A collection of essays with the unifying theme of literary celebrity and its discontents, on Vita Sackville West, Whitwell Elwin, George Barker, John Seymour, Virginia Haggard, J. K. Nettlefold, Dylan Thomas, Ned Washington, Maurice Maeterlinck, Karen Blixen, Octavio Paz, Rosario Castellanos and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.