PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazineThe Listener. His works include three memoirs,Hindoo Holiday,My Dog Tulip, andMy Father and Myself, and a novel,We Think the World of You(all available as New York Review Books). W.H. Auden (1907-1973) was born in North Yorkshire, England, the son of a doctor. He studied at Oxford and published his first book, Poems, in 1930, immediately establishing himself as one of the outstanding voices of his generation. Auden emigrated to New York in 1939, where he became a US citizen and converted to Anglicanism. He wrote essays, critical studies, plays, and opera librettos for such composers as Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, and Hans Werner Henze, as well as the poems for which he is most famous.
Most of this beautifully written memoir, first published in 1968, is concerned with the emotional and sexual orientation that underlay the respectable facade that both J R Ackerley and his father showed to the outside world. The solid Edwardian Paterfamilias only married the author's mother 23 years after he was born; meanwhile he secretly maintained a mistress and three daughters. A classic study of non-communication between the generations, it is also a mystery story that uses the art of the thriller to time its surprises and heighten the suspense. (Kirkus UK)
