Meeting the Devil: A Book of Memoir

by London Review of Books

Autobiography has been an essential element of the London Review of Books since its founding in 1979. This volume collects many outstanding pieces of memoir that first appeared in the LRB ’s pages.

Here, Lorna Sage remembers growing up with her grandfather during the Second World War, Jenny Diski imagines her own burial, and Hilary Mantel tackles a strongman on her hospital bed. Julian Barnes writes about not getting the Booker Prize. Andrew O’Hagan confesses to his past as a schoolboy bully. A. J. P. Taylor hallucinates. Alan Bennett reports on the lady who lives in his drive. Tariq Ali relates his misadventures in Pyongyang. Anne Enright describes her obsession with Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells grow in petri dishes around the world. Frank Kermode tells his wartime stories. Terry Castle recounts her complicated friendship with Susan Sontag. There are reports from poker tables and coal mines, and stories of double agents, online romance and stigmata.

With a preface by Alan Bennett, Meeting the Devil displays the range of power and delight possible in the study of self-portrait.

Genres: Essays

Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Sophy H · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

Admittedly I didn't actually finish this one. I skipped through and skim read a lot of the memoirs. I found this to be a very underwhelming collection if I'm honest.

Andrew O' Hagan's "memoir" entitled James Bulger sickened me. Hilary Mantel's offering I've actually read before in her book of the same name. Many stories I found needless and boring, or authors flexing and trying to impress. The one I enjoyed the most was "Author Loses Leg in Lagoon" by R W Johnson. This was an honest and visceral account of a bizarre encounter that left the author fighting for his life.

So yeah, I don't have much to say I suppose as very little about these memoirs registered with me.

Disappointing.

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully varied and always surprising autobiographical essays on a variety of topics by brilliant writers. An excellent read, with the possible exception of Edward Said's slightly self-indulgent account, and most of the (thankfully, brief) poetry. Ironically, I should now get back to trying to process the ever-increasing stack of LRB periodicals accumulating on my desk.

[Emma Nay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collected book of memior so I'll just pull out my notable sections:

James Bulger
Desperately Seeking Susan
My Mad Captains
Germs: a memior
Working Underground
Between Worlds
In Pyongyang

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection I will come back to for years. dipping into different essays as different moods strike me.
I got off to a slow start, repelled by Hilary Mantel's title essay 'Meeting the Devil', in which she reveals far more of her psychic dark humours and her physical sufferings from disease, surgery and suppuration than I ever wanted to know. I didn't finish her essay.
The next was on James Bulger ( a 2year old murdered by two boys in England) , children's cruelty to other children, and disappeared children. Another long break in between reading essays.
Then I hit Terry Castle's sharp piece on Susan Sontag and the book took off for me.
Some of the essays are brilliantly funny, some poignant, some intellectually tough. I preferred the essays that maintained a distance between the writer and the reader - some were so intensely personal about death, dying, pain and madness that they were hard to read. But I had determined to read all the essays in order and I have.
In future excursions into this wonderful volume I will go back to those that most intrigued me.
Edward Said's 'Between Worlds'; Lorna Sage 'the Old Devil and his Wife'; Sheilah Fitzpatrick's 'A Spy in the Archives' and then nearly all the essays in the second half of the collection are ones I particularly enjoyed as I read them and I know that I will return to them and others over the years. Alan Bennett's essay on Miss Shepherd, 'The Lady in the Van' is haunting. Jenny Diski's final essay 'Scatter My Ashes' is very funny on the most unlikely of subjects - would she rather be cremated or buried when she dies, and where?
I didn't recognise many of the authors' names, and have been delighted to have discovered them, so I will seek out other works by them too.
All in all it was a perfect Christmas present.

[Laurence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good stories, but I stopped reading after a while because of too many other books (including keeping up with the LRB). (dated 2015)

Restarted in 2025 (ten years later) and appreciated it much more. Some remarkable stories - Alion White Too close to the bone is just outstanding.

Great to dep into.