'A wonderful read.' Irish Times
'Sad, gripping and powerful.' Margaret Drabble
'Superbly clear, intimate and evocative.' New York Times

From the former poet laureate, Andrew Motion, In the Blood is an unforgettable evocation of family, school and country life. By turns funny, heartbreaking and elegiac, it is also a deeply affectionate portrait of the bond between mother and son.

'Brilliantly achieved and novel-like . . . Vivid and poignant.' Guardian
'The most moving and exquisitely written account of childhood loss I have ever read.' Independent on Sunday
'Deeply engaging. The innocence and the hardness of childhood are beautifully put together . . . A strikingly good book, framed by tragedy but full of intense life.' Helen Dunmore
'Every word, sentence and chapter, one drinks down with a joy because it is so artfully and beautifully composed.' Irish Times

In the Blood is Andrew Motion's beautifully written memoir of how his country childhood was shattered when his mother suffered a terrible accident.

About the Author
Andrew Motion was born in 1952 and read English at University College, Oxford. From 1976 to 1980 he taught English at the University of Hull; from 1980 to 1982 he edited Poetry Review, and from 1982 to 1989 was Editorial Director and Poetry Editor at Chatto & Windus. He is a member of the Arts Council of England and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has been the recipient of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Dylan Thomas Award and the Whitbread Prize for Biography. Andrew Motion was appointed Poet Laureate in May 1999 and is Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He is the author of nine books of poems - most recently, Public Property (2002) - and won considerable acclaim for his biographies of Keats and Philip Larkin. His most recent book, The Invention of Dr Cake (2003), was described as a novella of 'brilliant and almost hallucinatory vividness' (Sunday Telegraph), and as 'an engrossing meditation on life and death and the role of poetry' (Irish Times).

Reviews
"'The most moving and exquisitely written account of childhood loss I have ever read.' Independent on Sunday"



Book Information
ISBN 9780571228041
Author Sir Andrew Motion
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 269g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 128mm * 20mm