The extraordinary story of an extraordinary woman living in extraordinary times, told through the simple literary device of a personal journal. Millicent King is born in 1901 and begins her diary when she is 13 and Europe is on the cusp of the Great War. From wartime Britain the narrative moves to Rome in the 1920s and war again in the 1930s. There is love, loss and personal tragedy, all reflected in events in the wider world of contemporary politics. Millicent's story ends with her death in 1995, leaving behind an account of a life that is intended in various ways to mirror the life of everywoman in the 20th century. The publisher promises a marketing campaign that will exploit the ambiguous fictional status of this novel/memoir/autobiography.

Margaret Forster was born in Carlisle in 1938. She is the author of bestelling memoirs, Hidden Lives and Precious Lives, acclaimed biographies of Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and of many successful novels, such as Lady's Maid, Private Papers & most recently The Memory Box.