My Father and Myself

J.R. Ackerley's father was the Banana King, a successful importer of fruit and a bluff, hearty fellow -- qualities little appreciated by his refined and literary son. On his death, however, he left a letter revealing that his life of respectable prosperity was a facade. Thus began what for Ackerley was an ongoing quest to comprehend a father who remained always just beyond his reach. My Father and Myself, described by its author as an "examining and self-examining book", was published only after Ackerley's own death. It was immediately recognized as a classic account, on the order of Edmund Gosse's Father and Son, of the relationships between parent and child.J. R. Ackerley is the author of 'My Father and Myself' with ISBN 9780671656751 and ISBN 0671656759.