The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit

Sir Andrew Motion

ISBN 10: 0571346650 / ISBN 13: 9780571346653

Published by Faber & Faber, 2018

About this Item

'Families are societies in miniature.' The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1987. A lesson in the fragility of fame, it tells the tragic story of three generations: George, one of Australia's leading painters; his talented composer-conductor son Constant; and grandson Kit, who managed the pop group The Who. 'Motion's project is not just to tell the story of passing generations, which he does very readably and well, but necessarily also to describe and evaluate aspects of English culture - revivalist painting, classical music in the Twenties and Thirties, the foundation of a native ballet, pop music in the Sixties - which he does with considerable confidence and resource.' London Review of Books 'The story of the three Lamberts is as cruel and horrifying as any Greek tragedy. Its portrayal of the way in which the Lamberts instinctively yet unintentionally assisted in the destruction of their own offspring makes for truly compulsive reading.' Harpers and Queen 'An exemplary piece of research' (Sunday Times). 'A biographical triumph.' Observer.

Seller Inventory # 0071078

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571346650
• ISBN 13: 9780571346653
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

'Families are societies in miniature.'

The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1987. A lesson in the fragility of fame, it tells the tragic story of three generations: George, one of Australia's leading painters; his talented composer-conductor son Constant; and grandson Kit, who managed the pop group The Who.

'Motion's project is not just to tell the story of passing generations, which he does very readably and well, but necessarily also to describe and evaluate aspects of English culture - revivalist painting, classical music in the Twenties and Thirties, the foundation of a native ballet, pop music in the Sixties - which he does with considerable confidence and resource.' London Review of Books

'The story of the three Lamberts is as cruel and horrifying as any Greek tragedy... Its portrayal of the way in which the Lamberts instinctively yet unintentionally assisted in the destruction of their own offspring makes for truly compulsive reading.' Harpers and Queen

'An exemplary piece of research' (Sunday Times).

'A biographical triumph.' Observer

About the Author

Andrew Motion was UK Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009, is co-founder of the online Poetry Archive, and has written acclaimed biographies of Philip Larkin and John Keats among others. His memoir of childhood, In the Blood, was published in 2006, and its sequel, Sleeping on Islands: A Life in Poetry, appeared alongside Selected Poems: 1977 - 2022 in 2023. He is Homewood Professor in the Arts at Johns Hopkins University, and lives in Baltimore.