and convincingly that Lawrence is one of the very greatest of English writers. It was a long journey: 'Between his death and the outbreak of the Second World War Lawrence was remembered as a doubtful prophet but almost totally ignored as a writer. He had written a dirty book and had his exhibition of dirty paintings raided by the police; the brilliance of Sons and Lovers and Women in Love had either not been acknowledged or had been occluded'. Flame into Being examines Lawrence's work in its entirety, not just the well-known novels, and how, in the years following the second World War, he gained recognition as one of the twentieth century's most original and outstanding authors.
