In Search of Beethoven: A Personal Journey

A PRESTO BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 ’ From palaces to warzones, John Suchet goes on a Beethoven odyssey’ The Daily Telegraph From the bestselling author of Beethoven: The Man Revealed, In Search of Beethoven is John Suchet’s latest and most personal book dedicated to the life of this extraordinary composer. Part biography, part memoir, part travelogue, Suchet draws on his own life and career as a foreign correspondent and news anchor to show how Beethoven’s music has accompanied him through the best and worst of times. It was with him as a music-loving and adventurous teenager, as a journalist entering Beirut in the grip of civil war, and as he has continued to explore the old cities of Bonn and Vienna, in search of the man behind the music. In this novel and compelling book, we see Beethoven brought vividly - and sometimes painfully - to life. Suchet traces Beethoven’s footsteps from his early years in Bonn to his dying days in Vienna, taking us on a journey both literal and symbolic, as he uses his own experience as a Beethoven aficionado to demonstrate the life-changing power of great music.

Before turning to classical music, John Suchet was one of the UK’s best-known television journalists and newscasters, regularly presenting ITN’s flagship News at Ten, as well as all other bulletins, over a period of nearly 20 years. John has been honored for both roles. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Beethoven: The Man Revealed (2012) and The Last Waltz: The Story of the Strauss Dynasty and Vienna (2015), and most recently, Tchaikovsky: The Man Revealed (2018).