{"product_id":"history-of-the-child-9781780377858","title":"History of the Child","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePenelope Shuttle's \u003ci\u003eHistory of the Child\u003c\/i\u003e is a highly evocative exploration of childhood, memory, and imagination, blending personal and historical perspectives. \u003c\/b\u003eThe book's themes include parenting, grief, nature, emotional recovery and connections to the past, guided by the idea of childhood as a transformative and rebellious space. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first of the book's four sections features poems about Katherine of Aragon, the Vestal Virgins, Stanley Spencer and Wallace Stevens, with a focus on grief, nature, and animals. ​The second, \u003ci\u003eBook of Lullabies\u003c\/i\u003e, steps closer to the theme of the child, with poems about memory, inwardness, climate change, sexuality in older age, and the natural world. The third part, \u003ci\u003eHistory of the Child\u003c\/i\u003e, is a journey back to Penelope Shuttle's own childhood, blending personal memories with imagined perspectives to explore psychological crises, emotional recovery, and the traumas of childhood. ​ It introduces an 'alternative girl child self', inspired by Persian legends, by her late husband Peter Redgrove's dream of such a girl ('my death, and she is my soul'), and by a friend's fanciful wish. The culminating fourth section is a playful sequence about a little table, inspired by her mother and her childhood. ​ The table symbolises connection to her mother, who lived to be 100 years old, and their shared history. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eHistory of the Child\u003c\/i\u003e is guided by themes of memory, imagination, foreboding, magic, history and humour, and seeks to articulate the essence of 'being' through fiery language and elemental imagery. ​ She draws inspiration from Donald Winnicott's concept of the 'potentive space' where play, fantasy and reality intersect.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePenelope Shuttle\u003c\/b\u003e has lived in Cornwall since 1970, and is the widow of the poet Peter Redgrove, co-author with her of the classic study \u003ci\u003eThe Wise Wound: Menstruation and Everywoman\u003c\/i\u003e (1978; latest US edition, 2005). Her first collection of poems, \u003ci\u003eThe Orchard Upstairs\u003c\/i\u003e (1981) was followed by six other books from Oxford University Press, and then \u003ci\u003eA Leaf Out of His Book\u003c\/i\u003e (1999) from Oxford Poets\/Carcanet, and \u003ci\u003eRedgrove's Wife \u003c\/i\u003e(2006) and\u003ci\u003e Sandgrain and Hourglass\u003c\/i\u003e (2010) from Bloodaxe Books. Her ninth poetry collectio \u003ci\u003eRedgrove's Wife\u003c\/i\u003e (2006) was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2006. \u003ci\u003eSandgrain and Hourglass\u003c\/i\u003e (2010) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her retrospective, \u003ci\u003eUnsent: New \u0026amp; Selected Poems 1980-2012 \u003c\/i\u003e(Bloodaxe Books, 2012), drew on ten collections published over three decades plus the title-collection, \u003ci\u003eUnsent\u003c\/i\u003e. Her later collections from Bloodaxe are \u003ci\u003eWill you walk a little faster?\u003c\/i\u003e (2017), \u003ci\u003eLyonesse\u003c\/i\u003e (2021), longlisted for the Laurel Prize 2022, and \u003ci\u003eHistory of the Child\u003c\/i\u003e (2026).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bloodaxe Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52176248471826,"sku":"9781780377858","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_00f504df-d3ad-4e48-8692-e977a208f649.jpg?v=1775559818","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/history-of-the-child-9781780377858","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}