A House in St Johns Wood
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A House in St Johns Wood by Matthew Spender
An intimate portrait of Stephen Spenders extraordinary life written by his son, Matthew Spender, with new insights drawn from personal recollections and unpublished archives.`It’s hard to overstate how bravely honest Matthew Spender’s book is … brilliantly paced … the book also matters in its own right for its insight into how we are all shaped by the strangeness of the families we find ourselves inhabiting … a remarkable book’ Observer
`This thoughtful and often astonishingly beautiful memoir … is exploratory, analytical, often critical, occasionally disloyal but ultimately a deeply moving work of filial pride, an attempt to try to work out not only the truth about his extraordinary parents but also himself’ Evening Standard
`Painfully honest … With a son’s harsh condescension he spells out Stephen’s failings and blind spots, while not forgetting his generosity of spirit … He writes with such insight and intelligence that it feels wholly authenticAnd by widening his field of vision beyond the family home to explore issues of culture, gender and politics then and now, he makes it our business, too’ Blake Morrison, Guardian
`Eye-popping’ Daily Mail
`An outstanding piece of writing, full of wonderfully sharp judgements… a memoir written in such a thoughtful, congenial, matter-of-fact style that it is only after putting it down that one begins to take in the full oddity of the Spenders' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
`The steady gaze of the writing and its compassionate heart, turn what might have been grave robbery into a valuable and moving act of recovery’ Andrew Motion, Guardian, Books of the Year
`A disarmingly eccentric book … which combines a memoir of his parents … with ruminations on the gilded world in which they disported’ Literary Review
`Scrupulously even-handed … Matthew Spender is a far more accomplished and engaging prose writer than his father, with a distinct personal voice’ TLS
`The heart of this book is filial and emotional. And very moving’ Financial Times
`Told with extraordinary force and honest and is intensely interesting’ The Oldie
Born in 1945, Matthew Spender is a sculptor and the author of `Within Tuscany: Reflections on a Time and a Place’ and `From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky’. He lives with his wife, artist Maro Gorky, on a farm near Siena.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780008132064 |
| ISBN 10 | 0008132062 |
| Title | A House in St Johns Wood |
| Author | Matthew Spender |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Year published | 2015-08-27 |
| Number of pages | 448 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |