Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ was a ground-breaking work. Yet who was Gustav Holst? A mild mannered Englishman, born in Cheltenham, passionate about music education and a teacher first and foremost, a man with a passion for the mystic east and a man who suffered from poor health all his life. The Planets is the single work we remember him for, but he began to hate it, and for that very reason. This lecture gives an insight to Holst and his work, puts The Planets into context and discusses its creation, and explores other works, giving us a fuller picture of this important British composer.