BLAKE MORRISON was born in Skipton, Yorkshire. He is the author of a novel - As If - two memoirs, two collections of poetry, critical studies, and a children's book. And When Did You Last See Your Father? won the Waterstones/Esquire/Volvo Awar for Non-Fiction and the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. He lives in London.
A painful, funny, frightening, moving, marvellous book ... everybody should read it -- Nick Hornby Tender, honest, angry, loyal, this extraordinary book balances the life, illness and death of a forceful father with the feelings of his independent son * The Times * This luminous tribute to a beloved dad made me laugh until I cried and cry till my nostrils were raw. A masterpiece - one of those books that you treasure forever -- Val Hennessy A marvellous piece of family literature. He says much about death and dying and more about life and living. Sometimes harrowing, sometimes funny, above all, unforgettably humane * Sydney Morning Herald * A splendid book ... it leaps with life * Irish Times * More than any novel could be, And when did you last see your father? is the once-only, all-or-nothing book of a poet: the life held up so close to one's face that one can smell it, touch it, marvel at the power of words to unlock and unravel, then pour helter-skelter over our heads this magical brainstorm of memories * Spectator * Joy and pain are both imminent and distant as the book rocks back and forth between life and death and, while it lasts, it is visceral and real * Observer * Wonderful, eternally moving... I don't think anyone has ever written better about the relationship between fathers and sons -- Tony Parsons * Mail on Sunday *