Nicholas Shakespeare's excellent 2001 biography of Chatwin trod an admirably well-judged line between debunking and admiration.

"There have been several excellent biographies of Tsvetayeva, but in a way this is more moving because it is autobiographical," Mr. Todorov said.

The translation is a pleasure to read, and Ms. Miles provides an excellent, balanced short biography.

One might ask why, with the excellent biographies of Lenin that already exist, we need another.

The pair's most illuminating letters have already been quoted at length in A. Scott Berg's excellent 1978 biography of Perkins.

In 1999 in these pages, David Walton called this an "excellent biography."

Kurt and Ernst Schwitters Archive, with an excellent biography.

In 1984 our reviewer, Lawrence S. Ritter, wrote, "This excellent biography makes us realize just how much we miss him."

There's an excellent new biography of Himself out.

Can you buy any of Michael Holroyd's excellent biographies in Tesco?