Granta 88

Edmund White on Delilah Mae White: 'What made her uncertain were the proper boundaries between children and adults, love and sex, work and play. What bewildered her were her own children.' John McGahern on Susan McGahern: 'My mother spoke to me of heaven as concretely and with as much love as she named the wild flowers. It was her prayer and fervent hope that we would all live there together in happiness with God for all eternity.' Major writers talk about the influence of mothers in this book.