Brief Lives: Geoffrey Chaucer
Gail Ashton


Although his writing is well-known, however, the biographical details of Chaucer's life in fourteenth-century England remain scarce. In this new biography, Gail Ashton examines the competing versions of 'Chaucer' that have sprung up in the centuries since his death, and speculates about the extent to which his poetic legacy has been made to fit a range of agendas, especially those surrounding England and Englishness. Her biography is a deft and tantalising study of one of the fathers of English literature.