John Squire was a banker and skilled landscape painter whose work was exhibited at the prestigious British Royal Academy, but more importantly he was also a musician who had great influence on musical life in the West of England and South Wales.
This fascinating work of social history, based on extensive primary-source research, places his life and career in its broader cultural and social context to give a history of classical music-making in provincial Victorian Britain.
A detailed account of an important and entirely obscured figure, this is an excellent contribution to the history of amateur music-making, its increasing professionalisation and the formation of British tastes outside London during the Victorian period.
