Arnold Bax (1883-1953) was an extraordinary figure. Growing up in a prosperous Hampstead family, devoted to cricket, he conformed outwardly to the role of English gentleman. His musical education was orthodox Edwardian; after a distinguished career he was appointed Master of the King's Musick, and spent his last years in retirement in Sussex.

Behind this facade of respectability lurked a restless nomad, a musical individualist whose style is instantly recognisable from its highly personal combination of a brilliant orchestration, memorable melodic invention, and idiosyncratically tangy harmony. He was a pioneer on the British musical scene before and immediately after the First World War; symphonic poems, symphonies, ballets, chamber music and songs poured out in expression of his passionate individualism.

Farewell, My Youth is Arnold Bax's autobiography, published in 1943 when the composer was sixty. The text concentrates on events in British music prior to 1914 in which Bax describes his childhood, his time at the Royal Academy of Music, his meeting with Elgar (1901) and his discovery of the poetry of Yeats. His lifelong commitment to Ireland exemplified one of many spiritual conflicts that at once inspired and tormented him, and was undoubtedly sublimated in some of his most powerful music.

Arnold Bax also met Sibelius, Debussy, D'Indy and Schonberg, while his vivid vignettes of Beecham and British music of the period are minor classics of observation.

The autobiography is thoroughly enhanced by a new introduction and notes by Lewis Foreman, who has expanded the text with Bax's previously uncollected writings. Over 100 photographs evoke the atmosphere of the period. This book is an important source on British music before the First World War, and a delightful and amusing read in its own right.