Description

Yesterday ended in disaster. Very late at night, I decided to write down everything that had happened; the only way I could think of coping.

Following a series of devastating rejections, Michele Roberts began keeping an account of her life in the hope it might help mend her shattered sense of self. In this intimate and wryly honest journal she reflects on cities and countryside, loss and love, food, friendships, sisterhood, pleasure and memories, her abiding relationship with France and with literature. Over the course of a year a new pattern of being develops, until, finally, she finds a better relationship between inner and outer worlds.

Publisher Review

'Michele Roberts has always been a terrific, complex writer with a natural tone, a tone of her own, and Negative Capability is among the best of her books.' * Andrew O'Hagan * 'Funny, wise and all-embracing' * Carmen Callil * 'Michele Roberts is a writer who has always excelled at embodying the joy of female intellectual and earthly appetites.' * Deborah Levy * 'A magnificent writer.' * Helen Dunmore, The Guardian * 'A wonderful writer: one in possession of immense feeling' * Rachel Cooke, The Observer * Bold, serious and life-enhancing. * BookOxygen * Roberts' intimate, candid writing is underpinned by a dry humour, wry observations, and a poignant strain of melancholy perfect for our time. * BookBlast * Brave, naked, defiant and exquisitely written. -- Julie Myerson * The Spectator * Bracing and galvanising. -- Susie Boyt * Financial Times * Roberts writes with wit and honesty. * The Independent * Raw and glittering... Superb. -- Christina Patterson * The Sunday Times *