In this sequel to "Palimpsest", Vidal ranges freely over his remarkable life, with memories in the arenas of literature, film, television, theatre, politics and international society - and some of the great figures he has encountered. It also contains a moving portrait of his partner of five decades, Howard Austen, and through the account of his illness and death becomes a meditation on mortality. 'The most elegant, erudite and eclectic writer of his generation' Roy Hattersley.