Ian McEwan Margaret Drabble Martin Amis Rita Dove Andrew Motion and Anthony Thwaite are
among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on
the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail
they bring to life the thoughts work loves friendships passions and above all the
influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present. Many of the
contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding selfless spiritual
tender protective reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to
the development of their children's gifts. At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum
however we also see tortured mothers who ignored interfered with smothered or abandoned
their children. Their early years were times of traumatic loss unhappily dominated by death
and human frailty. Elegantly assembled and presented Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to
everyone interested in biography literature and creativity in general.
