In this remarkable self-portrait Patrick White explains how on the very rare occasions when he re-reads a passage from one of his books he recognises very little of the self he knows. This 'unknown' is the man interviewers and visiting students expect to find but 'unable to produce him' he prefers to remain private or as private as anyone who has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature can ever be. In this book is the self Patrick White does recognise the one he sees reflected in the glass.