This mature, exquisite collection of personal essays by Hilary Masters offers a rare pleasure. Here are meditations and reflections distilled in fine prose from a long and varied life-musings that, in the distinguished tradition of essays carried on since the days of Montaigne, articulate the piquant insights of the writer's experience. In this collection, one of the most illustrious contemporary essayists transfigures incidents and observations into something far more-a finely crafted window into the workings of experience and memory.