The republication by Bloomsbury of the Irish philosopher and journalist Mark Dooley’s superb 2009 intellectual biography of Roger Scruton, Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach, should be warmly welcomed by all serious students and admirers of the late English philosopher and man of letters (the latter appellation was, Dooley tells us, Scruton’s preferred self-designation). The book was originally published at a time when Scruton was still subject to endless criticisms, almost all of them thoughtless, vituperative, and ideologically driven. “Misinterpretations and caricatures,” as Dooley rightly calls them, clouded the recognition of “the exceptional grace, virtue, and vision” that informed Scruton as a human being, writer, and philosopher.
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