The power of Colette's work comes from its modernist storytelling. Colette was a pioneering, ground-breaking modernist writer, but has not always had her originality and worth recognized in Britain. Her work provocatively uses unstable narratives, gaps, silences, fairytale, mythical tropes, and sensual evocations of childhood, sex, and landscapes. In this book, Michèle Roberts examines how Colette invents new forms to express her unsettling content on desire, perversion, ageing, and different forms of love. Delving into four keys texts, Roberts explores Colette's willingness to break open taboos about older woman and desire, as well as hidden and forbidden aspects of human longings and pleasures. Through these re-readings, Roberts discovers that Colette's work is even more entrancing, more disturbing, and more original than she first thought.

This is critical thinking that is intimate, enchanting, and necessary. * Deborah Levy *
I adored lingering over this book. Michèle Roberts is a delightful guide to Colette, reminding us of the pleasures of reading and re-reading a beloved author, attempting to understand how she manages to be so beguiling. Devotees and neophytes alike will find much to treasure here. * Lauren Elkin, Author and translator *
Roberts offers intimate reflections about her connection to Colette. * Kirkus *
Insightful close readings inform a fervent homage. * Kirkus *
This reader wanted to remain in the rich night of the book, and for day not to break the spell * Alice Blackhurst, The TLS *

Michèle Roberts has published fifteen novels and her most recent is Cut Out (2021). Her novel Daughters of the House (1993) won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She has published three collections of short stories and eight of poetry, as well as two memoirs and one collection of essays, Food, Sex & God: on Inspiration and Writing (1998). With the artist Caroline Isgar, she has published four artist's books. She has written two plays, both of which were performed, and one short film for Channel 4.