Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two contributors of essays to this volume on the bond between writer and mother. In detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present. Table of contents: Shakespeare’s Mother(s) / Richmond, Hugh Macrae: John Ruskin and Margaret / Daniels, Anthony: Ambitious Daughter: Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother / McFall, Gardner: Walt Whitman and His Mother / Silverman, Kenneth: The Maternal Embrace: Samuel Beckett and His Mother May / Drabble, Margaret: William Golding’s Mother / Carver, Judy: Voice Rehearsals and Personas in Sylvia’s [Sylvia Plath] Letters to Aurelia / Kalfopoulou, Adrianne: No Villainous Mother—The Life of Eva Larkin / Pullen, Philip: Robert Lowell: Trapped in Charlotte’s Web / Meyers, Jeffrey: Mother Tongue: A Memoir / McEwan, Ian: ‘Persistent Ghost’ / Thwaite, Anthony: Living with Mother / Aird, Catherine: ‘Bring Her Again to Me … ’ / Thwaite, Ann: My Mother, and Friends / Lindbergh, Reeve: My Mother’s Desk / Oliver-Smith, Martha: Mater Sagax / Hadas, Rachel: My Wicked Stepmother / Amis, Martin: About ‘My Mother Enters the Work Force’ / Dove, Rita: A Shadow in the Grass / Motion, Andrew: Mrs. Gabbet’s Desk / Updike, David: Dreams of a Mother and Daughter / Gordon, Lyndall: Her Programme / Parks, Tim