Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort of Love Story

I loved the integrity of this intimate record taking us back to wartime and post-war England. Mary Trevelyan’s forthright honesty about Eliot goes in tandem with Erica Wagner’s telling narrative and insights. As the two move together across a chronicle of twenty years, what emerges is more than a memoir of knowing a famous poet; it’s a dual portrait of a woman who hides nothing and a celebrity given to secrecy. A spirited dauntlessness is the core of Trevelyan’s character, perfectly matched with Erica Wagner’s placings of what was said, lifting a private story onto the world stage. An inventive co-narrative brings to light a long-ago relationship between a poet already amongst the immortals and an independent woman who dared to say exactly what she thought. How deftly Wagner transforms a scrapbook filled with gems into a revealing and ultimately tragic story.

Reading this elegant, clever and moving book is like looking at Eliot through a lancet window: we get a tightly-focused and revealing view of one of his most important friendships, and a valuable understanding of how it relates to the panorama of his whole personality. An exemplary ’sort of’ biography.

A completely fascinating, revelatory exposure of a forgotten corner of TS Eliot’s amatory life – brilliantly curated, edited and annotated by Erica Wagner. A classic of its kind.

This pitch-perfect portrait of the singular friendship between two remarkable people is an absolute joy. Engrossing, enlightening and deeply affecting, it’s a richly rewarding read.

Erica Wagner brings the secret history of T. S. Eliot and Mary Trevelyan to light in this gripping account of friendship, repressed desire, and heartbreak. Trevelyan was Eliot’s loyal companion for nearly twenty years. Over intimate dinners and long country drives, he confided in her about his anxieties, desires, and haunting memories of his first wife Vivienne. But the platonic relationship ended abruptly. Trevelyan’s revelatory manuscript offers a surprisingly fresh portrait of ‘Tom’ Eliot, and her own dashed hopes for a life together.