'For most people childhood ends slowly, so nobody can see where one part of life finishes and the next bit starts. But my childhood has ended suddenly. In a day.''
In The Blood is Andrew Motion's beautifully delivered memoir of growing-up in post-war England - an unforgettable evocation of family life, school life, and country life. It also tells the story of how these worlds were shattered, when Motion's mother suffered a terrible riding accident.
The tragedy shadows the book, feeding its mood of elegy as well as its celebratory vigilance. Told from a teenage child's point of view, without the benefit of hindsight, Motion captures the pathos and puzzlement of childhood with great clarity of expression and freshness of memory. We encounter a strange but beguiling extended family, a profound love of the natural world, and a growing passion for books and writing.
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