{"product_id":"how-to-begin-by-edmund-de-waal-9781784746704","title":"How to Begin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Enchanting, illuminating and tender\" - Nigel Slater\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"I believe you can live in a book of poems\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\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\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith letters translated from the German by prizewinning translator Karen Leeder.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a story about how to begin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 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. To her surprise, Rilke writes back with advice. A five-year correspondence follows, an exchange of lyrical and exhortatory letters alongside books, translations and poems in manuscript. They never meet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\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\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHow to Begin follows Edmund's journey as an artist. This 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt 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\/p\u003e","brand":"Edmund de Waal","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57631237407093,"sku":"9781784746704","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0812\/4075\/2426\/files\/9781784746704.jpg?v=1791297671","url":"https:\/\/sherlockandpages.com\/products\/how-to-begin-by-edmund-de-waal-9781784746704","provider":"Sherlock \u0026 Pages","version":"1.0","type":"link"}