The first volume of John Fowles's Journals ended with him achieving international literary renown after the publication ofThe CollectorandThe Magus, and leaving London behind to live in a remote house near Lyme Regis. This final volume charts the rewards and struggles of his continuing literary career, but at the same time reveals the often reluctant celebrity behind the outward success.

Enjoying a reputation as one of the world's leading novelists, Fowles wins enormous wealth, kudos and attention, has the satisfaction of seeingThe French Lieutenant's Womanturned into a highly acclaimed Hollywood film, but none the less comes to regard his fame with deep ambivalence.

It cannot repair the growing strains between himself and his wife Elizabeth, who does not share his taste for rural isolation, nor can it cure the disenchantment he feels for an increasingly materialist society.

This concluding volume of the Journals marks a writer's continuing quest for wisdom and self-understanding.

John Fowles was born in England in 1926 and educated at Bedford School and Oxford University. John Fowles won international recognition with his first published title,The Collector(1963). He was immediately acclaimed as an outstandingly innovative writer of exceptional imaginative power and this reputation was confirmed with the appearance of his subsequent works. John Fowles died in 2005.

A major literary landmark: the second volume of one of the most extraordinary journals of our time.