No poet has attracted such fanatical devotion as Robert Burns. He was, according to Lord Byron, a man of extremes: "tenderness, roughness - delicacy, coarseness - sentiment, sensuality - dirt and deity". Ian McIntyre's biography gives a careful analysis of Burns's songs and poetry and strips away the legend to explore what lies beneath. The figure that emerges is sharper, less idealized, perhaps more truly great, than in any previous biography.