Living With A Writer brings together a group of prestigious contributors to discuss the writing lives of contemporary poets, novelists, critics, dramatists, editors and collaborators. What are the practical considerations of being a writer? What are the household dynamics? How do the circumstances contribute to the work? What does it tell us about the creative process? The book features pieces from well-known authors and partners in famous literary relationships, including John Bayley, Amanda Craig, Nadine Gordimer, Ann Thwaite, Paul Theroux and John Updike.
'For the first time, spouses, children and parents of writers have collaborated in compiling their experiences of living with a scribe, remembrances which reveal their frustrations, irritations and sheer madness of sharing a roof with an ink-stained genius.' - Amelia Hill, The Observer
'Pleasing and interesting...' - Literary Review
'The range does the book credit...we hear as much about the satisfaction of mutual support, the thrill of being the first to read a new thing, and the fascination of watching experience turn into words, as we do about the misery of Emma Hardy...or what Colt calls the unions that 'could only end in alcoholism and madness (the Fitzgeralds), black eyes and hurled martini glasses (McCarthy and Wilson), or separation and suicide (Hughes and Plath)''. - Andrew Motion, The Guardian
'...[includes] a series of touching accounts of domestic happiness...[although] the popular image of writers as selfish brutes is affirmed in the shorter section of the book, 'The Problems', which features failed marriages and disastrous relationships' - Jessica Mann, The Literary Review
'Everyone agrees that writers' lives are internal and invisible in certain crucial ways, and most people also suppose that the parts which do show are predictably unpleasant... [However, in this book] we hear as much about the satisfaction of mutual support, the thrill of being the first to read a new thing, and the fascination of watching experienceturn into words, as we do about the misery...' - Andrew Motion, Guardian Online
'[F]or every account that supports the perception that writers are self-centered, moody, brooding enigmas of petulant genius, there are uplifting tales of support, nurturing and inspiration' - Nicholas A. Basbanes, LA Times
'The editor of this intriguing little medley asked a number of writers to write something about living with a writer...the brief has been liberally interpreted, which makes it all the more interesting...The writer's inner self is what it's all about, of course, and this is precisely why Living with a Writer is (an) enjoyably prurient read. Get stuck in.' - The Evening Standard
'Conveys a sense of the writer's world.' - Times Higher Education Supplement
'Accomplished writers who read those words will almost certainly concede that they recognize themselves. Non-writers who live with writers will experience twinges of recognition, too. Bless them all, including my wife and children, who put up with so much.' - Steve Weinberg , The Writer
'Pleasing and interesting...' - Literary Review
'The range does the book credit...we hear as much about the satisfaction of mutual support, the thrill of being the first to read a new thing, and the fascination of watching experience turn into words, as we do about the misery of Emma Hardy...or what Colt calls the unions that 'could only end in alcoholism and madness (the Fitzgeralds), black eyes and hurled martini glasses (McCarthy and Wilson), or separation and suicide (Hughes and Plath)''. - Andrew Motion, The Guardian
'...[includes] a series of touching accounts of domestic happiness...[although] the popular image of writers as selfish brutes is affirmed in the shorter section of the book, 'The Problems', which features failed marriages and disastrous relationships' - Jessica Mann, The Literary Review
'Everyone agrees that writers' lives are internal and invisible in certain crucial ways, and most people also suppose that the parts which do show are predictably unpleasant... [However, in this book] we hear as much about the satisfaction of mutual support, the thrill of being the first to read a new thing, and the fascination of watching experienceturn into words, as we do about the misery...' - Andrew Motion, Guardian Online
'[F]or every account that supports the perception that writers are self-centered, moody, brooding enigmas of petulant genius, there are uplifting tales of support, nurturing and inspiration' - Nicholas A. Basbanes, LA Times
'The editor of this intriguing little medley asked a number of writers to write something about living with a writer...the brief has been liberally interpreted, which makes it all the more interesting...The writer's inner self is what it's all about, of course, and this is precisely why Living with a Writer is (an) enjoyably prurient read. Get stuck in.' - The Evening Standard
'Conveys a sense of the writer's world.' - Times Higher Education Supplement
'Accomplished writers who read those words will almost certainly concede that they recognize themselves. Non-writers who live with writers will experience twinges of recognition, too. Bless them all, including my wife and children, who put up with so much.' - Steve Weinberg , The Writer