""He will live in his Irish Melodies, they will go down to posterity with the music; both will last as long as Ireland, or as music and poetry.""--Lord Byron A magnificent evocation of the life and times of a great Irish writer - romantic poet, passionate patriot and pioneering biographer. Tom Moore was a student at Trinity College, Dublin, during the doomed Irish rising of 1798 and this experience infused his sense of identity as an Irish Catholic throughout his life. In this vivid and sensitive biography, Kelly shows how a sense of purpose underpinned his charming and apparently light-hearted character and, at a dark time in its history, made him one of Ireland's most eloquent and persuasive advocates. Drawing extensively on previously unpublished journals, Ireland's Minstrel brilliantly captures the charm of Whig society and fully explores for the first time Moore's relationship with his closest friend, Lord Byron, from its origins in an abandoned duel to his ground-breaking biography. ""This fine, affectionate biography restores the much-loved but-too-long-forgotten author of Irish Melodies to his proper place in the Romantic pantheon. It makes excellent use of the newly published six volumes of Moore’s journals and gives a scintillating picture of Regency London.""--Richard Holmes ""Linda Kelly adds another winner to her gallery of Regency portraits with Tom Moore, the Irish poet who was Byron’s best friend, outsold Wordsworth and charmed a whole society – a sparkling and delightful book.""--Claire TomalinAuthor interview.--Arts Extra, BBC Radio Ulster, August 11 ""An enchanting biography of an enchanting man."" -- Sunday Telegraph ""This fascinating biography...leaves no doubt as to the breadth and relevance of Moore's writing or his place at the centre of the literary, social and political life of the Romantic period."" - Byron Journal ""The author’s aim is to…remind readers that Moore was a leading figure in the Romantic movement…she makes use of the new material to give us a rounded portrait of the man who was, in Byron’s own words, ‘the poet of all circles and the idol of his own’."" -- Contemporary Review Linda Kelly's previous books include The Young Romantics , Women of the French Revolution and Richard Brinsley Sheridan . She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Trustee of the Wordsworth Trust. Her husband is the writer Laurence Kelly; they live in London and spend some time each year in Ireland, where they have a cottage on the Wexford coast. Used Book in Good Condition