Inga Clendinnen was one of Australia's greatest writers and historians. This selection covers the full scope of her work, from Tiger's Eye to Aztecs, from her Boyer Lectures to essays on all manner of topics. It is introduced by acclaimed historian James Boyce, who traces Clendinnen's life and evolving thought.Boyce writes that Clendinnen's 'ability to write serious history for a general readership was unrivalled in this country ... Her writings are an enduring testament to the truth that while we might "live within the narrow moving band of time we call the present ... the secret engine of our present is our past, with its plastic memories, its malleable moralities, its wreathing dreams of desirable futures".