This remarkable book preserves a collection of memories from Britten’s friends, family and working colleagues and aims to present first-hand accounts of how this great composer lived, worked and behaved. Inevtiably there are contradictions but, as Dame Janet Baker comments, ‘we show different sides to different people,’ and it seems that this was particularly true of Benjamin Britten. In the end, though, a comprehensive picture emerges of a genius who had magic and charm but also a darker side.