Another side of Wilde explored in a clear and comprehensive biography

Matthew Sturgis draws on a wealth of new material discovered over the last 30 years, including around 60 Wilde letters, an early notebook kept by him and the full transcript of his disastrous libel action against the repulsive Marquess of Queensberry

Oscar Wilde would probably be amazed to learn how revered he still is today, 120 years after his death Pic: REX

Biography: Oscar: A Life, By Matthew Sturgis, Head of Zeus, €19.30

Oscar Wilde was terrified of obscurity. “Somehow or other I’ll be famous, and if not famous, I’ll be notorious,” he vowed to his friends before graduating from Oxford in 1878. Shortly afterwards, he told journalists: “If I were not a poet and could not be an artist, I should wish to be a murderer . . . better that than to go ...