This new biography of Elgar draws on letters and documents which have become available over the last twenty-five years. Michael Kennedy, a leading scholar of British music as well as a distinguished musical biographer, uses the new material (including Elgar's vast personal correspondence) to analyze the composer's complex personality. Elgar's letters reveal his unpredictable swings of mood, from gaiety and a fondness for puns to morose self-pity and a feeling that he was "not wanted."

Written as a follow-up to "Eyes of Jesus, Eyes on the Cross" is comprised of starkly revealing poems that have the power to focus the mind and uplift the heart. Jesuit Father Michael Kennedy has been using these meditations for years in his ministry to prisoners and troubled youth.