Book description
An engaging, wickedly funny and splendidly anecdotal memoir of a career
spent among writers, agents, publishers and bookmen and women of every stripe.
Jeremy Lewis's first memoir, 'Playing for Time', was hailed by James
Lees-Milne as 'the funniest and best written book I've read for years.'
His second, 'Kindred Spirits', was described by John Carey as 'sheer
pleasure from start to finish'. Now he has written a third
autobiographical account of his encounters with literary figures over
the last two decades which fittingly caps the previous two.
A rich sense of the absurd and a profound understanding of the extreme
comicality of life, together with a delight in the oddities of human
behaviour, are the hallmarks of Jeremy Lewis's world. Bumbling figures
of the book trade and eccentric luminaries of Grub Street alike are
grist to his mill; his characterisations of André Deutsch, James
Lees-Milne, Alan Ross, Richard Cobb, Barbara Skelton and dozens of
others - are written with huge warmth and affection.
Seldom has modern literary life been described with such a sense of
relish and enjoyment; and seldom has the reader been so richly
entertained by a gallery of eccentric portraits. 'Jeremy Lewis…is a
funny, perceptive, elegant writer' Philip French, Observer
'…a particularly good year for English-very English-autobiographies,
among them Jeremy Lewis's…poignant and hilarious.' Craig Brown, The Spectator
'…a third enjoyable volume of memoirs…he writes so well, with such
clarity and seeming simplicity…which is why his memoirs are so
entertaining.' Alan Judd, The Spectator Jeremy Lewis, a former
publisher at Collins, Chatto and OUP, is the author of 'Playing for
Time' and 'Kindred Spirits' (both published by Collins), as well as
biographies of Cyril Connolly, Tobias Smollett and Allen Lane (Pengiun
Special). A former deputy editor of the 'London Magazine', he is a
contributing editor to 'The Oldie' and the 'Literary Review'.
