About the Author

Fiona M. Palmer has been Professor and Head of the Department of Music at the National University of Ireland Maynooth since 2007 having previously held a Senior Lectureship at the Queen's University of Belfast.

Reviews

`Her obvious passion for the instrument gives her writing an urgent and committed feel. And she is scrupulously fair in her consideration of primary sources, never giving in to the tempration to overemphasise her subject's character tomake hum more bankable.'
Warwick Thompson, Classical Music
`To find ... a serious academic publisher prepared to invest in a book that will inevitably interest a comparatively small body of enthusiasts is both refreshing and rewarding ... Fiona Palmer, during her thorough research, has sifted through every available report and laid to rest many of the myths and inaccuracies that have been quoted and misquoted over the years. There is more information about his background in her first chapter than can be found
between two covers anywhere else ... a great deal of material has survived from his long and productive period in London, and Fiona Palmer's persistence and exhaustive research into it make her book extremely
interesting.'
Rodney Slatford, Music and Letters