These Precious Days
Bloomsbury £16.99
Ann Patchett was between novels when the pandemic hit.
With death and its shadows gathering all around her, she knew better than to retreat into an imagined world and embark on a new novel.
She decided it might be safer and saner to spend the lockdowns in the realm of facts. Her years as a jobbing journalist and magazine had taught her not to take herself too seriously. When the likes of the and the opened their doors to her, she took full advantage of the new freedoms they offered, but without ever losing the witty, breezy, self-deprecating voice she’d made her own. Her first essay collection – (2013) – gave a good sense of her range and red lines.
