Super-Infinite

A sparkling and very modern biography of John Donne: the poet of love, sex, and death, shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and now in paperback.
** Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2022 **
** A Sunday Times top ten bestseller **


'Masterly.' - Observer
'Wonderful, joyous.' - Maggie O'Farrell
'Frankly brilliant.' - Sunday Times
'Unmissable.' - Simon Jenkins
'Every page sparkles.' - Claire Tomalin
'A triumph.' - Matt Haig
'Stylish, scholarly and gripping.' - Rose Tremain





John Donne lived myriad lives. Sometime religious outsider and social dis-aster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, Donne was incapable of being just one thing.


He was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral - and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language.


In Super-Infinite, Katherine Rundell shows us the many sides of Donne's extraordinary life, his obsessions, his blazing words, and his tempestuous Elizabethan times - unveiling Donne as the most remarkable mind and as a lesson in living.