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Ammonites and Leaping Fish: A Life in Time
'Sharp, unsentimental and ruefully funny. A fascinating portrait not only of Lively but of the times through which she has lived' Daily Telegraph
'Clever and poignant . . . there is much to enjoy. This is Lively at her best' Sunday Express
'The twentieth century shook the it sobers me to have been one of those to see it through'
Ten years ago, Penelope Lively, then eighty, wrote this powerful and compelling 'view from old age', reporting back on what she found. There are meditations on what it is like to be old as well as on how memory shapes us. There are intriguing examinations of the key personal as well as historical moments she has lived through and her thoughts on her own bookishness - both as reader and writer. Lastly, she turns to six treasured possessions to speak eloquently about who she is and where she's been - fragments of memories from a life well lived.
Ten years on, Lively returns to the same questions in a new chapter, On Being Ninety, included in this new edition.
'A superb study of memory and of her own voyage into the ninth decade of her life. Lively is a compelling, vitally interested witness to time past' Helen Dunmore, Observer, Books of the Year
'Enthralling. Will delight all those who love Lively's novels' Daily Mail
'Clever and poignant . . . there is much to enjoy. This is Lively at her best' Sunday Express
'The twentieth century shook the it sobers me to have been one of those to see it through'
Ten years ago, Penelope Lively, then eighty, wrote this powerful and compelling 'view from old age', reporting back on what she found. There are meditations on what it is like to be old as well as on how memory shapes us. There are intriguing examinations of the key personal as well as historical moments she has lived through and her thoughts on her own bookishness - both as reader and writer. Lastly, she turns to six treasured possessions to speak eloquently about who she is and where she's been - fragments of memories from a life well lived.
Ten years on, Lively returns to the same questions in a new chapter, On Being Ninety, included in this new edition.
'A superb study of memory and of her own voyage into the ninth decade of her life. Lively is a compelling, vitally interested witness to time past' Helen Dunmore, Observer, Books of the Year
'Enthralling. Will delight all those who love Lively's novels' Daily Mail
256 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 2024
About the author
Penelope Lively
132 books961 followersPenelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.
Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.
She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.
Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.
Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.
She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.
Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 8, 2025
Having just finished this lovely book, I was infused with a home feeling on the spot. It struck in me mixed feelings, and I am grateful for all these sentiments. I was left with the impression that I rightly enjoyed the peace and beauty of Penelope Lively writing and her pleasant humour. It does my spirit good. It disposes me to amiable thoughts. Something nice😃
July 21, 2025
A thoughtful review of ideas on old age and memory; the writing is beautifully simple and it is informative - I don't know of a better brief analysis of the Suez Crisis (82-9). I felt almost guilty to be one of the team currently re-interpreting the earthworks at Hampton Gay (145-6) but I know Lively would approve; as she says, 'History ... is what has happened, what is thought to have happened, what some claim to have happened. The collective past is fact and fabrication ..... There is no received truth, just a tenuous thread of events amid a swirl of dispute and conflicting interpretation. But ... the past is real.' (138).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews