Between Them: remembering my parents - Tapa dura

An extraordinary piece of writing ... The act of writing those loves, has been if anything, Ford suggests, less poignant for him than a "source of immense exhilaration". His readers, those with parents, and those without them, will feel that too (Observer)

Full of gentle humour and a sense of lives lived well ... His great affection for his parents is everywhere evident ... In this superbly written account, Ford pieces together fragments of their lives, and brings them wonderfully to life (Sunday Times)

The US novelist and short story writer offers a touching recollection that is also a vivid portrait of mid-20th-century American life (Guardian 2017-01-07)

One of America's most gifted human anthropologists ... Their manners and affections, pleasures and frustrations take on weight through unsentimental but tender renderings ... So what are we left with in the end ...through ellipses, expressions of love, and the very fact of his biographical endeavour, is a testament to the art of writing (Big Issue in Scotland)

An exercise in love and economy ... Colourful, thoughtful and restrained, it points to all the gaps in parents' lives that children know nothing of, and never think to ask. Ostensibly spartan, Between Them is almost as rich in what you are left to read between the lines as in what is actually set in print (Sunday Herald, Books of the Year)

Through anecdotes and the odd photograph, he builds a portrait of mid-century America (Cultural calendar for the months ahead Daily Telegraph 2017-04-01)

Stylish, elegiac and funny . A marvellous writer (John Banville)

The enjoyment of reading Richard Ford is about the exquisite pleasure of acquisition of language . The harder you look, the sadder and funnier it gets (Observer)

Ford is possessed of a writer's greatest gifts ... Pure vocal grace, quiet humor, precise and calm observation ... Ford's language is of the cracked, open spaces and their corresponding places within (Lorrie Moore)

A true master of the modern American novel (Independent)

Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He has published eight novels and four collections of stories, including The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and the New York Times bestseller, Canada. Independence Day was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first time the same book had won both prizes. Let Me Be Frank with You was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages, and most recently was awarded the Prix Femina Étranger in France and the Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature in Spain. Richard Ford lives in Maine with his wife.