Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- LIGHT -- Modern Lighting -- The 1938 Academy: An Unprofessional View -- Christmas at Bowen's Court -- The Light in the Dark -- Ecstasy of the Eye -- New Waves of the Future -- PLACES -- Britain in Autumn -- By the Unapproachable Sea -- Foreword to The Cinque Ports -- The Idea of France -- Paris Peace Conference: 1946. An Impression -- Paris Peace Conference - Some Impressions 1 -- Paris Peace Conference - Some Impressions 2 -- Paris Peace Conference - Some Impreesions 3 -- Prague and the Crisis -- Hungary -- Without Coffee, Cigarettes, or Feeling -- Regent's Park and St. John's Wood -- New York Waiting in My Memory -- PEOPLE -- Miss Willis -- Paul Morand -- Mainie Jellett -- Foreword to Olive Willis and Downe House -- HOUSES -- The Christmas Toast is "Home!" -- Opening up the House -- Home for Christmas -- Bowen's Court -- IRELAND -- Letter from Ireland -- Ireland Makes Irish -- How They Live in Ireland: Conquest by Cheque-Book -- Ireland -- Introduction to The House by the Church-yard -- THINGS -- Toys -- Calico Windows -- Introduction to The ABC of Millinery -- The Teakettle -- On Giving a Present -- The Art of Giving -- Mirrors Are Magic -- WRITERS AND THEIR BOOKS -- Jane Austen -- Introduction to Pride and Prejudice -- What Jane Austen Means to Me -- Persuasion -- Introduction to No One to Blame -- James Joyce -- New Writers -- Guy de Maupassant -- Foreword to Tomato Cain and Other Stories -- Foreword to Haven: Short Stories, Poems and Aphorisms -- Introduction to The Stories of William Sansom -- A Matter of Inspiration -- Introduction to An Angela Thirkell Omnibus -- A Passage to E. M. Forster -- Introduction to Staying with Relations -- FAIRY TALES -- Comeback of Goldilocks et al. -- Introduction to The King of the Golden River -- Enchanted Centenary of the Brothers Grimm -- ON WRITING.

What We Need in Writing -- The Short Story in England -- Introduction to Chance -- Introduction to The Observer Prize Stories -- English Fiction at Mid-Century -- Rx for a Story Worth the Telling -- Preface to Critics Who Have Influenced Taste -- AGE -- Modern Girlhood -- Teenagers -- Mental Annuity -- The Case for Summer Romance -- The Beauty of Being Your Age -- Was It an Art? -- WOMEN -- An Enormous Channel of Expectation -- Enemies of Charm in Women, in Men -- Woman's Place in the Affairs of Man -- Outrageous Ladies -- VARIOUS ARTS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS -- A Way of Life -- The Forgotten Art of Living -- The Art of Respecting Boundaries -- The Virtue of Optimism -- Disappointment 1 -- Disappointment 2 -- How to Be Yourself - But Not Eccentric -- The Thread of Dreams -- Notes -- Works Cited.