Interview: Andrew Motion

During his years as Britain’s poet laureate, Andrew Motion was often mocked by the press, but now his career has been re-energised and the unlikely source of inspiration is Treasure Island. By Iain Sharp.

By Iain Sharp In Books

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25th August, 2012

Interview

There’s a scene in Sir Andrew Motion’s first novel, The Pale Companion (1989), where the glamorous mother of the 16-year-old hero visits him at the posh boarding school he attends in the English countryside. “It’s always so noticeable how well-mannered everyone is here. I suppose it’s what we pay for,” she exclaims, blissfully unaware that before her arrival the generally foul-mouthed schoolboys have been engaged in all manner of mischief from bomb-making to buggery. Born in 1952, knighted by the Queen in 2009, and since 2003 professor of creative writing at the University ...

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