The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit

Lamberts, The: George, Constant & Kit by Motion, Andrew. 8vo.

A willingness to court disaster and reckless excess united the three generations limned in this intensely serious family portrait. Robust, flamboyant George Lambert, son of a Baltimore railway engineer, was reared in the New South Wales outback and became the most famous Australian painter of his day. In London he boxed Augustus John to the ground. His long absences from home added to the insecurities of his son Constant, who became a hard-drinking composer and conductor. Constant treated his own marriage as an amusing diversion; his ballet Horoscope cryptically described his affair with ballerina Margot Fonteyn. His jazz-classical fusions and a score for Diaghilev are now largely forgotten. Constant's son, Kit, manager of the rock group The Who, led a messy life of heroin addiction, drink and debt. Motion, an English poet and critic, explores the ways that each generation's flaws and neuroses were visited upon the next.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After a sluggish start this evolves into a fascinating study of three remarkably talented and self-destructive men. George Lambert (1873-1930) was born after his father's death and grew up in Australia. He became Australia's most famous artist, the first to be appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy. Constant (1905-51), his neglected son, became the Saddler's Wells Ballet's first musical director and conductor. Kit (1935-81), Constant's only son, was also neglected by his father yet shared his artistic gifts. He gained fame and notoriety as creator and manager of the The Who. All three were intimately involved with the artistic worlds of their day. Each died prematurely after flamboyant excesses which the author attributes to personal and professional insecurities. Carefully researched, this is an objective yet sympathetic study, especially of the women who shared their lives. Recommended. Jeanne Gelinas, Hennepin Cty. Lib., Mound, Minn.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.