Writing Home

For some years now, the author has published a selection of his diaries in the London Review of Books. This volume brings together the diaries for 1980-1990 for the first time, together with his thoughts on many literary figures, including John Osborne, W.H. Auden and Philip Larkin. Also included is the story, The Lady in the Van, the true account of Miss Mary Shepherd, a homeless tramp who took up residence in his garden and stayed for fifteen years. After her death in 1989 he describes how he unravelled her history to uncover the tragedy that had reduced her to life on the streets and brought her to Camden Town.