Penelope Lively

The choppy sea of family life

This is a lovely book. Judy Golding writes of her father —indeed of both her parents — with candour, humour and great insight and perception

issue 07 May 2011

This is a lovely book. Judy Golding writes of her father —indeed of both her parents — with candour, humour and great insight and perception

This is a lovely book. Judy Golding writes of her father —indeed of both her parents — with candour, humour and great insight and perception. More than that, here is an exemplary memoir of childhood, not remorselessly chronological, but drawing on the jumbled past to give an account of what it was like to be a child in an unusual family.

She describes an intense marriage, which was devoted and intermittently stormy. She sees herself and her brother David as always taking second place, especially as far as their mother was concerned. William Golding had dumped his longstanding girlfriend the moment he met Ann, a beautiful, vibrant and strong personality, who was passionate about him all her life, as well as being exasperated by him on occasion.

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