The all-round man

Percy Grainger was one of the most colourful of this century's cultural figures. As a pianist and largely self-taught composer he was feted in the 1910s and the 1920s, and is probably still best known for the work he 'dished up' in many different guises, Country Gardens. But Grainger aspired to the role of 'the all-round man' and nourished ideas, some brilliant, others ludicrous, across the full range of human endeavour: race, nationality, sex, language, life-style, food, clothes, technology, ecology. The All-Round Man depicts that scrabbling diversity through seventy-six challenging letters from Grainger's 'American' years, 1914-61. These letters are fascinating to read: they are cultivated 'rambles' (as Grainger actually called several of his compositions), not dissimilar to today's telephone conversations. Often written in Grainger's crunchy 'Blue-eyed English', they explore uninhibitedly every corner of his public and private life. They reflect the magnificent attempts of a great but flawed mind to encompass the world.