The Best Intentions

The first novel in world renowned film-maker, Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of novels plotting the fractious marriage of his parents

Bergman's affecting account of the romance between an upright divinity student and the daughter of an aristocratic family is based on the courtship of his own parents

Lush and devastating at once... The closest thing imaginable to a Bergman film without pictures or sound

Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden in 1918. He wrote or directed more than 170 theatrical productions and 60 films, including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona and Fanny and Alexander, and he is widely-regarded as one of the greatest film-makers of the 20th century. Bergman’s trilogy of books – The Best Intentions, Sunday’s Children, and Private Confessions – is based on the life of his parents, and details his own upbringing in early 20th-century Sweden. Bergman died in 2007.

The first novel in world renowned film-maker, Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of novels plotting the fractious marriage of his parents 
 
In 1909, Ingmar Bergman’s mother and father first meet. Anna is a nurse from a wealthy family; Henrik, a poor, trainee priest living with his lover. From the intensity of their courtship, to the difficult early years of their marriage, Bergman fictionalises his parent’s life before his birth, drawing the quiet, emotional sensitivity of his film-maker’s eye deep into the heart of his own family. 
 
The Best Intentions is the first in renowned film-maker Ingmar Bergman’s loose trilogy of novels that plots the fractious marriage of his parents, continued in Sunday’s Children and Private Confessions.

Private Confessions

The final novel in world renowned film-maker, Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of novels plotting the fractious marriage of his parents

As psychologically intricate and harshly personal as his movies

One senses that this dark gem of a novel, set in resonant prose as elegant as a classical sonata, is a catharsis for Bergman

Presented with a stark clarity that's reminiscent of some of the most memorable images of Bergman's films... A vibrant and moving addition to what begins to look more and more like a great work in progress

The final novel in world renowned film-maker, Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of novels plotting the fractious marriage of his parents 
 
Twelve years of marriage, three children, a husband, Henrik, with whom she no longer finds anything in common: Anna is at the end of her tether. Besides, she’s in love – with Henrik’s friend Tomas, a student-priest, who is everything her husband is not. 
 
Based upon film-maker, Ingmar Bergman’s own family life, Personal Confessions is the final part in Bergman’s loose trilogy of books that started with The Best Intentions and Sunday’s Children.

Ingmar Bergman

The second novel in world renowned film-maker, Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of novels plotting the fractious marriage of his parents 
 
Over the course of one summer, eight-year-old Pu Bergman makes the terrible realisation that his father and mother are no longer in love. Surrounded by the quiet idyll of the Swedish countryside, with its ponds, its rivers and woods, the daily chaos of the family’s ramshackle summer home threatens to bring to a close the bright, brilliant haze of Pu’s childhood world. 
 
Based upon film-maker Ingmar Bergman’s own family life, Sunday’s Children is the second part in Bergman’s loose trilogy of books that started with The Best Intentions, and closes with Private Confessions.

Ingmar Bergman

Sunday's Children

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