There are some real treats. Her accounts of the genesis of some of her best loved novels will give devotees of her work a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the museum.., a book that will give pleasure to her many admirers' Sunday Tribune.

"Curious" describes both my habitual state of mind - a less kind word would be "nosy"- as well as the subject matter of some of these writings. Though perhaps "curious" as a word carries too light a weight: my curiosities are (I hope) not idle ones. "Passionate" might have been more accurate; however, it would have given a wrong impression, and disappointed a few men in rain coats"

From book reviews to a journey in Afghanistan that sowed the seeds of The Handmaid's Tale, to obituaries of some of her great friends and writers - Angela Carter, Mordecai Richler and Carol Shields - Curious Pursuits is an insightful, thoughtful and revealing record of the life and times and writings of this brilliant novelist and poet,from 1970 to the present.

General Introduction

        PART ONE: I970---I989

Introduction 1970-1989

Travels Back

Review of Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972

by Adrienne Rich

Review of Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters

The Curse of Eve - Or, What I Learned in School

Northrop Frye Observed

Writing the Male Character

Wondering What It's Like to Be a Woman.

Review of The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

Introduction to Roushin8 It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

Haunted by Their Nightmares. Review of Beloved by Toni Morrison

Writing Utopia

Great Aunts. From Family Portraits: Remembrances by

Twenty Distinsuished Writers

Introduction: Reading Blind. Introduction to

The Best American Short Stories

The Public Woman as Honorary Man. Review of

The Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser

        PART TWO: 1990--I999

Introduction 199o-1999

A Double-Bladed Knife: Subversive Laughter in

Two Stories by Thomas King

Nine Beginnings. From The Writer on Her Work, Volume 1

A Slave to His Own Liberation. Review of The

General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcfa M~irquez

Angela Carter: I940--I992

Afterword to Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Introduction: The Early Years. Introduction to

The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: The Early Years

Spotty-Handed Villainesses: Problems of Female

Bad Behaviour in the Creation of Literature

The Grunge Look. From Writing Away: The PEN

Canada Travel Anthology

Not So Grimm: The Staying Power of Fairy Tales.

Review of From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales

and Their Tellers by Marina Warner

'Little Chappies with Breasts.' Review of An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel

In Search of Alias Grace: On Writing Canadian

Historical Fiction

Why I Love The Night of the Hunter

       PART THREE: 2000-2005

Introduction 2ooo---2oo5

Pinteresque

Mordecai Richler: I931--200I: Diogenes of Montreal

When Afghanistan Was at Peace

Introduction to She by H. Rider Haggard

Introduction to Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Soderberg

Mystery Man: Some clues to Dashiell Hammen

Of Myths and Men. Review of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

Cops and Robbers. Review of Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard

The Indelible Woman

The Queen of Quinkdom. Review of The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

Victory Gardens. Foreword to A Breath of Fresh Air:

Celebrating Nature and School Gardens by Elise Houghton

Mortification. From Mortifications: Writers' Stories of

Their Public Shame

Writing Oryx and Crake

Letter to America

Edinburgh and Its Festival

George Orwell: Some Personal Connections

Carol Shields, Who Died Last Week, Wrote Books

That Were Full of Delights

He Springs Eternal. Review of Hope Dies Last:

Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times by Studs Terkel

To Beechey Island. From Solo: Writers on Pilgrimage

Uncovered: An American Iliad. Review of A Story

as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and

Their World by Robert Bringhurst

Headscarves to Die For. Review of Snow by Orhan

Pamuk

Ten Ways of Looking at The Island of Doctor Moreau

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index