On Writers and Writing

What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and the development of her writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain - or excuse! - their activities, looking at what costumes they have seen fit to assume, what roles they have chosen to play.

'This is a streetwise, erudite, suggestive enquiry into problems and myths of the writer's role. Her light touch on hard thoughts, her humour and eclectic quotations, lend enchantment to an argument that has as many undulating tentacles as a well-developed sea anemone' Independent

'Her witty, occasionally self-deprecating and always ingenious approach is a delight' Sunday Times

'A playful, informed and briskly sensible discussion of the writing life' Sunday Telegraph

'A pleasure to read: erudite, talky, with a beady humour' Daily Telegraph