Purcell A Biography, by Jonathan Keates (Pimlico, £12.50 in UK)

Surprisingly little is known about the great composer's private life even the date of his birth is not recorded, although he was certainly 37 years old when he died in 1695. So this book is mainly about his compositions and how they camel to be written many for state occasions, since Purcell wrote a lot for the royal court as well as for the stage. He may even have written the anti Jacobite tune Lillibulero, though more likely he merely harmonised it and the original tune probably existed before his time. Purcell did not lack recognition in his lifetime many Englishmen regarded him as a prodigy, and his early death set off national mourning.