About the Author

Janet Frame (1924-2004) is New Zealand's most famous writer. She was a novelist, poet, essayist and short-story writer. Her autobiography inspired Jane Campion's acclaimed film, 'An Angel at My Table'. She was an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Literature and won the Commonwealth Literature Prize. In 1983 she was awarded the CBE.

Reviews

'One of the greatest autobiographies written [in the 20th] century ... A journey from lumionous childhood, through the dark experiences of supposed madness, to the renewal of her life through writing ... a heroic story, and told with such engaging tone, humor 'One of the greatest autobiographies written [in the 20th] century ... A journey from lumionous childhood, through the dark experiences of supposed madness, to the renewal of her life through writing ... a heroic story, and told with such engaging tone, humorous perspective and imaginative power' Michael Holroyd, Sunday Times 'Drawing on the poetic vocabulary of Longfellow, Whitman and Brooke, Janet Frame perceived from an early age the simultaneously inspirational and destructive power of words, as well as the shifting nature of truth ... One of our most acclaimed writers' Observer 'Irresistibly readable, commendably honest' TLS