Palimpsest: A Memoir

An elegantly observed, ineffably sad - and at times hysterically funny - memoir – David Andrews * Sunday Express *One of the best first-person accounts of this century we are likely to get * Sunday Times *An engrossing and beguiling read. Admirably candid, refreshingly indiscreet, intelligent and full of wit, it is also startlingly original… An unequivocal triumph – William Boyd * Daily Telegraph *He does not narrate his life: he revies it. The result is something quite novel and wonderfully appealing, a critical biography of himself…Vidal’s life might even be his greatest work * Independent *Wonderfully entertaining. You want the high-level political gossip? You get it here… it offers all the zing of a Dry Martini without the danger of getting drunk * Daily Telegraph *A tremendous read, down and dirty from start to finish. It is also a proud and serious and truthful book * Sunday Times *This wide-ranging book is every bit as interesting as one might have hoped. The grave themes that run through it are the more welcome for the fact that they are not included at the expense of any gossip – Sebastian Faulks * Spectator *Applaud Mr Vidal’s stirring lack of mellowness in this, his autobiography; may he have long life and much free ink – Julian Barnes * Guardian *A record of the transmutation, of the base into the gold, that is the raw stuff of literature – Christopher Hitchens * London Review of Books *Matches some of the great literary memoirs of childhood * Financial Times *There are passages from Gore Vidal’s Palimpsest which expose that Mount Rushmore mind like nothing else he has written * Melvyn Bragg *Throughout his book we find him warm and generous among the poisoned arrows he also flings * The Times *Few Americans can boast the quality cast that Vidal can muster for his autobiography, and no one turns as wicked a phrase about them … more please * Time Out *Unforgettable * Moira Shearer *Thirty-five years of American history in perfect prose * Attitude *May well be the best book of his long and interesting career … Vidal is a creature of infinite surprise * Washington Post *

Gore Vidal was at the centre of literary and intellectual life for half a century and wrote ‘The Narratives of a Golden Age’ series as well as countless bestsellers. He died on 31st July 2012.