Book of Life: A Compendium of the Best Autobiographical and Memoir Writing by Eve Claxton

ISBN: 9780091908461

Ebury, January 2006

496 pages, Paperback

From childhood through to adulthood - if not necessarily maturity - "The Book of Life" offers the literary journal of a lifetime, in the company of the most fascinating and talented figures in history. From Alan Bennett's wartime childhood in Yorkshire to Mahatma Gandhi's experiment with cigarettes; Katherine Hepburn on her first acting job aged 21 and Primo Levi on being captured by Fascist militia at the same age; Darwin on his lifelong love - his work - and Nelson Mandela on his release from prison aged 71 ...life and living in all its manifold glories is represented. With insights that encompass generations and continents, this is a uniquely enjoyable immersion in some of the world's best, and most personal, writing.