A House in St John’s Wood: In Search of My Parents
Written by Matthew Spender
Narrated by Laurence Kennedy
3.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
An intimate portrait of Stephen Spender’s extraordinary life written by Matthew Spender, shifting between memoir and biography, with new insights drawn from personal recollections and his father’s copious unpublished archives.
Stephen Spender’s life was a vivid prism on the twentieth century. Having met Auden and Isherwood at Oxford, he joined the early vocal critics of Hitler participated in the Spanish Civil War. His efforts there became distracted by the need to save his lover from being shot as a deserter, and by the outbreak of the Second World War he was judged unfit to fight. He served instead as a fireman and later produced propaganda for the war effort – establishing a mysterious connection with the Foreign Office which has generated much speculation until now. Examining the growth of Spender’s literary reputation and his later encounters with the CIA, this book sheds new light on his career.
Always susceptible to the allure of young men, Spender remained married to his second wife, Natasha Litvin, but continued to believe in male relationships as an essential creative inspiration. In tension with Natasha’s career as a musician after the birth of their two children, a considerable creative tension developed in the household. Stoical in her suffering, Natasha began to agonise over their marriage during her close friendship with Raymond Chandler.
Insightful and revelatory, ‘A House in St John’s Wood’ is the portrait of a marriage, a movement and a father whose complex brilliance continues to be felt widely – and among those closest to him.
Matthew Spender
Born in 1945, Matthew Spender is a sculptor and the author of ‘Within Tuscany: Reflections on a Time and a Place’ and ‘From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky’. He lives with his wife, artist Maro Gorky, and their two daughters on a farm near Siena.
Related to A House in St John’s Wood
Related audiobooks
The War of the Worlds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clinch Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Doctor's Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Comedy at Fountain Cottage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSixpence Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ash Tree Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRhapsody Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSunbirds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rupert Brooke: Life, Death and Myth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Time to Live Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGone Tomorrow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Exile and the Mapmaker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder Ground: Jem Flockhart, Book 6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGravement Endommagé Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Exploit of Harry the Actor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stranger (Unabridged) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Adventure Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House with the Green Shutters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Europeans Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Provincial Lady Goes Further: The Provincial Lady, Book 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Price of Two Sparrows Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pharmacist: Love is the Drug Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWashington Square Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fray Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLe Grand Meaulnes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLord Jim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Address Book: Hope lives here Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mill on the Floss Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Biographies For You
The Water Is Wide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Capote: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Papillon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rude Talk in Athens: Ancient Rivals, the Birth of Comedy, and a Writer's Journey through Greece Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lit: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Unusual Family, and How I Survived Both Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chronicles: Volume One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5These Precious Days: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for A House in St John’s Wood
5 ratings0 reviews