Items related to In the Blood: A Memoir of My Childhood
In the Blood is Andrew Motion's beautifully written prose memoir of growing up in post-war England. First published in 2006, it is now reissued in a fresh contemporary design to sit alongside its biographical sequel in verse, Essex Clay. Written from a teenage child's point of view, Motion captures the pathos and puzzlement of childhood with great clarity of expression and freshness of memory. We encounter a strange but beguiling extended family, a profound love of the natural world, a troubled schooling, and a growing passion for books and writing. By turns funny, heartbreaking and elegiac, In the Blood is a deeply moving portrait of the bond between a mother and her son, and the capturing of a moment in time before the loss of childhood innocence.
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Review:
The most moving and exquisitely written account of childhood loss I have ever read ... a passionate account of a man's love for his parents and for the countryside in which he grew up ... In the Blood will always be Andrew Motion's elegy to his mother. For those of us fortunate enough to read this superlative memoir, it's a celebration of mothers everywhere. (Charlie Lee-Potter Independent on Sunday)
This is more than a meticulous account of a childhood; it is a heroic recreation of the experience, an act of magical retrieval. What was taken away is to be restored, what was lost saved ... It is the great distinction of In the Blood to combine a true and heartfelt account of school and home life with a subtle revelation of Motion's early artistic impulse ... By sticking to his youthful viewpoint, Motion loses the chance to interpose adult opinions, but his book gains in immediacy, marvellously conveying the vulnerability and resilience of childhood. (Tim Jeal Daily Telegraph)
This is a marvellous book. It describes rural upper class England with exactness, candour and humour ... Finally, and most importantly, it's a wonderful read. Every word, sentence and chapter, one drinks down with joy because it is so artfully and beautifully composed. (Carlo Gebler Irish Times)
The great value of a memoir such as this is not only its revelation of someone else's experiences, someone else's consciousness, but the realisation of how much we share. He does write beautifully, of course, but I expected that; what's given me even more pleasure is the amber-like quality of his memory, and the things I found myself recalling in sympathy. (Philip Pullman)
Exquisitely written ... Memory is the dominant theme, and the pool from which Andrew Motion draws is clear and deep, enabling him to fix experience in unusually minute and textured detail. (Selina Hastings Sunday Telegraph)
It is the work of the poet to redeem our awareness of the mystery and complexity of the commonplace, and In The Blood does this wonderfully ... Shadowed by loss, Motion's recollections of the people and animals and weather that flicker across the East Anglian countryside become more vivid, because these treasured lives and moments are so perishable. The book's triumph, however, is to show that, alongside this sense of the transience of our individual concerns, something else emerges, something not to be understood in the ordinary way but sensed, accepted and, as a single fabric of beauty and wonder, hurt and dismay, celebrated.' (John Burnside Scotland on Sunday)
A beautifully evocative memoir of [Andrew Motion's] East Anglia childhood, made all the more potent by the event that abruptly ended it ... he looks back across the years with an extraordinary vividness. (Susan Mansfield Scotsman)
Deeply engaging ... the innocence and the hardness of childhood are beautifully put together ... it's a strikingly good book, framed by tragedy but full of intense life. (Helen Dunmore)
Book Description:
This is more than a meticulous account of a childhood; it is a heroic recreation of the experience, an act of magical retrieval. What was taken away is to be restored, what was lost saved ... It is the great distinction of In the Blood to combine a true and heartfelt account of school and home life with a subtle revelation of Motion's early artistic impulse ... By sticking to his youthful viewpoint, Motion loses the chance to interpose adult opinions, but his book gains in immediacy, marvellously conveying the vulnerability and resilience of childhood. (Tim Jeal Daily Telegraph)
This is a marvellous book. It describes rural upper class England with exactness, candour and humour ... Finally, and most importantly, it's a wonderful read. Every word, sentence and chapter, one drinks down with joy because it is so artfully and beautifully composed. (Carlo Gebler Irish Times)
The great value of a memoir such as this is not only its revelation of someone else's experiences, someone else's consciousness, but the realisation of how much we share. He does write beautifully, of course, but I expected that; what's given me even more pleasure is the amber-like quality of his memory, and the things I found myself recalling in sympathy. (Philip Pullman)
Exquisitely written ... Memory is the dominant theme, and the pool from which Andrew Motion draws is clear and deep, enabling him to fix experience in unusually minute and textured detail. (Selina Hastings Sunday Telegraph)
It is the work of the poet to redeem our awareness of the mystery and complexity of the commonplace, and In The Blood does this wonderfully ... Shadowed by loss, Motion's recollections of the people and animals and weather that flicker across the East Anglian countryside become more vivid, because these treasured lives and moments are so perishable. The book's triumph, however, is to show that, alongside this sense of the transience of our individual concerns, something else emerges, something not to be understood in the ordinary way but sensed, accepted and, as a single fabric of beauty and wonder, hurt and dismay, celebrated.' (John Burnside Scotland on Sunday)
A beautifully evocative memoir of [Andrew Motion's] East Anglia childhood, made all the more potent by the event that abruptly ended it ... he looks back across the years with an extraordinary vividness. (Susan Mansfield Scotsman)
Deeply engaging ... the innocence and the hardness of childhood are beautifully put together ... it's a strikingly good book, framed by tragedy but full of intense life. (Helen Dunmore)
In the Blood is Andrew Motion's beautifully written prose memoir: now reissued with a fresh look to link to his new verse memoir, Essex Clay
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDavid R Godine Pub
- Publication date2010
- ISBN 10 156792395X
- ISBN 13 9781567923957
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages336
- Rating
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