Quartet for the End of Time

‘Wonderful’ Spectator

‘This is a remarkable book’ TLS

A personal reckoning with grief, doubt, faith and poetry set to one of the most celebrated musical works of the twentieth century, from the award-winning poet and librettist.

Strange, ecstatic and apocalyptic – listeners of Olivier Messiaen’s masterpiece, Quartet for the End of Time, have been captivated by its music and mythology since the first extraordinary performance in a prisoner of war camp in 1941.

After discovering his music by chance as a teenager, Michael Symmons Roberts’s own fascination with the Quartet leads him on a quest to understand its enigmatic power.

What follows is a moving, unforgettable exploration of grief, of personal faith and doubt, of the end of time and what may lie beyond it.

‘A rich, lively, profound book’ Rowan Williams

‘An outstanding writer’ Sunday Times

Author Biography

Michael Symmons Roberts was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1963. He has published eight collections of poetry and received a number of accolades including the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Award and the Whitbread Poetry Prize. His Selected Poems was published in 2016. As a librettist, his work has been performed in concert halls and opera houses around the world, and he is an award-winning broadcaster and dramatist. He is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, his Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief and Birdsong was published in 2025.