Bertrand Russell

This new edition of Caroline Moorehead’s acclaimed biography is published to mark the 150th anniversary year of Bertrand Russell’s birth in 1872. “When will people learn the robustness of truth? I do not know who my biographer may be, but I should like him to report ‘with what flourish his nature will’ something like this: ‘I was not a solemn stained glass saint, existing only for the purpose of edification; I existed from my own centre, many things that I did were regrettable, I did not respect respectable people, and when I pretended to do so it was humbug. I lied and practised hypocrisy, because if I had not I should not have been allowed to do my work; but there is no need to continue the hypocrisy after my death. I hated hypocrisy and lies: I loved life and real people, and wished to get rid of the shams that prevent us from loving real people as they really are. I believed in laughter and spontaneity, and trusted to nature to bring out the genuine good in people, if once genuineness could come to be tolerated.” Bertrand Russell to Ottoline Morrell August 1918 “Caroline Moorehead has performed miracles of compression in presenting all these riches" Ken Coates