Quicksands: A Memoir

Her first new book in over 10 years. Bedford is back with what will surely (she says) be her last, and the moving culmination of a story that began in 1956 (when Legacy pubbed in the UK).

Acclaim, acclaim, and acclaim. Sybille Bedford is, simply put, one of the finest writers of her generation. None other than notoriously hard-to-satisfy Bruce Chatwin asserted that “when the history of modern prose in English comes to be written, Mrs. Bedford will have to appear in any list of its most dazzling practitioners.”

Comparisons. While not yet as big a name in the U.S. as her talent would suggest, Bedford ranks with the elder states(wo)men of contemporary literature. Think of her in the same breath as Shirley Hazzard, Penelope Fitzgerald, Joan Didion, Anita Brookner, and Cynthia Ozick.

Another chance to rediscover a long-lost great. The past few years the literary world has witnessed a number of spectacular career rebirths. Paula Fox, e.g., emerged after a long silence with the NBCC finalist Borrowed Finery and stacks of rave reviews. In some cases, this reassessment has even worked posthumously–as seen in the attention lavished on Rebecca West’s Survivors in Mexico. Expect Bedford’s Quicksands to be the next to get this royal treatment.

The Counterpoint reissues. This book, very likely to be Bedford’s last (she’s 92), will also form the culmination of the Counterpoint reissues of the Bedford backlist. Look forward to the same crisp, classic packaging for this latest outing.