Dedication

pp v-v

Frontispiece

pp vi-vi

Contents

pp vii-viii

List of Plates

pp ix-xi

List of Illustrations

pp xii-xii

Foreword by Fiona Shaw

pp xiii-xiv

Acknowledgements

pp xv-xvii

Editorial Note

pp xviii-xx

Introduction: Britten and Pears's ‘personal and consistent’ Correspondence

pp 1-18

THE LETTERS

I - ‘When I am not with you’: August 1937 to January 1941: Letters 1–12

pp 19-36

II - ‘My life is inextricably bound up in yours’: May 1942 to November 1944: Letters 13–70

pp 37-88

III - ‘I don't know why we should be so lucky, in all this misery’: July 1945 to April 1949: Letters 71–125

pp 89-148

IV - ‘You are potentially the greatest singer alive’: Late 1949 to January 1954: Letters 126–88

pp 149-202

V - ‘Why shouldn't I recognise that you are such a large part of my life’: May 1954 to December 1959: Letters 189–246

pp 203-264

VI - ‘Far away as you are, at least I feel there is contact!’: January 1960 to March 1968: Letters 247–313

pp 265-328

VII - ‘It is you who have given me everything’: January 1970 to June 1975: Letters 314–53

pp 329-360

VIII - ‘My days are not empty’: January to November 1976: Letters 354–65

pp 361-376

Personalia

pp 377-390

List of Works

pp 391-420

Select Bibliography

pp 421-425

General Index

pp 426-452

Plate section

pp 453-468