This volume forms part of the "Life and Times" series of compact and accessible biographies which cover key political, literary and musical figures. This title is about the life and work of Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-93), who was unparalleled in the autobiographical intensity of his music. Trained as a lawyer, Tchaikovsky struck out as Russia's first "freelance" composer, but behind the public success private demons, fomented from a traumatic childhood and then his own sexuality, drove his art. All he knew was that "out of some insuperable compulsion, I speak in this language of music because I always find I have something to say".
