William Reed, former Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra and one of Elgar's closest friends from 1910 until his death, was first encouraged to write this biography by George Bernard Shaw. The result is an informal and spontaneous portrait of the classical composer's personality and working methods, through his years of composing the Second Symphony, Falstaff and the vioin and cello concertos. Reed provides his own interpretations of Elgar's music and a section which contains 42 full-page reproductions of all the coherent sketches for the Third Symphony, including a careful analysis of the projected work, movement by movement.