How to Begin

A book about finding a creative voice and becoming an artist via a startling rediscovery in Edmund de Waal’s family archives – letters between his grandmother and the charismatic poet Rainer Maria Rilke

** With letters translated from the German by prizewinning translator, Karen Leeder **

Edmund de Waal's grandmother, Elisabeth, aspires to be a poet. She is a young woman studying for a law degree in 1920s Vienna; she enters a dramatic correspondence with one of the totemic writers of the age, Rainer Maria Rilke. She is young, ambitious, uncertain; he is greatly revered. She dares to share her work, and he gives her encouragement and advice. They exchange letters for the five years until his death, alongside books, translations, poems in manuscript. Decades later when her grandson starts to write, it is Elisabeth’s turn to act as mentor, to take this young man seriously and to write him letters of encouragement. And most importantly, to introduce him to the poetry of Rilke.

How to Begin follows Edmund’s creative journey, from apprentice potter, familiar with failure, to a successful life as an artist. It is a moving, intergenerational story about the traces of memory within a family, and a deeply personal reflection on how we learn resilience with the support of others. It is for any reader, starting out, seeking the permission to begin.