The Great Lover: A Novel

“A brilliant, complicated man is the centre of Jill Dawson’s The Great Lover, and while she draws extensively on historical records of Brooke and his contemporaries, it is her decisions as a novelist that make this account of his life fascinating as well as faithful. . . . . The story that emerges is strong, satisfying, and memorable.” — The Times (London)

An imaginative, fascinating novel about one of the most enduringly popular and romantic figures of the First World War—the radical, handsome young poet Rupert Brooke.

In 1909, sixteen-year-old Nell Golightly is a housemaid at a popular tea garden near Cambridge University, and Rupert Brooke, a new tenant, is already causing a stir with his boyish good looks and habit of swimming naked in nearby Byron's Pool. Despite her good sense, Nell seems to be falling under the radical young poet's spell, even though Brooke apparently adores no one but himself. Could he ever love a housemaid? Is he, in fact, capable of love at all?

Jill Dawson's The Great Lover imaginatively and playfully gives new voice to Rupert Brooke through the poet's own words and through the remembrances of the spirited Nell. An extraordinary novel, it powerfully conveys the allure of charisma as it captures the mysterious and often perverse workings of the human heart.

“What is beautifully created is a very strong sense of time and place. . . . The novel comes into its own with explosive force. It is a daring experiment, and one whose mood, setting, and eccentricities linger in the mind.” - The Guardian

“Nell is a wonderfully vivid creation: resilient, intelligent, and heart-breakingly innocent. . . . [Dawson] manages not only an impressive evocation of Brooke’s milieu but a compelling reassessment of a poet often dismissed by modern readers.” - Time Out London

“[Dawson] has created a psychologically convincing picture of a man who, even in his many flirtatious moments, is teetering on the edge, and a brilliant account of the poet’s nervous breakdown. . . . Dawson has worked the imaginary character of Nell so seamlessly into the narrative of Brooke’s life that Nell seems to belong there. . . . This is a compelling portrait of a failed love affair and of a damaged man who is so cut off from the world that, to paraphrase the book’s epigraph from DW Winnicott, he cannot allow himself to be found by those around him.” - Daily Telegraph (London)

“The characters are impossible not to warm to; and the pages are peopled with fascinating cameos from Virginia Woolf to Augustus John. . . . A pleasurable narrative . . . an easy style. . . . Rewarding.” - Sunday Telegraph

“[A] brilliant, complicated man is the centre of Jill Dawson’s The Great Lover, and while she draws extensively on historical records of Brooke and his contemporaries, it is her decisions as a novelist that make this account of his life fascinating as well as faithful. . . . Powerful. . . . The story that emerges is strong, satisfying, and memorable.” - The Times (London)