An unflinchingly honest portrayal of the life of the mind

‘I am a writer and what I write is what I hear. I am a secretary of the invisible, one of many secretaries over the ages. That is my calling: dictation secretary. It is not for me to interrogate, to judge what is given me. I merely write down the words and then test them, test their soundness, to make sure I have heard right.’

Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer of international renown; she is feted, studied, honoured. Famous principally for an early novel that established her reputation, and from which, it seems, she will never escape, she has reached the stage, late in life, where her remaining function is to be venerated and applauded.

One of a new breed of intellectual nomads, her life has become a series of engagements in sterile conference rooms throughout the world – a private conciousness obliged to reveal itself to a curious public.