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Lizza Aiken on the Responsibility of Maintaining Her Mother's Literary Legacy
The greatest piece of good fortune in my life was to be born the daughter of the writer Joan Aiken. As a child I took it for granted that there would always be another story to cheer me along on a rainy walk, or an imaginative solution to a thorny problem, or a wonderful companion to share (and sometimes steal!) my own stories and adventures, and finally someone who would give me the best job in the world, for life.
Writing had been the family trade for more than three generations, from Unitarian minister William James Potter down to Joan's father, poet Conrad Aiken, but I never thought it would be mine. I was a reader, a listener and had my own ideas about telling stories; I went off to train as a mime in Amsterdam and Paris, perhaps the equivalent of running away to join the circus, and spent many years working in theatre and travelling between International Drama Festivals, where language was not a barrier.
Through all this time I have come to realize the real and lasting value of some of the classic books I have been given to look after.
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‘I feel that criticism is a letter to the public which the author, since it is not directed to him, does not have to open and read.'
from Letters to a Young Poet