Bad Blood: A Memoir – The Whitbread Biography Award Winner―A Tragicomic Story of Three Generations and Escape in Post-WWII Britain - Softcover

Sage, Lorna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062080245 ISBN 13: 9780062080240

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2011

Synopsis

Bestselling author Lorna Sage delivers the tragicomic memoirof her escape from a claustrophobic childhood in post-WWII Britain—and thestory of the weddings and relationships that defined three generations of herfamily—in Bad Blood, an internationalbestseller and the winner of the coveted Whitbread Biography Award. Readers ofbooks like Angela’s Ashes and The Liar’s Club as well as fans ofSage’s own lucid and penetrating writing will be captivated by the book thatthe New York Times Book Review said“fills us with wonder and gratitude. . . . Few literary critics have everwritten anything so memorable.”

This celebrated memoir unflinchingly explores the secrets that bind a family:

• A Dysfunctional Family: At the center is Sage’s grandfather: a bitter, theatrical vicar in a remote Welsh border village, whose affairs and secret diaries cast a long shadow.
• Post-War Britain: A vivid portrait of a claustrophobic childhood in an England of rationing, social codes, and secrets, where escape seems impossible.
• Coming of Age: From a girl who finds refuge in books to a sixteen-year-old facing an unexpected pregnancy, Sage’s journey is sharp, unsentimental, and unforgettable.
• A Mother-Daughter Story: The complex, often painful relationships between three generations of women are laid bare with wit and breathtaking honesty.

About this title

About the Author

An influential literary critic, Lorna Sage was a professor of English at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Her other books include Women in the House of Fiction, The Cambridge Guide to Women’s Writing in English, and a study of the novelist Angela Carter. She died in 2001.

From the Back Cover

“The bad blood had missed a generation. You’re just like your grandfather, my mother said.”

Blood trickles down through every generation, seeps into every marriage. An international bestseller and winner of the Whitbread Biography Award, Bad Blood is a tragicomic memoir of one woman’s escape from a claustrophobic childhood in post–World War II Britain and the story of three generations of a family—its triumphs and its darkest secrets.

With wit and a dose of self-deprecating humor, Sage’s prose brings to life in vivid detail a period—the 1940s and 1950s—that continues to influence and shape society in the twenty-first century. As a portrait of a family and a young girl’s place in it, Bad Blood is unsurpassed.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062080245
• ISBN 13: 9780062080240
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320