Jonathan Keates is a distinguished and prize-winning biographer, novelist and travel writer, and author of the biographies Handel and Purcell. He is chairman of the Venice in Peril fund and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize for his collection of short stories, Allegro Postillions (1983). Jonathan Keates is a regular contributor to the Observer (UK) and the Times Literary Supplement (UK) among a number of other publications.
The Deseret News
"Keates illuminates the biography of this famous oratorio....
Messiah's life story is one of humble beginnings, soaring
successes, controversial adaptations, and eventual redemption, not
unlike the scriptures from whence it came."--The Deseret News
"Delightful.... This richly illustrated book is like a lively
performance of the piece itself.... Captures the essence of
Handel's magic."--Wall Street Journal
"However you like to hear your Messiah, you should enjoy it more
for reading Keates's lucid guide...his analysis is taut and his
narrative skillfully concise."
--Times (UK)
"Keates is an enthusiastic, serious and careful writer.... The
author clearly knows what he is talking about, and illuminates what
we thought we knew."
--Guardian (UK), Book of the Week
"One strength of Keates's book is the reminder that it is not only
the music of Messiah that is extraordinary. So is the libretto,
penned by Charles Jennens.... Keates's book does what it needs to
do in awakening an urge to hear Handel's masterwork again, and now
with a bit deeper understanding."--Christianity Today
"With its astute commentaries on the operas, this book makes a
brilliantly lucid guide to Handel's evolving art."
--Independent (UK)
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