‘I know you’re going to be happy’ were the parting words of Rupert Christiansen’s father. But unlike the recent spate of misery memoirists, none of our panel is filled with self-pity. In these three fine memoirs, humour and poignancy vie for pole position.
Phyllida Law – author of How Many Camels Are There In Holland? Dementia, Ma and Me, her hilarious tale of looking after her mother in the tiny Scottish village of Ardentinny – and Damian Barr – author of Maggie and Me, his memoir of surviving small-town Scotland in the shadow of the Iron Lady – will join Rupert Christiansen and Sam Leith to talk about what drove them to commit their childhood or family memories to paper. And to answer whether the writing has reconciled them with their past…
Praise for Phyllida Law: ‘A funny, brave and heartening volume… concealed within its whimsy is much suadness and also an important truth’ – Cressida Connolly, Spectator
Praise for Damian Barr: ‘A hugely affecting, highly intelligent and often haunting book, full to the brim with poignancy, humour, brutality, and energetic and sometimes shimmering prose’ – Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times
Praise for Rupert Christiansen: ‘His honest and affecting memoir brings home the lifelong effect of divorce upon children’ – John Harding, Daily Mail
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