Quartet for the End of Time
On Music, Grief and Birdsong
$22.70
- Paperback
304 pages
- Release Date
16 June 2026
Summary
A personal reckoning with grief, doubt, faith, and poetry, set to one of the most celebrated musical works of the twentieth century, from the award-winning poet and librettist.
This is a rich, lively, profound book.
The story goes like this: on a freezing winter night in 1941, a new piece of chamber music was performed to a crowd of prisoners of war on a three-stringed cello, clarinet, violin, and pub piano with sticky keys. It was the premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuo…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781529967173 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1529967171 |
| Author: | Michael Symmons Roberts |
| Publisher: | Vintage Publishing |
| Imprint: | Vintage |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 304 |
| Release Date: | 16 June 2026 |
| Weight: | 214g |
| Dimensions: | 22mm x 130mm x 198mm |
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Critics Review
A remarkable book * Times Literary Supplement *
This wonderful book should help to win the strange, bird-fixated composer new admirers. * The Spectator *
In this remarkable book, Symmons Roberts explores his complex ongoing relationship with Messiaen’s visionary work , alongside reflections on grief, faith and the creative process… Symmons Roberts writes with wit, beauty and piercing insight… In responding to Messiaen’s radiant masterpiece, Symmons Roberts has created a masterpiece of his own * BBC Music Magazine *
Symmons Roberts’ prose…is silky and emotive, with his success in weaving the personal strands with the musical partly owed to the deep connections wrought by his poems, each one seemingly chosen to heighten our understanding of what precedes it * Financial Times *
This is a rich, lively, profound book – Rowan Williams
Every sentence is beautifully assembled and polished… A properly engrossing exploration of music, place, religion and what it is to be human – Sarah Tarlow
I love Michael Symmons Roberts’ poetry. He is a religious poet in a secular age. His work is about connection between the things of the spirit and the things of the world. And his work is about transcendence – Jeanette Winterson
He displays an amazing talent for intimacy on paper – sometimes, it almost takes your breath away * Observer *
An outstanding writer * Sunday Times *
Symmons Roberts is no professional musician. It makes this book all the more valuable and, when combined with his considerable lyric gifts as a poet, makes him a superb guide to the music, which lingers. It is a lonely book, sometimes painful to read * Church Times *
I love Michael Symmons Roberts’ poetry. He is a religious poet in a secular age. His work is about connection between the things of the spirit and the things of the world. And his work is about transcendence
An outstanding writer * Sunday Times *
Michael Symmons Roberts
Michael Symmons Roberts was born in Preston, Lancashire. He has published eight collections of poetry and received a number of accolades including the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Award and the Whitbread Poetry Prize. His Selected Poems was published in 2016.
As a librettist, his work has been performed in concert halls and opera houses around the world, and he is an award-winning broadcaster and dramatist. He is professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, his Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief and Birdsong was published in 2025.
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