Adam Mars-Jones

He has written the truth as he saw it, and written it with passion, charm - and self-awareness

The book brims with humour and each sentence is a delight to read

This glorious memoir - funny and poignant in equal measure

There is much that is moving in Mars-Jones's memoir of his father... The writing sings with cleverness and wit

Mars-Jones's memoir, clotted and rich and true, does its job rather well

The account... of caring for his father is especially touching

His most remarkable book to date, which is in turns knowing and dextrous, hilarious and poignant

Mars-Jones's achievement in Kid Gloves is to portray such painful moments with humour and grace... Kid Gloves is full of truth about the ironies of family life, of the ways that we define ourselves through our parents and against them

The book brims with humour and each sentence is a delight to read. It also contains - courtesy of an extended metaphor drawn from Jane Grigson's recipe for cooking salmon in a court-bouillon - one of the best descriptions of sibling rivalry in contemporary literature. Above all, it is a celebration of language, a love shared by father and son alike

While waiting for more of Adam Mars Jones's gripping Pilcrow sequence, I was beguiled by Kid Gloves (Particular Books), his memoir of his high court judge father, which is witty, sardonic and humane. There are some entertaining legal set pieces, one revolving round James Bond and Ian Fleming, and a great account of young Adam's coming out as gay over the New Year of 1977. His father was homophobic but came round, though he never seemed able to remember Adam's partner's name. one of the funniest passages describes Dad's irritation at not being able to cram all his honorifics on to his American Express Gold Card: he has to abbreviate them to "Sir Wm". A paradoxical character, affectionately recalled.

Worries must be raised about the book business by the way that one of the best memoirs not only of this year but many apparently struggled to find a publisher. Kid Gloves: a Voyage Round My Father by Adam Mars-Jones (Particular Books) takes a family situation that would have prompted many writers to gory score-settling - a liberal gay son providing end-of-life care to his father, a homophobic Tory judge - and produces an account that manages to be tender, sharp and funny while being kinder to the subject than you might expect and tougher on the writer who is sitting in judgement.

Funny and subtle... the book's special chemistry derives from the disparity between the painful facts described and the affection with which they are recounted

Top of my list is Kid Gloves, Adam Mars-Jones's funny, tough, scrupulously fair memoir of his late father, the irascible High Court judge William Mars-Jones. Their vexed relationship, rich in vulnerability, frustration and farce, is unpacked for us with grace and subtle wit, not least the moment when Mars-Jones fils has to tell Mars-Jones pére, "a homophobe's homophobe", that he is gay. ... In spite of these wounds, the overwhelming tone of the memoir is one of profound affection and forbearance.

Ingeniously constructed and full of insight

A Voyage Round My Father

Kid Gloves

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Adam Mars-Jones

Praise for Kid Gloves

He has written the truth as he saw it, and written it with passion, charm - and self-awareness

The book brims with humour and each sentence is a delight to read

This glorious memoir - funny and poignant in equal measure

He has written the truth as he saw it, and written it with passion, charm - and self-awareness

The book brims with humour and each sentence is a delight to read

This glorious memoir - funny and poignant in equal measure

He has written the truth as he saw it, and written it with passion, charm - and self-awareness

The book brims with humour and each sentence is a delight to read

This glorious memoir - funny and poignant in equal measure

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