Journey from the North, Volume 1

In 1960, Storm Jameson decided to write her memoirs. The result was Journey from the North, one of the great literary autobiographies of the century. Volume One, first published in 1969, tells of her childhood in Whitby before the First World War, the strong ties with her formidable mother, an early love of the sea, her intellectual achievements at university and falling in love. She vividly recalls her first marriage and the birth of her son; then came her first book, work in London, and the deep happiness of her second marriage to Guy Chapman, the novelist and historian. In the thirties she became increasingly involved in politics, and her accounts of the Depression and the rise of Fascism in Europe demonstrate her exceptional understanding of the years between the wars.

But the most extraordinary quality of this autobiography is its fine truthfulness. Her candour - about wanting to be an artist, about failures of courage and of love, her devotion to her son and yet a need for a life of her own - is quite exceptional. Journey from the North is a brilliantly told story of a fascinating life.