Cements her reputation as one of the most fierce and elegant chroniclers of how we live now.' Stephanie Merritt, ObserverCoventry is a collection of essays about choices, womanhood and art. Encompassing memoir and cultural and literary criticism, with pieces on gender, politics and writers such as D. H.

Lawrence, Olivia Manning and Natalia Ginzburg, it is essential reading for our age: fearless, unrepentantly erudite, both startling and rewarding to behold.