In this wonderfully entertaining and enlightening collection, Colm Tóibín not only explores the often tense relationship between writers and their families but also conveys, with a rare tenderness and wit, the great joy of reading their work.

Here is W.B. Yeats harshly responding to his own father's literary efforts; Thomas Mann ruining his children's prospects; Tennessee Williams haunted by his sister's mental illness; and John Cheever being beastly to his wife.

Praise for New Ways to Kill Your Mother: 'A brilliant book...Tóibín is a supple, subtle thinker, alive to hints and undertones, wary of absolute truths' Robert Hanks,

New Statesman 'A penetrating and often very funny inquiry into the fraught complicity between parent and child, brother and sister'

Daily Telegraph 'Insightful and compassionate, assured and knowledgeable, never less than fascinating.

An impressive, fine and engaging collection' Independent on Sunday

Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of seven novels, including The Master which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize , Brooklyn which won the Costa Novel Award and, most recently, The Testament of Mary, and two volumes of short stories. His non-fiction includes Lady Gregory's Toothbrush and Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almovodar Read