A Life Discarded, 148 Diaries Found in a Skip

Masters, Alexander

ISBN 10: 0008130779 / ISBN 13: 9780008130770

Published by Fourth Estate / HarperCollins Publishers, London, 2016

About this Item

First edition, first impression with '1' on copyright page. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, slight lean, price clipped, no inscriptions, internally clean and tight, overall a vg+ copy. 258pp, illustrated. 'A Life Discarded' is a biographical detective story. In 2001, 148 tattered and mould covered notebooks were discovered lying among broken bricks in a skip on a building site in Cambridge. Tens of thousands of pages were filled to the edges with urgent handwriting. They were a small part of an intimate, anonymous diary, starting in 1952 and ending half a century later, a few weeks before the books were thrown out. Over five years, the award winning biographer Alexander Masters uncovers the identity and real history of their author, with an astounding final revelation.

Seller Inventory # 005102

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Life Discarded, 148 Diaries Found in a Skip
• Publisher: Fourth Estate / HarperCollins Publishers, London
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0008130779
• ISBN 13: 9780008130770
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Jacket by gray318
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Unique, transgressive and as funny as its subject, A Life Discarded has all the suspense of a murder mystery. Written with his characteristic warmth, respect and humour, Masters asks you to join him in celebrating an unknown and important life left on the scrap heap.

A Life Discarded is a biographical detective story. In 2001, 148 tattered and mould-covered notebooks were discovered lying among broken bricks in a skip on a building site in Cambridge. Tens of thousands of pages were filled to the edges with urgent handwriting. They were a small part of an intimate, anonymous diary, starting in 1952 and ending half a century later, a few weeks before the books were thrown out. Over five years, the award-winning biographer Alexander Masters uncovers the identity and real history of their author, with an astounding final revelation.

A Life Discarded is a true, shocking, poignant, often hilarious story of an ordinary life. The author of the diaries, known only as ‘I’, is the tragicomic patron saint of everyone who feels their life should have been more successful. Part thriller, part love story, part social history, A Life Discarded is also an account of two writers’ obsessions: of ‘I’s need to record every second of life and of Masters’ pursuit of this mysterious yet universal diarist.

About the Author

Alexander Masters is an author and homeless worker. He is the author of Stuart: A Life Backwards and The Genius in My Basement. Stuart: a Life Backwards, was a Sunday Times bestseller and the winner of the Guardian First Book Award and Whitbread Book of the Year 2005 in the Biography category. He recently adapted Stuart: a Life Backwards for a BBC film. Alexander Masters lives in London.