About the Author

J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. His works include three memoirs, Hindoo Holiday, My Dog Tulip, and My Father and Myself, and a novel, We Think the World of You (all available as New York Review Books). W. H. Auden (1907-1973) was born in North Yorkshire, England, the son of a doctor. He studied at Oxford and published his first book, Poems, in 1930, immediately establishing himself as one of the outstanding voices of his generation. Auden emigrated to New York in 1939, where he became a US citizen and converted to Anglicanism. He wrote essays, critical studies, plays, and opera librettos for such composers as Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, and Hans Werner Henze, as well as the poems for which he is most famous.

Reviews

"I would like to give J.R. Ackerley's My Father and Myself to the entire Tory Shadow Cabinet... It shows how tissue-thin the narrative of power and 'respectable' class-consciousness always has been. The likes of David Cameron should read this book and think again if they believe hegemony to be part of their birthright." Will Self. Times