Spenders’ marriage secrets to be revealed

The marriage between poet Stephen Spender and pianist Natasha Litvin was a union defined by creativity — and fraught sexual politics. Now their son, sculptor Matthew, is revealing all in a brave new book. “When my father died in 1995 he left behind a large archive,” says Spender, who has just signed with Natasha Fairweather at United Agents. “Now my mother has also died I’ve written a book about my parents based on this material, most of which is entirely new.”

The couple had an unorthodox marriage blighted by infidelities, but their son is taking a sympathetic approach. “My father continued to have relationships with young men right up to his death,” Spender says. “Without love, he felt, there would be no poetry.”