First published in 2011, this text provides citations to the core Holst literature. The volume is intended for students and researchers, as well as those seeking an introduction to Holst. The inclusion of materials for the non- specialist seems entirely appropriate as Holst devoted much of his career to teaching amateur musicians. The contents of this book presents a selective, annotated list of essential materials published through the end of 2009, although a very few exceptions were made for a limited number of post-2009 print and web resources.

Gustav Holst was a leading figure in the new age of English music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His most celebrated work, The Planets, is an orchestral tour de force, but he wrote music of startling originality in many forms, drawing inspiration from sources as varied as English folksong, oriental melody, the Apocrypha and Sanskrit literature, as well as from writers such as Keats, Hardy, Bridges and Whitman. This biography, by his daughter Imogen, was first published by Faber in 1938 and revised in 1969. In it she quotes at length from his many letters to his friends - especially to his closest colleague Vaughan Williams - and draws on her personal memories of Holst's later years. Holst struggled all his life against bouts of ill-health and depression, but his remarkable and good-humoured resilience enabled him to compose great music in often difficult circumstances. He was essentially a very private person, and the huge popular success of The Planets in 1919 disconcerted him. Imogen Holst describes the effect of this sudden fame on her father, and records the late flowering of his music in the final years of his life.

'The Gustav Holst Way' is the first guidebook to describe the 35-mile rambling route across the Cotswolds to celebrate the life and work of the composer Gustav Holst. Published exactly 100 years after Holst began work on The Planets, the route visits many of the places that were important to the young Holst as his musical career took wing. Among the highlights are the house in Cheltenham where he was born (now the Holst Birthplace Museum) and several venues in the Cotswolds where he played, conducted and taught music. The richly illustrated guidebook divides the walk into five easy/moderate sections (with four optional detours) and includes detailed maps, points of historical interest and all the practical information you need to follow in Gustav Holst's footsteps from Cranham to Wyck Rissington. The Holst Birthplace Museum Gustav Holst, one of England's greatest composers, was born in a Regency terraced house in Cheltenham in 1874. The house has been carefully restored and converted into a 'living museum' that captures the atmosphere of the era, both above and below stairs. The most eye-catching of the museum's collection of 3,000 items is the piano on which Holst composed The Planets, as popular as ever nearly 100 years after it was published. Step inside the Museum and see the piano Holst used to compose The Planets. Find out how he developed into a world-class composer by examining and listening to original manuscripts written when he was a schoolboy in Cheltenham. "

Gustav Holst's "Planets" suite has become established as one of the classics of twentieth-century orchestral music. Short's access to Holst's letters and diaries, as well as his close work with Holst's daughter Imogen have resulted in the most detailed book on the composer's life and music yet to appear. Containing new information which has become available since Imogen Holst published a biography of her father fifty years ago, this book includes an analysis of Holst's musical style and a substantial reference section.