Christopher Dingle is Reader in Music and Assistant Course Director (BMus) at Birmingham Conservatoire. In addition to The Life of Messiaen, he is co-author, with Chris Morley, of Music Criticism (Cambridge University Press, in preparation), author of Messiaen's Final Works (Ashgate, forthcoming), and co-editor of Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature (Ashgate, 2007). He was the organiser of the Messiaen 2008 International Centenary Conference at Birmingham Conservatoire and is in demand as a speaker. He is also on the review panel for BBC Music Magazine and contributes regularly to Tempo.

• 1. The burgeoning artist: 1908–1931; 2. Le jeune français: 1931–1939; 3. Occupying time: 1939–1945; 4. Songs of love and death: 1945–1948; 5. For now we see through a glass darkly: 1949–1952; 6. A natural retreat: 1951–1959; 7. The statue remains on its pedestal: 1960–1969; 8. A passion for opera: 1970–1983; 9. Tous les oiseaux des étoiles: 1984–1992.

'The best parts of this absorbing book are those where Dingle relates the music to Messiaen's religious faith and to the many difficulties he faced during his life … many of the author's judgments on the music itself have made me want to go back and listen to works I know - or thought I knew.' BBC Music Magazine