{"product_id":"how-to-begin-5th-nov","title":"How to Begin (5th Nov)","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e‘I believe you can live in a book of poems’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA book about finding a creative voice and becoming an artist via a startling rediscovery in Edmund de Waal’s family archives – letters between his grandmother and the charismatic poet Rainer Maria Rilke\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith letters translated from the German by prizewinning translator, Karen Leeder. This is a story about how to begin. In 1921, Elisabeth Ephrussi writes a letter to the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke. She too is a poet, or an aspiring one – a young law student in Vienna just beginning her creative life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTo her surprise, Rilke writes back with advice. A five-year correspondence follows, an exchange of lyrical and exhortatory letters alongside books, translations, poems in manuscript. They never meet.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFifty years later, Elisabeth’s grandson, Edmund de Waal, wants to be a poet and a potter. He sends her his own poetry, and she responds with guidance and Rilke’s Duino Elegies. How to Begin follows Edmund’s journey as an artist.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is a book about failure, about starting again, about apprenticeship and asking for and then disregarding advice, about working out ways to keep going when you don’t know how. It is a moving, intergenerational story about the traces of memory within a family, and a deeply personal reflection on how we learn resilience with the support of others. It is for any reader starting out, seeking the permission to begin.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'Enchanting, illuminating and tender' - Nigel Slater\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Book House (Thame)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56459239326081,"sku":null,"price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0280\/7873\/5421\/files\/9781784746704.jpg?v=1793184071","url":"https:\/\/shop.thebookhousethame.co.uk\/products\/how-to-begin-5th-nov","provider":"The Book House Thame","version":"1.0","type":"link"}