Als nieuw.

Elizabeth Smart was born in Ottawa in 1913 and died in London in March 1986. Perhaps best known for her book By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, which reviewers described as 'a work of art' and 'a masterpiece', Elizabeth Smart kept a series of journals of which this is the first published volume.

This book covers the period from 1933 to 1940, which was a time of extensive travel and profound personal change. Her entries, rapidly written, usually at night when propped up in bed, were sometimes daily and sometimes sporadic accounts of events, sights, sensations and feelings. These are glimpses of her social life, her family, her friends; there are detailed records of her trips and the private record of the heart of a woman – a woman who never overtly rejects the standards and expectations placed upon her, but quietly begins to construct her own personal values.

The focus of the journals gradually shifts from an external to an internal one, and they reveal a growing need to articulate the voice of her soul in its search for fulfilment. By the end of 1939, Elizabeth Smart knew what she wanted to write and even how it should be written. She had found a voice and a style – the relationship with the poet George Barker was to provide her with the subject she needed. Finally, subject and voice coincided.

Necessary Secrets is entertaining and enlightening reading for anyone who has either a taste for fine writing or an ear for fine stories. Through this book one can enter into the mind of a remarkable woman who was many years ahead of her time and who remains, even now, an enigmatic literary personality.