This two-volume set of letters sheds new light on the composer Benjamin Britten's personal and musical life. Volume One, 1923-39 opens with a letter from Britten, aged ten, to his mother Edith. This first volume includes the period he spent at the Royal College of Music where he meets influential new friends, among them W.H.Auden and Christopher Isherwood. It was during this period that Britten met Peter Pears, the partner with whom his musical and personal relationship was to last a lifetime. Volume one ends in May 1939 when Britten sets out, accompanied by Pears, for North America.