The World of William Shenstone

William Shenstone is remembered as a poet and innovative landscape gardener, but his letters and pensees which offer a unique insight into eighteenth century life are mostly forgotten. So is the considerable work he undertook as both editor and playwright. In this readable biography, the first since the Second World War, Shenstone’s life and achievements are re-examined. So are his Midland roots; the Leasowes where he lived in Halesowen, now a country park, and the friends who with him were to form the Warwickshire Coterie, a unique and tightly knit group of writers who met at Lady Luxborough’s Warwickshire home, Barrels, near Henley-in-Arden. At the time of his death, Shenstone was about to be awarded a pension for his services to literature and from this study he reemerges, not only as the multi talented gentleman of letters known to his contemporaries, but as a writer with special relevance for today.