On Wheels

Zusatztext

<p>Michael Holroyd confronts an army of automobiles in this charming book. Weaving together memoir and historical anecdote, he traces his relationship with cars through a lifetime of biography.</p><p>Learning to drive was no easy matter for Michael: the lessons required military precision when practising how to get in and out of his car correctly. His biographical subjects also had their difficulties: Bernard Shaw drove with reckless gusto when overtaking his eightieth year; Vita Sackville-Wests car became a chamber for sudden romantic assignations and getaways; while Augustus John and his family careered through vulnerable villages as the poor vehicle, piled high with bohemian friends, stuttered and jerked along in first gear.</p><p>Wry, thoughtful and very funny,<i>On Wheels</i>is an elegy to the glamour of the car. Subtle and perceptive, Michael Holroyd finds surprising ways to understand the past and challenge our view of the future.</p>

Autorenportrait

Besides the Lives of Augustus John, Bernard Shaw and Lytton Strachey (which was filmed as<i>Carrington</i>), Michael Holroyd has written two volumes of memoirs,<i>Basil Street Blues</i>and<i>Mosaic. A Strange Eventful History</i>won the James Tait Black Prize, and was a biography of two great theatrical dynasties which included Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, and her son Edward Gordon Craig. His most recent book,<i>A Book of Secrets</i>, combined memoir with biographies of a number of notable women. He has been president of the Royal Society of Literature and is the first non-fiction writer to have been awarded the British Literature Prize. He lives in London and Somerset with his wife, the novelist Margaret Drabble.

Weitere Details