A renowned biographer of Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Hardy, Claire Tomalin tells her own story as she reflects on a remarkable life surrounded by writers and books. From discovering reading as a form of escapism during her parents' divorce, to pursuing poetry at Cambridge—where she marries journalist Nicholas Tomalin—this determined lady always steered herself towards a passionate involvement with art. In her characteristically graceful prose, Tomalin relives the glittering London literary scene of the 1960s, as she discusses widowhood, her challenges as a mother of four, assuming the position of literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times, and finding love again with playwright Michael Frayn.