Andrew Motion's prose memoir In the Blood (2006) was widely acclaimed, praised as an act of magical retrieval and a hymn to familial love. Now, twelve years later and three years after moving to live and work in the United States, Motion looks back once more to recreate a stunning biographical sequel - but this time in verse.

A verse memoir from the former poet laureate giving tragic resonance to the subjects and the personal losses that have haunted Motion across his writing life, combining Tennysonian melancholy with the narrative momentum of a novel.