Michael Holroyd is the author of three major biographies, all of which have been influential and widely acclaimed. His two-volume biography of Lytton Strachey not only initiated a revived interest in the Bloomsbury Group but also renewed interest in...

Mosaic by Michael Holroyd Little Brown, pounds 17.99, 283 pp pounds 15.99 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222 FIVE YEARS ago, Michael Holroyd, who has dominated the biographical scene since the publication of his groundbreaking study of Lytton Strachey...

An old friend once told me of an incident from his schooldays. He had been to stay at the home of a classmate and, wandering about upstairs during the daytime, had come upon a man in bed, propped up high on pillows, who was...