Book 1

An illegitimate child brought up by a foster family, my father had never known the identity of his father - only that he was a famous man. Looking through Yeats' biographies and poems it became clear that he was my grandfather, and why his affair with my grandmother was never admitted in public. This book examines Yeats' biography in the years from 1917 to 1928, including the sudden reversal of his fortunes after the murder of my grandmother, and the subsequent trial of her two murderers, a police superintendant and a country doctor, who were demonstrably guilty, but acquitted. The book ends with a re-examination of Yeats' poems of this period and a summary of the available evidence.