Twenty Years of My Life

Spanning two decades of a life lived largely at 32 Addison Mansions, this memoir weaves together childhood roots, years spent in Australia, the United States, Canada and Japan, and an immersion in the bustling literary world of London from the early 1890s to 1911. The author paints vivid pictures of the clubs, teas and receptions where writers, artists and theatre folk gathered, turning what was once a solitary craft into a lively community.

Through a series of personal anecdotes, listeners meet the likes of Conan Doyle, J.K. Jerome, I. Zangwill and many others, learning how each slipped from a day‑job into authorship. The book is peppered with the humor and humility of a man who once edited a “Who’s Who” and now catalogues the very people he knew, while preserving the intimate side of a literary era often lost to history.

A blend of travelogue, social history and candid reminiscence, this account offers a window into the personalities, clubs and conversations that shaped turn‑of‑the‑century English letters, all delivered in the author’s warm, observational voice.