Rider Haggard: His Extraordinary Life and Colonial Work

There is no excuse needed for basing this biography of Sir Henry Rider Haggard on the personal account of his literary life given in his own words in his autobiography, The Days of My Life.  There can be no truer biography than that given by the first hand witness, the author himself.  Of course, in my book, I have used memories provided by other family members, friends and colleagues to supplement his very full, subjective life story.
In terms of the methodology in this biography, I have employed traditional literary criticism allied with qualitative approaches to research, such as family letters, portraits on canvas, evidence from correspondence between Haggard and other authors, handwriting in the original texts to discern authorship, sampling, observation, period plate photographs, a cinema newsreel, realia, correspondence with the present author, and in depth interviews with living and erstwhile members of the Haggard family.
Rather than make this biography a chronological survey of the life and work of Henry Rider Haggard, I have arranged the study thematically.  In this regard, a general sweep of his career rolls over Norfolk, the Natal, Egypt, Iceland, Mexico, Canada, the United States and so on.  It is not to be expected that publications or events in Rider Haggard’s life will be in date order, but will cover geographical, conceptual, mythical and other themes.