Jenny Diski’s attempt to keep still and mentally idle resulted in a year in which she travelled to New Zealand, spent two months almost alone in a cottage in the country and visited the Sámi people of Lapland. Diski, fails to keep still and, like the philosopher Montaigne, keeps a record of her ramblings both mental and physical hoping as he did in time to make her mind ashamed of itself. Interspersed with ill-tempered descriptions of these trips are digressions on the subject of her sore foot; her childhood desire for ‘a condition’, thoughts about growing older, spiders, fundamentalism and the problems of keeping warm.
- 'On Trying to Keep Still is unflaggingly engaging. It is also very funny' Sophie Ratcliffe, New Statesman 'A brave and moving admission of a way of life that society isn't geared up to cope with, a poignant read illuminated by flashes of humour' Herald 'More please' Independent ‘a remarkable, original, often funny, truly moving, journey' Independent on Sunday 'Unique, and wholly wonderful' Telegraph
Paperback:
£7.99
Published 01/03/2007
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