Lockwood on A.S. Byatt's Possession
Patricia Lockwood chooses A.S. Byatt’s Possession, a much-loved book that gave Lockwood ‘permission’ to pursue her literary passion: ‘it was not a waste of time, not a waste of life, to read’.
Two modern-day academics uncover a secret affair between famous fictional poets in A.S. Byatt’s gloriously exhilarating novel of wit and romance.
Maud Bailey is a scholar researching the life and work of her distant relative, a little-known 19th-century poet named Christabel LaMotte. Roland Mitchell is looking into an obscure moment in the life of another Victorian poet, the celebrated Randolph Henry Ash. Together, the two uncover a dark secret in Ash’s life: though apparently happily married, he conducted a torrid affair with LaMotte. As Maud and Roland dig deeper, they too find themselves falling in love.
A.S. Byatt
About the Author
A.S. Byatt is a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999.Other nominated books by A.S. Byatt
A.S. Byatt’s vivid and deeply affecting historical fiction is the story of a singular family, played out against the great, rippling tides of the day.