"There are not enough books about women in their 70's starting their lives all over again, as though from scratch. There are not enough books about the relationship between women and their adult sons — and how soulful and powerful those relationships can be. And there are not enough books about older women taking overland journeys by camel across ancient desert trading routes, seeking (and finding) their lost bloodlines. This book offers all of those things — as well as sharing a rare inside view of the antics, rivalries, and heartbreaks of the London literary world, as told by someone who lived for decades right at the glittering, boozy, dangerous heart of it all. There is no book like this book, and never will be — for there is nobody like the vivid, gorgeous, legend who is Alexandra Pringle. Read it and weep. I did." —Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author

"A book full of bravery and adventure, sweeping landscapes, hidden pasts and enormous love, all so beautifully written that the reader can't help but wish Alexandra Pringle had spent her whole life writing (though if she had, how could such a story ever come to pass?) Extraordinary." —Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author

"Alexandra Pringle is a patriot of everywhere.  She doesn't just celebrate her own life in this tender and profound and timely memoir -- she also celebrates each of us, in all our kaleidoscopic complexity.  She is, by turns, Moroccan and then English and then Scottish and then Jewish and then Palestinian.   There is great energy in this book.  And great joy.  Her story swerves, but never wavers. 'Sometimes,' Pringle says, 'we don't know who we are until we go on a journey.' So she brings us on a literary journey of a life of rupture and repair.  In so many ways she becomes a cartographer of our times, inviting us into the caravan of history." —Colum McCann, award-winning author of Twist 

"An extraordinary story; a vivid and highly original memoir…she traces the family's caravan routes through Mali, Mauritania, and into West Africa …the author skillfully knits this heart-in-mouth travel story, reminiscent of Freya Stark, with accounts of her 1950's and 60s growing up in Chelsea and her early years in publishing…a remarkable and one-off story from a remarkable and one-off legendary British publisher." —Barbara Trapido, author of Brother of the More Famous Jack

"In this hypnotic and incantatory story that crosses generations and continents, Alexandra Pringle reaches deep into her ancestral past to teach us how to grow older and make peace with our past lives - and in so doing, she makes us feel more alive." —Tahmima Anam, award-winning author of The Startup Wife

"A sparkling, original memoir that illuminates Pringle's enticing hunger to make sense—of herself, and of her rather dazzling life. She succeeds so well because she deftly entices us to make sense of ourselves. This is what a memoir should do." —Richard Ford