My Animal Life: A Memoir
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'A wise and beautiful book about what it feels like to be alive I really loved it --Zadie Smith
'Often joyous; infinitely wise; passionate and poised, this is a book you ll want to sit in silence with and hug to yourself - then start again.' --Daily Mail
Exceptionally interesting and brave ... a wonderful book Claire Tomalin A fine, honest, complex portrait of an artist s mind Michele Roberts, Independent Every word strikes like a hammer on an anvil, throwing off sizzling sparks Bidisha, The f word Anyone who yearns for that lost post-war Britain would do well to read this vivid, minutely observed memoir ...Gee has a sensuous eye for detail Sinclair McKay, Telegraph It is a testament to Gee s skill with structure, her lightness of touch and her honesty, particularly about the most painful episodes, that she has fashioned this account of a fundamentally satisfying and happy writer s life into such a page-turner. Melissa Benn, New Statesman Maggie Gee writes with such courage and wit. This is a vivid portrait of a woman finding her way through the maze of class ridden post war England, the 60's, feminism and how to be a mother and a writer. Diana Melly Highly recommended for all aspiring writers' Bernardine Evaristo 'Observant, honest and sensitively-written... Michael Holroyd Fresh and funny ... with a zest for living that bounces off the page... Psychologies Sensitive, honest, courageous, stylish The Times ' --Reviews and Endorsements
'Often joyous; infinitely wise; passionate and poised, this is a book you ll want to sit in silence with and hug to yourself - then start again.' --Daily Mail
Exceptionally interesting and brave ... a wonderful book Claire Tomalin A fine, honest, complex portrait of an artist s mind Michele Roberts, Independent Every word strikes like a hammer on an anvil, throwing off sizzling sparks Bidisha, The f word Anyone who yearns for that lost post-war Britain would do well to read this vivid, minutely observed memoir ...Gee has a sensuous eye for detail Sinclair McKay, Telegraph It is a testament to Gee s skill with structure, her lightness of touch and her honesty, particularly about the most painful episodes, that she has fashioned this account of a fundamentally satisfying and happy writer s life into such a page-turner. Melissa Benn, New Statesman Maggie Gee writes with such courage and wit. This is a vivid portrait of a woman finding her way through the maze of class ridden post war England, the 60's, feminism and how to be a mother and a writer. Diana Melly Highly recommended for all aspiring writers' Bernardine Evaristo 'Observant, honest and sensitively-written... Michael Holroyd Fresh and funny ... with a zest for living that bounces off the page... Psychologies Sensitive, honest, courageous, stylish The Times ' --Reviews and Endorsements
Product Description
How do you become a writer, and why? Maggie Gee s journey starts a long way from the literary world in a small family in post-war Britain. At seventeen, Maggie goes, a lamb to the slaughter, to university. From the 1960s onwards she lives the defining events of her generation: the coming of the Pill and sexual freedom, tremors in the British layer-cake of class and race. In the 1980s, Maggie finally gets published, falls in love, marries and has a daughter but for the next three decades and beyond, she survives, and sometimes thrives, by writing. This frank, bold memoir dares to explore the big questions: success and failure, sex, death and parenthood our animal life.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An autobiography extraordinaire by a gifted novelist,
By
This review is from: My Animal Life (Hardcover)
I just read this in one sitting and my mind is fizzing with excitement about this extraordinarily brave autobiography, social history, family history, and intimate (sex!) details. I have to admit that my own "light cone" (google that!) is congruent with Maggie's: post-war Britain, grammar school, Oxford undergraduate in the mid 1960s, all the confusion of womens' lib. Here is a jewel of a book in which the way we lived back then (1948 - 1968) is told with such feeling of love, and of the joy of simply existing. As a historian of astronomy, I admire Maggie's reflection that our home planet existed four billion years before our birth and it will survive as a planet for four billion years after our death. So we are here (yes, that includes you Dear Reader) for an instant between two flaps of wings somewhere in the cosmos. So what's it all about? Maggie (she prefers that name to the Margaret her parents gave her) is deeply moving (and Reader note that I am a male ...) on the importance of love within the family and our friendships. Her penultimate chapter is titled "What is a soul?" It is inspirational for anyone who was brought up in the Christian faith but is now a non-believer.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading,
By gcas (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Animal Life (Hardcover)
I really enjoyed the mixture of genres in the book, the stories and reflections, the tangents, the politics and the intimacy - the hymns to love. It should be compulsory reading for all aspirant writers as well as any historian wanting to understand the changes for women in the latter part of the twentieth century but also for anyone who searches for honesty and truth about the human condition. Gee writes with a great rhythm and revels in language and the book bubbles over with her trademark clear observations and humour. A delightful and insightful book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
So interesting and true I could not put it down.,
By
This review is from: My Animal Life (Paperback)
This autobiography is so interesting and true I could not put it down. Odd because I have not read a single one of her novels, and probably won't. But her spirit was so alive in an interview that I heard that I decided to buy her book.Apart from thinking that limpets are concious and other slightly "fluffy spiritual" ideas it is a concrete account of an interesting life. She says how much luck has to do with success in the artistic life, and how reviewers (and successful authors) do not want to admit this. A very good read.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
