I'd Rather Not

Robert Skinner

"I was sleeping in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons … " Robert Skinner arrives in the city, searching for a richer life. Things begin badly and then, surprisingly, get slightly worse. Pretty soon he’s sleeping rough and t...

A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing

Hilary Mantel

'I breathed in stories, as soon as I breathed in air. Sometimes I think I wasn't born, but I just came out of an ink blot.' As well as her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel long contributed to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she f...