Peter Martin's A Life of James Boswell has been hailed as the definitive biography of the great biographer. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, as the two volume biography by Frederick Pottle and Frank Brady released in 1966 and 1984 respectively is somewhat more detailed, and with much better annotation.

Still, Martin has drawn fully on previous scholarship and has written a biography which is both interesting and entertaining, without that which a casual reader might consider to be tedious details.

I can't recommend this biography if you really want to go in-depth with Boswell's life, but if you're satisfied with a little less then this might be the one for you

Availability

A Life of James Boswell was published in Hardcover in 1999 and in Paperback in 2000, and it has reprinted at least once, in 2002. It should be available from all major online bookstores, and used copies are readily available from Abebooks .