Young, handsome, dissatisfied with the bourgeois lifestyles of the Victorian generation and believing himself to be at the forefront of social change, Rupert Brooke was a complex character who has eluded biographers. His headlong rush into the perilously attractive camaraderie of the First World War and subsequent early death created a heroic martyr who was idealised by his country. Paul Delany seeks to reconcile the war hero and poet with the bitter, angry youth who hated women and Jews. Making use of new materials, he explores the hidden reality behind the two faces of a man who attempted to appease his own inner turmoil with the fatalistic glory of the march to war.