Background
MOTION, Andrew was born on October 26, 1952. Son of Andrew R. Motion and Catherine G. Motion.
(The pleasure steamer reached its heyday in the late ninet...)
The pleasure steamer reached its heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: hundreds of vessels, most of them paddle-powered, plied the lakes, waterways and coast of Britain, most often ferrying daytrippers from urban areas to the coast. Presenting a serene alternative to rail travel, they had the added advantage of dropping passengers off directly at the main attraction of any resort, the pier, which owed its very existence to the steamers, which needed somewhere to dock offshore. Andrew Gladwell here explores the rise and fall of these attractive ships, the companies that ran them, the experiences of their passengers and crew, and the restoration and conservation of the few remaining pleasure steamers, such as Waverley, Kingswear Castle and The Medway Queen.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0747812055/?tag=2022091-20
(If you mention the subject of pleasure steamers on the ri...)
If you mention the subject of pleasure steamers on the rivers Thames and Medway, you can be certain that most people will remember with fond nostalgia the well-loved steamers Royal Daffodil, Royal Sovereign and Queen of the Channel. Even now well over forty years since their untimely demise, their fame and public affection for them, is just as strong as it was in their heyday. They were simply the poor man's ocean liner. Andrew Gladwell takes us on a long and nostalgic glance back to their short but eventful careers as well as looking briefly at the other paddle steamers that were around from the early 1920s. Today, we are lucky to see three pleasure steamers regularly sailing on the Thames and Medway but there was a period in the early 1970s when it looked like the pleasure steamer had gone from these rivers forever. Evoking memories of the steamers that once took thousands on their trips to the coastal resorts, Andrew Gladwell brings together a fascinating selection of images and ephemera of these now-lost vessels.
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(A biography of the poet discusses his friendships with ot...)
A biography of the poet discusses his friendships with other aspiring writers, painters, and musicians, his repressive family life, his need for affection and fear of the encroachment on his writing that marriage represented, and his work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374231680/?tag=2022091-20
(Eschewing the confessional or critical tone of some memoi...)
Eschewing the confessional or critical tone of some memoirs, and the investigatory or elucidatory approaches of others, Motion strives to recreate the voice and vision of the boy he once was, taking care not to sully or distort with hindsight what is felt to be still very much alive in memory. Whether recounting his first time salmon fishing in Scotland with his father, the horrors of prep school at the young age of seven, or his discovery of Thomas Hardy and Bob Dylan, Motion imbues his recollections with the quicksilver emotions of the boy he was and the perceptions of the poet he will be; readers of Motion's poetry will recognize many of these experiences as the antecedents of the poems. Yet this memoir is far more than a guide to the life behind the poems; it is a stand against the ineluctability of time's passing, an insistence that what has been "felt in the blood, and felt along the heart," as in the book's title and epigraph from Wordsworth, can be neither taken from us nor los
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(A story of three generations destroyed by drink, drugs an...)
A story of three generations destroyed by drink, drugs and bohemian life. George Lambert served as a war artist in Palestine and Gallipoli, and became Australia's leading painter. His son Constant founded the Sadlers Wells ballet, and Kit Lambert managed the pop group, The Who, and was murdered.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571176054/?tag=2022091-20
( Andrew Motion brings all his lyricism and inventiveness...)
Andrew Motion brings all his lyricism and inventiveness to bear in this fictional autobiography of the great swindler, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright. A painter, writer, and friend of Blake, Byron, and Keats, Wainewright was almost certainly a murderer. When he died in a penal colony in Tasmania, he left behind fragments of documents and a beguiling legend which Motion uses to create an imagined confession laced with facts, telling the story as no straightforward history could. "Thomas Griffiths Wainewright is a dream subject for either novelist or biographer. . . . Andrew Motion, Britain's poet laureate, clearly felt that neither straight biography nor pure fiction would do Wainewright's complexities justice, and so he combined the two genres. The result is stunning. The central voice is that of Wainewright himself, reflecting back on his life. After each chapter Mr. Motion has added detailed notes that inform and flesh out the narrative, giving not only his own informed opinion of Wainewright's actions but also those of Wainewright's contemporaries and the scholars and writers who have studied him over the past two centuries."—Lucy Moore, Washington Times "Brilliantly innovative, gripping, intricately researched, Motion's biography does justice to its subject at last."—John Carey, The Sunday Times "Engaging and convincing. . . . The trajectory of this character-from neglected and resentful child to arrogant and envious London dandy to sociopathic murderer on to an enfeebled, frightened prisoner-is indelibly imagined and drawn."—Edmund White, Financial Times "[A] fascinating look at an evil artist, a charmer still having his way with us. We can hear him being economical with the truth, telling us and himself just what he wants to hear."—Michael Olmert, New Jersey Star Ledger "Motion crafts a fascinating tale as complex and compelling as if Wainewright himself had written it."—Michael Spinella, Booklist "Did he kill his servant, and possibly others as well? . . . The footnotes seem to say yes, but Wainewright adamantly argues his own case. Motion's prose is flawless, and Wainewright's voice is convincing. But in the long run, it's this ambiguity that makes Wainewright the Poisoner a fascinating and memorable read."—R.V. Schelde, Sacramento News and Review "Who could as for a better Romantic villain than Thomas Griffiths Wainewright? . . . [The book] succeeds on many levels: as an act of ventriloquism, a work of scholarship, a psychological study, as a set of sharp portraits of famous men and an engrossing read. . . ."—Polly Shulman, Newsday "Instead of a straightforward biography, Andrew Motion gives us Wainewright's first person, fictionalized "confession."—a document as circumspect, slyly reticent, and oeaginously smooth as the man himself. Splendid."—John Banville, Literary Review "A genuine tour de force, and on a non-fictional level, a telling portrait of a strange, intriguing and repellant man."—Brian Fallon, Irish Times "A marvelous literary hybrid that totters with one foot in the world of nonfiction, the other in the land of make-believe. One is alternatively swept up in Motion's dizzy imaginative pastiche, or sent crashing into a dusty stack of scholarly cogitations. . . ."—Philadelphia Inquirer "As true a portrait of a liar as its subject could wish. Rich and strange. . . ."—Glasgow Herald
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(The author evokes Wainewright the poisoner's double life ...)
The author evokes Wainewright the poisoner's double life in a biography that takes the form of a confession. He strips away the layers of legend and restores Wainewright to his own voice, capturing his energy, charm, callousness, wit and wantoness.
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(A rich spectrum of poetic voices - ancient and modern, ne...)
A rich spectrum of poetic voices - ancient and modern, new and familiar - arranged concentrically under different headings: Self, Home, Town, Work, Land, Love, Travel, War, Belief and Space. Each section seeks out resemblances and echoes elsewhere, creating the impression of an expanding universe, from Wallace Stevens to Stevie Smith, Joseph Brodsky to Jo Shapcott, Bob Dylan to Dylan Thomas, Ben Jonson to Benjamin Zephaniah...
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(Embassy, Consul, Monarch and Emperor of India were just s...)
Embassy, Consul, Monarch and Emperor of India were just some of the well-loved paddle steamers operated by Cosens of Weymouth along the scenic Dorset coast before services ceased when Embassy was withdrawn in 1966. The distinctive Cosens fleet with their buff funnels became a part of the Dorset coast scenery for a century. Cosens offered passengers from the crowded piers at Weymouth and Bournemouth the opportunity to cruise to the Isle of Wight, Swanage, Portland as well as landing by ramp onto the beach at the picturesque Lulworth Cove. In addition, they offered cruises to West Dorset and Devon resorts such as Torquay, Seaton and Lyme Regis as well as to France during the busy Edwardian period. Cosens became an important part of daily life at Weymouth, with their extensive and busy workshops providing employment for townsfolk who helped repair many famous South Coast steamers. Cosens were a central and well-loved part of the life and scenery of Weymouth and Dorset during the heyday of the paddle steamer and are fondly remembered by former passengers and holiday makers alike.
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( This book takes the reader on a photographic journey am...)
This book takes the reader on a photographic journey among the pleasure steamers that took vacationers to and from the Lancashire coast resorts from the 1840s to the mid-1900s.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0752428047/?tag=2022091-20
(Eagle and Belle steamers were once a regular sight on the...)
Eagle and Belle steamers were once a regular sight on the Thames. Pleasure sailings on the river started in the 1820s, almost with the first paddle steamers to ply their trade on the Thames. The advent of paid holidays for the masses saw a huge rise in the numbers of pleasure steamers and passengers using them, sailing from London to resorts on the Kent and Essex coasts, from Gravesend to Southend, from Frinton to Ramsgate and Margate. By the 1920s, the primary operators were the Belle and Eagle companies and the New Medway Steamship company. The 1920s and 1930s saw a boom in travel downriver but the 1950s saw the start of the decline that ended the businesses by the late 1960s. Andrew Gladwell, archivist of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society, takes us on a journey down the water, showing us the steamers that operated primarily from the Pool of London downriver.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1445641585/?tag=2022091-20
(Pleasure steamer cruises along the scenic North Wales coa...)
Pleasure steamer cruises along the scenic North Wales coast from Liverpool disappeared some fifty years ago. The outstanding beauty of North Wales and in particular the Menai Straits and Anglesey, was in its day, one of the most outstanding and scenic areas of the UK for enjoying the simple pleasure of taking a pleasure steamer cruise. It offered passengers a few hours at the seaside or enabled them to sample scenery away from that seen in everyday life of the industrial north of England. There was no finer grandstand to enjoy such a day as on one of the well-loved and stylish steamers of the Liverpool & North Wales Steamship Company of the 1950s and 1960s; St Trillo, St Seiriol and St Tudno. Services between Liverpool and North Wales had their origin as far back as 1821. North Wales like so many other areas around the UK, saw services expand and change during the Victorian era. The 1920s witnessed the entry into service of smart new steamers such as the St Tudno of 1926. The services were lost in the 1960s but the Waverley and Balmoral still ply these waters today, giving the modern day tripper an experience of times past.
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("The Pleasure Steamers" is Andrew Motion's first collecti...)
"The Pleasure Steamers" is Andrew Motion's first collection of poems. Formally adventurous, in the way his work has continued to be, the collection explores relationships, geographies and the legacy of the past to the present. Long sequences such as "Inland" and "Anniversaries" are interspersed with short, sharp lyrics which display the control, flare and delicacy which are the hallmarks of the Poet Laureate.
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(For over 150 years, pleasure steamers and paddle steamers...)
For over 150 years, pleasure steamers and paddle steamers operated on day trips from the Yorkshire coastal resorts, sailing from Hull, Scarborough, Whitby and Bridlington up and down the coast, giving the day tripper a taste of life aboard. From the Bilsdale, Englishman, Yorkshireman and the other steamers that served the Yorkshire Coast, Andrew Gladwell presents a unique glimpse of these tourist steamers at the peak of their careers in the period from the 1900s to the 1950s. He tells the story of the pleasure steamers that once plied these waters, using many rare and previously unpublished images of the ships and the resorts they served.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1445614545/?tag=2022091-20
(Many people remember with great fondness the pleasure ste...)
Many people remember with great fondness the pleasure steamers that plied the River Thames in the years after the end of the Second World War. The mighty General Steam Navigation Company, more commonly known as 'Eagle Steamers', dominated the business. But fewer people now appreciate the significant role that the New Medway Steam Packet Company (known as 'Queen Line Steamers') played in the growth of services in the Thames Estuary from the early 1920s until the early 1960s. The 'Eagle & Queen Line of Steamers' became one of the most formidable pleasure steamer operators in the whole of the UK before its untimely demise in the 1960s. Andrew Gladwell tells the story of the steamers which operated in the Medway from their inception to the present day, using a selection of images, many previously unpublished, to bring the story to life. Medway Queen herself still survives, but names familiar to Medway residents will include the Queen of Thanet, City of Rochester and Queen of the Channel. Today, Kingswear Castle, Waverley and Balmoral provide steamer services on the Medway, keeping alive an almost two-hundred-year-old tradition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1848686951/?tag=2022091-20
(For over 150 years, pleasure steamers and paddle steamers...)
For over 150 years, pleasure steamers and paddle steamers operated on day trips from the Yorkshire coastal resorts, sailing from Scarborough, Whitby and Bridlington up and down the coast, giving the day tripper a taste of life aboard in exchange for a few shillings. From the Bilsdale, Frenchman, Yorkshireman, Coronia and the other steamers that served the Yorkshire Coast, Andrew Gladwell presents a unique glimpse of these tourist steamers at the peak of their careers in the period from the 1900s to the 1960s. He tells the story of the pleasure steamers that once plied these waters, using many rare and previously unpublished images of the ships and the resorts they served. Learn of the musicians that would once perform aboard, see the steamers cruising the dramatic coastline and learn about the paddle and pleasure steamer captains and crew that worked the Yorkshire coast.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLM74S8/?tag=2022091-20
(Philip Larkin, known to many through his poems, contrived...)
Philip Larkin, known to many through his poems, contrived to present a picture of himself to the world which kept many facets of his complicated personality hidden. In this biography Andrew Motion, Larkin's literary executor and close friend, reveals the full man. Granted access to private documents and assisted by the men and women most intimately connected with the poet, this book tells the story of how Larkin, to the cost of his own happiness and that of others, achieved "a writer's life". The author has won the Somerset Maugham Award for poetry and biography.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/057117065X/?tag=2022091-20
( The Price of Everything brings together two long poems....)
The Price of Everything brings together two long poems. "Lines of Desire" depicts an individual in crisis under pressure from past and present events. "Joe Soap" combines narrative and lyric forms to trace an historical pattern reaching from the First World War to a contemporary apocalypse. Both are remarkable additions to Motion's important and ongoing body of work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571169007/?tag=2022091-20
MOTION, Andrew was born on October 26, 1952. Son of Andrew R. Motion and Catherine G. Motion.
Master of Letters, University College, Oxford, England.
English reader University College, Oxford, England. English professor University Hull, England, 1976—1981. Editor Poetry Review, 1981—1983.
Poetry editor, editorial director Chatto & Windus, London, 1983—1989. Professor creative writing University East Anglia, Norwich, England, 1995—2003, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University London, Surrey, since 2003. Chairman literature panel Arts Council England.
(Eschewing the confessional or critical tone of some memoi...)
(For over 150 years, pleasure steamers and paddle steamers...)
(The pleasure steamer reached its heyday in the late ninet...)
(For over 150 years, pleasure steamers and paddle steamers...)
(A biography of the poet discusses his friendships with ot...)
(If you mention the subject of pleasure steamers on the ri...)
(Embassy, Consul, Monarch and Emperor of India were just s...)
(A rich spectrum of poetic voices - ancient and modern, ne...)
( This book takes the reader on a photographic journey am...)
(Philip Larkin, known to many through his poems, contrived...)
( Andrew Motion brings all his lyricism and inventiveness...)
(Many people remember with great fondness the pleasure ste...)
(In a time rich in unlikely characters, Thomas Griffiths W...)
(The author evokes Wainewright the poisoner's double life ...)
(Pleasure steamer cruises along the scenic North Wales coa...)
(A portrayal of three generations destroyed by drinks, dru...)
(A story of three generations destroyed by drink, drugs an...)
("The Pleasure Steamers" is Andrew Motion's first collecti...)
(Eagle and Belle steamers were once a regular sight on the...)
( The Price of Everything brings together two long poems....)
Author: (poetry) Goodnestone: A Sequence, 1972, Inland, 1976 (Newdigate prize, 1975), The Pleasure Steamers, 1977, Independence, 1981, Philip Larkin, 1982, Secret Narratives, 1983, Dangerous Play: Poems 1974-1984, 1984 (John Llewellyn Rhys prize, 1984), Natural Causes, 1987 (Dylan Thomas award, 1987), Two Poems, 1988, Love in a Life, 1991, The Price of Everything, 1994, Salt Water, 1997, Selected Poems 1976-1997, 1998, John Keats: Poems Selected by Andrew Motion, 2000, A Long Story, 2001, Public Property, 2002, In the Blood: A Memoir of My Childhood, 2006, (biography) The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit, 1986 (Somerset Maugham award, 1987), Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life, 1993 (Whitbread Biography award, 1993), Keats: A Biography, 1997, Wainewright the Poisoner, 2000, (fiction) The Invention of Doctor Cake, 2003, (afterword) 101 Poems Against War, 2003. Co-author (with Michael Donaghy, Andrew Motion & Hugo Williams): (poetry) Penguin Modern Poets: Volume 11, 1997. Editor: Here to Eternity: An Anthology of Poetry, 2001, First World War Poems, 2003.Co-editor (with Blake Morrison): The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, 1982. Co-editor: (with Malcolm Bradbury) New Writing 2, 1994. Co-editor: (with Candace Rodd) New Writing 3, 1994.
Fellow: Royal Society Literature.
Married 1st Joanna J. Powell in 1973 (dissolved in 1983). Married 2nd Janet Elisabeth Dailey in 1985.