Mother's Boy

<p><b>'One of the all-time great memoirs' <i>Daily Telegraph</i><br>'Wonderful...candid, shrewd and moving' William Boyd<br>'Laugh-out-loud glorious and uproarious' Simon Schama</b><br><br><b>Howard Jacobson's funny, revealing and tender memoir of his path to becoming a writer.</b><br><br>Howard Jacobson was forty when his first novel was published. In <i>Mother's Boy</i>, he traces the life that brought him there. Born into a working-class Jewish family in 1940s Manchester, he did not lack encouragement or subject matter. Jacobson takes us from childhood and studying at Cambridge, through landing in Sydney as a maverick young professor, and on to his first marriage and the birth of his son. Later, he begins new - and often surprising - ventures in places as disparate as London, Wolverhampton, Boscastle and Melbourne.<br><br>Infused with bittersweet memories of Jacobson's parents and friends, this is the story of a writer's beginnings, and of learning to understand who you are before you can become the writer you were meant to be.<br><br><b>'Hilariously brilliant' David Baddiel</b><br><br><b>'Howard Jacobson brilliantly transforms calamity into rip-roaring comedy' Craig Brown, <i>Mail on Sunday</i></b></p> <p><b>'One of the all-time great memoirs' <i>Daily Telegraph</i><br>'Wonderful...candid, shrewd and moving' William Boyd<br>'Laugh-out-loud glorious and uproarious' Simon Schama</b><br><br><b>Howard Jacobson's funny, revealing and tender memoir of his path to becoming a writer.</b><br><br>Howard Jacobson was forty when his first novel was published. In <i>Mother's Boy</i>, he traces the life that brought him there. Born into a working-class Jewish family in 1940s Manchester, he did not lack encouragement or subject matter. Jacobson takes us from childhood and studying at Cambridge, through landing in Sydney as a maverick young professor, and on to his first marriage and the birth of his son. Later, he begins new - and often surprising - ventures in places as disparate as London, Wolverhampton, Boscastle and Melbourne.<br><br>Infused with bittersweet memories of Jacobson's parents and friends, this is the story of a writer's beginnings, and of learning to understand who you are before you can become the writer you were meant to be.<br><br><b>'Hilariously brilliant' David Baddiel</b><br><br><b>'Howard Jacobson brilliantly transforms calamity into rip-roaring comedy' Craig Brown, <i>Mail on Sunday</i></b></p>