'A bald summary does no justice to the subtlety and exceptional lucidity of a book which turns the bland, familiar, intrinsically worthy stuff of so many fictional family sagas into a biographical triumph.' Observer

'Motion has given us an exemplary piece of research, and a comparison of three eras that is of compelling interest, not least in showing what damage one generation does to the next.' Sunday Times

'The story of the three Lamberts is as cruel and horrifying as any Greek tragedy. What it may lack in grandeur it makes up for in being true and recent. Its portrayal of the way in which the Lamberts instinctively yet unintentionally assisted in the destruction of their own offspring makes for truly compulsive reading.' Harpers and Queen

Andrew Motion