Abstract
In one of the best accounts to have emerged recently of the history of biography, Hermione Lee’s Biography: A Very Short Introduction, the opening chapter set out ten rules for writing in this sometimes controversial genre. Among these principles are the requirements for truth, comprehensiveness, accuracy of citation, and objectivity. Lee’s seventh rule is “Biography is a form of history”. Astutely observing that “There is no such thing as a life lived in isolation,” she supported her view by quoting Virginia Woolf’s claim that in biography, the subject is the fish and its milieu is the stream. Lee suggested that the duty of the biographer should be “to the stream as well as to the fish”.