I am in the early stage of writing a sort of biography of W.S. Gilbert. I am telling you this because:
I want to warn any rivals there may be in the field. I particularly want to warn them that if they publish a biography of Gilbert which gets anything wrong, I will pursue them mercilessly and hold them up to ridicule in the pages of the Gilbert and Sullivan News--the most horrible fate known to man. Really, for your own sake I must advise you to leave the field clear for me.
I want to notify any interested publishers who may be reading this. I am serious. If you're interested in publishing my Gilbert biography, contact me!
I also want to let everyone else know who may be interested--anyone who might want to read the book if/when it gets published, for instance!
I call it a "sort of" biography because I'm not keen on the modern definition of what a biography is--i.e. a collection of facts about the subject, a complete account of what happened in his life. I want this book to be different: that is, interesting. I won't tell you everything I have in mind for the book, naturally, but I can tell you that I want it to be vivid, I want it to be a narrative that will be interesting on its own terms, and I want it to give a real impression of who Gilbert was as a person. And that is why I am tentatively calling it A Portrait.