Service Alert
Civic Holiday
CELA will be closed for the Civic Holiday on Monday, August 2. We will return to regular hours on Tuesday, August 3.
Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 5786 items
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Science and medicine biography, Journals and memoirs, Women biography, Aging (social issues), Family and relationships, Medicine
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A woman recounts dementia’s toll on her family and shares lessons she learned that can provide help and hope to…
caregivers tending to their own loved ones.Within Dancing with Lewy, readers meet Lee and Nancy. Lee was born into a large farming family just before the Great Depression. He was a World War II Veteran, self-made businessman, artist, poet, and a man who would give a stranger his last nickel. Lee’s third daughter, Nancy, is practical, organized, pragmatic, a writer, and equals her father in a passion for life. Nancy was determined to take the helm when Lee’s mind began “dancing” with Lewy body dementia even though he resolved to remain independent while his mind slipped away. Within Dancing with Lewy, readers also meet God as the one who carried the family through this storm and offered grace to the weariness of the family.This memoir is written through Nancy’s eyes while original poetry by Lee is woven throughout to provide readers a glimpse into his outlook to life. In Part I of Dancing with Lewy,Nancy revisits Lee’s young life, her own years growing up with her dad, and the toll dementia took on their family. She shares the pain of grief when her mom died of cancer and her dad became even more confused. In Part II, she shares the lessons she learned along the way and offers hope for caregivers tending to their loved one(s) who have a debilitating illness.Nancy offers practical advice for caregivers such as how to:Get legal documents in orderFind community resourcesChoose a nursing home and partner with the staffTreat their loved one with respect and dignity
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Sports biography, Women biography, Espionage
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
The story of 1930s tennis icon Alice Marble, and her life of sports, celebrity, and incredible mystery. Who was…
Alice Marble? In her public life, she was the biggest tennis star of the pre-war era, a household name like Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. She was famous for overcoming serious illness to win the biggest tournaments, including Wimbledon. She was also a fashion designer and trendsetter, a contributor to a pioneering new comic called Wonder Woman—and friend to the biggest names in Hollywood and society, like Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, and members of families named Bloomingdale, Loew, and du Pont. She helped integrate tennis with her support of Althea Gibson, and even coached two young women who became stars in their own right: Billie Jean King and Sally Ride. Yet her private life provoked constant speculation while she was alive, and her own memoirs added layers of legend upon stories. According to Alice, she married a man who was killed in the skies over Europe during World War II. But who was the man she loved, and had he even existed? She was widely known for her patriotism during World War II. Had she really nearly given her life for her country as a spy, shot during a wild car chase fleeing foreign espionage agents? In The Divine Miss Marble, bestselling author Robert Weintraub traveled the country to uncover her fascinating story. And the more he learned about her, the more her mysteries and contradictions deepened. Alice was a powerful woman who knew her worth, demanding equal pay to men decades earlier than other female athletes; yet she was held in sway by a domineering, highly successful coach with whom she had a volatile relationship. She was renowned for her California style, and had a brilliant mind and the guts to overcome a lifetime of physical trauma. For the first time here, we come closer than ever before to the truths of this unforgettable life, and somehow it&’s a story even more extraordinary than everything we already know about the divine Alice Marble.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Journals and memoirs, Women biography, Food and drink
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Renowned southern pastry chef Lisa Donovan's memoir of cooking, survival, and the incredible power in reclaiming the stories of womenNoted…
chef and James Beard Award-winning essayist Lisa Donovan helped establish some of the South's most important kitchens, and her pastry work is at the forefront of a resurgence in traditional desserts. Yet Donovan struggled to make a living in an industry where male chefs built successful careers on the stories, recipes, and culinary heritage passed down from generations of female cooks and cooks of color. At one of her career peaks, she made the perfect dessert at a celebration for food-world goddess Diana Kennedy. When Kennedy asked why she had not heard of her, Donovan said she did not know. "I do," Kennedy said, "Stop letting men tell your story." OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HUNGER is Donovan's searing, beautiful, and searching chronicle of reclaiming her own story and the narrative of the women who came before her. Her family's matriarchs found strength and passion through food, and they inspired Donovan's accomplished career. Donovan's love language is hospitality, and she wants to welcome everyone to the table of good food and fairness. Donovan herself had been told at every juncture that she wasn't enough: she came from a struggling southern family that felt ashamed of its own mixed race heritage and whose elders diminished their women. She survived abuse and assault as a young mother. But Donovan's salvations were food, self-reliance, and the network of women in food who stood by her. In the school of the late John Egerton, OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HUNGER is an unforgettable Southern journey of class, gender, and race as told at table.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Politics and government biography, Biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
An extraordinary political biography of English suffragist, feminist, and socialist Sylvia PankhurstAlong with her mother Emmeline, and her sister Christabel,…
Sylvia Pankhurst was one of the leading women's suffrage activists in early twentieth-century England, working with the militant Women's Social and Political Union. Unlike her family, however, who looked to parliament and spoke to elite and middle-class women's concerns, Sylvia consistently looked to working women and the labour movement as central to her feminist politics.In this illuminating political biography, feminist historian Barbara Winslow recovers Sylvia Pankhurst's life and work for a new generation of socialists and feminists. From Pankhurst's organizing with immigrant and working women in London's East End to her revolutionary communism and growing internationalism and anti-fascism, Winslow gives us the story of a brilliantly inspiring unorthodox feminist and unorthodox socialist.With a preface from internationally recognized socialist feminist historian and activist, Sheila Rowbotham.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Actors biography, Journals and memoirs, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A memoir by award-winning actor Mena Suvari, best-known forher iconic roles in American Beauty, American Pie, and Six Feet Under.The…
Great Peace is a harrowing, heartbreaking coming-of-age story set in Hollywood, in which young teenage model-turned-actor Mena Suvari lost herself to sex, drugs and bad, often abusive relationships even as blockbuster movies made her famous. It's about growing up in the 90s, with a soundtrack ranging from The Doors to Deee-Lite, fashion from denim to day-glo, and a woman dealing with the lasting psychological scars of abuse, yet knowing deep inside she desires so much more from life.Within these vulnerable pages, Mena not only reveals her own mistakes, but also the lessons she learned and her efforts to understand and grow rather than casting blame. As such, she makes this a timeless story of girl empowerment and redemption, of somebody using their voice to rediscover their past, seek redemption, and to understand their mistakes, and ultimately come to terms with their power as an individual to find a way and a will to live—and thrive. Poignant, intimate, and powerful, this book will resonate with anyone who has found themselves lost in the darkness, thinking there's no way out. Ultimately, Mena's story proves that, no matter how hopeless it may seem, there's always a light at the end.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Women biography, Self help
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
&“A Poet for Times of Trouble.&” —The Wall Street Journal &“Keep Moving speaks to you like an encouraging friend reminding…
you that you can feel and survive deep loss, sink into life&’s deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new.&” —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed and Love Warrior An October 2020 Indie Next Pick Cosmopolitan&’s &“Best Nonfiction Books of 2020&” Marie Claire&’s &“2020 Books You Should Pre-Order Now&” Parade&’s &“25 Self-Help Books To Get Your 2020 Off On The Right Foot&” The Washington Post&’s &“What to Read in 2020 Based on the Books You Loved in 2019&” For fans of Anne Lamott and Cleo Wade, a collection of quotes and essays on facing life&’s challenges with creativity, courage, and resilience. When Maggie Smith, the award-winning author of the viral poem &“Good Bones,&” started writing inspirational daily Twitter posts in the wake of her divorce, they unexpectedly caught fire. In this deeply moving book of quotes and essays, Maggie writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, Keep Moving celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next?
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Historical biography, Women biography, Indigenous peoples
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Jeter Publishing presents a series that celebrates men and women who altered the course of history but may not be…
as well-known as their counterparts. In this middle grade biography, learn about Susan LaFlesche Picotte, the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree.Susan LaFlesche Picotte was the first Native American doctor in the United States and served more than 1,300 patients over 450 square miles in the late 1800s. Susan was the daughter of mixed-race (white and Native American) parents, and struggled much of her life with trying to balance the two worlds. As a child, she watched an elderly Omaha Indian woman die on the reservation because no white doctor would come help. When she grew older, Susan attended one of just a handful of medical schools that accepted women, graduating top of her class as the country&’s first Native American physician. Returning to her native Nebraska, Susan dedicated her life to working with Native American populations, battling epidemics from smallpox to tuberculosis that ravaged reservations during the final decades of the 19th century. Blizzards and frigid temperatures were just part of the job for Susan, who took her horse and buggy for house calls no matter what the weather conditions. Before her death in 1915, she also established public health initiatives and even built a hospital.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
nspired by the great frescoes of St Francis of Assisi, the highly-praised author of ITALIAN FEVER has written a new…
and wholly original biography. Composed in a series of vividly realised 'panels', SALVATION begins with the dying Francesco - and the rivalry for his body among the towns of medieval Italy - and moves back in time toward his mystical conversion. The old friar, exhausted by illness and division among his brotherhood, gives way to the zealous missionary who joins the Fifth Crusade, confident that he can convert Sultan al-Kamil in Egypt. Later, we see the unwashed and innocent revolutionary, unafraid to lecture a pope on Christ's message, and finally the frivolous young Francesco on the deserted road where his encounter with a leper leads him to an ecstatic embrace of God. SALVATION is a window into a medieval world whose physicality and purity have rarely been rendered with such visceral power. Most important, it is a unique, immediate portrait of the great mystic, whose legend has resonated through the centuries in both religious and secular realms.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Actors biography, Biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
National treasure Lorraine Kelly has been great company for years: a sunny, vivacious and loveable presence in your home. Now it's…
possible to get to know her even better as, for the first time, she opens up about her eventful life and tells her story in her own words. From her working-class childhood growing up in one of the toughest areas of Glasgow, to her early career in journalism during which she covered heartbreaking tragedies such as Dunblane and Lockerbie, and her gradual emergence as the undisputed Queen of Morning TV, Lorraine reveals a life like no other with characteristic warmth and charm. Entertaining, funny and a little bit mischievous, her anecdotes are garnered from a lifetime of meeting, greeting and interrogating the famous and infamous. Full of gossip, glamour and Lorraines inimitable good sense, LORRAINE: BETWEEN YOU AND ME is a book to settle on the sofa with.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Erotic fictionBiography, Women biography, Self help
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
This bumper collection of well over one hundred first-person accounts of sexual experiences details the most daring and outrageous liaisons…
the contributors have ever had. Some will amuse you, some may cause a raised eyebrow, and some are downright outrageous, but each and every one is arousing. Categories have been deliberately avoided to seduce readers into each, fresh confession with an open mind, but whatever your kink, you will find it here. Whether you're into good old-fashioned spanking, bondage, solo, foursomes, watersports . . . you'll find it here. Stories include:'Sharing My Wife the Back Way', Martin, Hertfordshire'Getting the Job', Kitty, Los Angeles'College Reunion', Liza, Denver'Seducing My Daughter's Girlfriend' Isabelle, Chicago'You Have the Right to Remain Silent', Kathleen, Liverpool
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Actors biography, Journals and memoirs, Biography, Women biography, Humour
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
The number-one Sunday Times bestseller'Walters's book - also well written - has moments of Alan Bennett warmth' SUNDAY TIMES'This is…
a humorous and, at times, moving read from this much-loved actress' WOMAN AND HOME'I was enthralled by her memoirs ... a celebrity memoir which is actually worth reading as a work of literature' AN Wilson, READER'S DIGESTHer mum wanted her to be a nurse so that is what Julie did.But in her heart she had always wanted to be an actress and soon she was on stage at the local theatre in Liverpool. Her career snowballed with highlights that include Educating Rita, Billy Elliot, Harry Potter, Acorn Antiques, Dinner Ladies and Mamma Mia! She has been nominated for two Oscars, been awarded multiple BAFTAs and a Golden Globe, plus been honoured with a DBE. This is the heart-warming and funny story of that journey.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Historical biography, Literature biography, Women biography, History
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
'A cracking read ' Lynn Barber, ObserverThe Mitford Girls tells the true story behind the gaiety and frivolity of the…
six Mitford daughters - and the facts are as sensational as any novel: Nancy, whose bright social existence masked an obsessional doomed love which soured her success; Pam, a countrywoman married to one of the best brains in Europe; Diana, an iconic beauty, who was already married when at 22 she fell in love with Oswald Moseley, the leader of the British fascists; Unity, who romantically in love with Hitler, became a member of his inner circle before shooting herself in the temple when WWII was declared; Jessica, the family rebel, who declared herself a communist in the schoolroom and the youngest sister, Debo, who became the Duchess of Devonshire.This is an extraordinary story of an extraordinary family, containing much new material, based on exclusive access to Mitford archives.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Now approaching her 60th birthday, Olivia Newton-John still exudes star power and timeless glamour. She has sold 60 million records…
around the world, topped the charts in the US and the UK four times, and is known all over the world for her role as Sandy opposite John Travolta in Grease. But behind the successful singing and film career lies the story of a remarkable survivor. Olivia's life has been repeatedly touched by trauma, heartache, personal tragedy and her own life-threatening cancer. Tim Ewbank's revealing biography charts the highs and lows of her career, and the personal crises that have affected her personal life - but never defeated her.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
The woman who has done more than anyone to expose the plight of women in forced marriages tells their harrowing…
and moving stories. 'I listen to those stories – told by women who have been drugged, beaten, imprisoned, raped and terrorised within the walls of the homes they grew up in. I listen and I am humbled by their resilience.' Jasvinder Sanghera knows what it means to flee from your family under threat of forced marriage – and to face the terrible consequences that follow. As a young girl that was just what she had to do. Jasvinder is now at the frontline of the battle to save women from the honour-based violence and threat of forced marriage that destroyed her own youth. DAUGHTERS OF SHAME reveals the stories of young women such as Shazia, kidnapped and taken to Pakistan to marry a man she had never met; and Banaz, murdered by her own family after escaping an abusive marriage. By turns frightening, enthralling and uplifting, DAUGHTERS OF SHAME reveals Jasvinder as a woman heedless of her own personal safety as she fights to help these women, in a world where the suffering and abuse of many is challenged by the courage of the few.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Historical biography, Women biography, European history, History
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
From the bestselling author of The Mitford Girls: A 'wonderfully researched' (Sunday Express) biography of Bess of Hartwick, the most…
powerful woman in England next to Queen Elizabeth Bringing 'the Tudor Age to exuberant life' (Hugh Massingberd, Mail on Sunday), Mary S. Lovell tells the story of Bess of Hardwick,, one of the most remarkable women of the Tudor era. Gently-born in reduced circumstances, she was married at 15 and when she was widowed at 16, she was still a virgin. At 19 she married a man more than twice her age, Sir William Cavendish, a senior auditor in King Henry VIII's Court of Augmentations. Responsible for seizing church properties for the crown during the Dissolution, Cavendish enriched himself in the process. During the reign of King Edward VI, Cavendish was the Treasurer to the boy king and sisters, and he and Bess moved in the highest levels of society. They had a London home and built Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. After Cavendish's death her third husband was poisoned by his brother. Bess' fourth marriage to the patrician George, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl Marshall of England, made Bess one of the most important women at court. Her shrewd business acumen was a byword, and she was said to have 'a masculine understanding', in that age when women had little education and few legal rights. The Earl's death made her arguably the wealthiest, and therefore - next to the Queen - the most powerful woman in the country. 'This wonderfully researched book is an intimate portrait of [Bess's] life and a vivid insight into life in Tudor society' Sunday Express
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
The ambition of Tokyo businessman Joji Obara was to have sex with five hundred women. He set up a kind…
of date-rape production line to do it - the horrible workings of which would become infamous in the course of a sensational trial.'In recent years, a number of high profile murder cases involving Western women who work as hostesses in Tokyo nightclubs have attracted the attention of the media. 'Gaijin' generally means 'foreign' or 'non-Japanese'. This book focuses on the victims of businessman Joji Obara, who was controversially acquitted of the murder of Lucie Blackman but jailed for that of Carita Ridgway. Samantha Ridgway, Carita's sister, and the Blackman family never gave up their fight for justice and finally Obara was jailed. But there are many more tragic stories of the men who prey on the gaijin girls...
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
The further away anyone was from that block of Ben Yehuda street, the easier it seemed to find a solution…
to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, that stubborn mess in the centre of the Middle East and the more I studied these solutions, the more I thought that they depended for their implementation on a population of table football men, painted in the colours of the two teams: blue and white for the Israelis, green, red and black for the Palestinians. All the international community had to do was to twist the levers and the little players would kick and swing and send the ball into the net, to victory' One block of a Tel Aviv street is the starting point for Linda Grant's exploration of the inner dynamics of Israelis - not the government and its policies, but the people themselves, in all their variety. Iraqi shop-keepers, Teenage soldiers, Mob bosses, Tunisian-born settlers, Russian scientists, and the father of the child victim of a suicide bomber are some of the people she meets.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
When she agrees to take on one of the abused horses just rescued by the local SPCA, a new chapter…
opens in Susan Richards's difficult life. She lost her mother at the age of five and was raised by uncaring relatives; she married unhappily and divorced; and she'd been an alcoholic. Now, at the age of forty-three, she lives with three horses who keep her company: the diva-like Georgia, boyish Tempo and hopelessly romantic Hotshot.While trying to capture another horse assigned to her, Lay Me Down, a skeletal mare, walks into Susan's horse trailer of her own volition. When Susan agrees to take her, she begins to forge a special, healing relationship that alters her life.Poignant and evocative, this is a book for anyone who has ever loved a horse, and for everyone who has ever lost a loved one.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
As an actress, Diana Quick was forever trying on the mask of other people's lives - raiding her own memory…
to service the character she was playing. Coming from a large, noisy family in Kent that seemed to be plain-speaking and straightforward, she was astonished to find on her beloved father's death that his childhood in India was far from idyllic. She was then thunderstruck to hear that he was to have a requiem mass. She had no idea he was Catholic. She discovered that his stepmother had got rid of him and his sister upon marrying his father and that he had grown up in almost total separation from his family. In the India office library she found records of a whole extended family she knew nothing about. Her search for the Quicks in India found roots that go back to Calcutta in the early 18th century. This is a story of a search for a past, the search for an understanding of exile and denial, and also the story of a very fine actress who has always had a sense of not quite belonging.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (CD), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Literature biography, Women biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Frances Partridge: the last survivor of the Bloomsbury group - the authorised biography.Frances Partridge was one of the great British…
diarists of the 20th century. She became part of the Bloomsbury group encountering Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, the Bells, Roger Fry, Maynard Keynes, Dora Carrington and Ralph Partridge. She and Ralph fell in love and married in 1933. During the Second World War they were committed pacifists and they enjoyed the happiest times of their lives together, entertaining friends such as E.M. Forster, Robert Kee and Duncan Grant.Despite losing both her husband and son, Frances maintained an astonishing appetite for life, whether for her friends, travelling, botany, or music. Her diaries (which she continued to write until her death in 2004) chronicle her life from the 1930s onwards. Their publication brought her recognition and acclaim, and earned her the right to be seen not as a minor character on the Bloomsbury stage but standing at the centre of her own.