“It’s possible, these days, to think of E. M. Forster's cultural role as the providing of stories for {{w|Merchant Ivory Productions|Merchant and Ivory}} to make into pretty movies. For people who think that way, Nicola Beauman's new biography will be a useful corrective. Here, in a book of modest length (at last, a biography that is not longer than its subject's collected works!), is what every general reader should know about Forster's life and contacts.”