'A terrific and astringent beauty ... a work of art' - Times Literary Supplement 'Mishima stands alone. This Japanese writer is to me one of the most important contemporary novelists.' - Angus Wilson, Observer 'Mishima is lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair. His book has made me understand how it feels to be Japanese.' - Christopher Isherwood 'Never has a "confession" been freer of self-pity and emotional over-indulgence.' - Francis Wyndham, Sunday Times

Yukio Mishima was born in Tokyo in 1925 and was educated at the Peer's School, where he received a special commendation from the Emperor of Japan. His international reputation as a leading Japanese writer was firmly established by the English publication in 1960 of Confessions of a Mask, considered to be one of Japan's most important post-war novels. In 1970 Mishima publicly committed seppuku, ritual suicide by disembowelment, in an ultimate gesture towards fulfilling his own fantasy of death.