Mai Ghoussoub was a woman who lived with one foot in the East and one in the West, who embodied cosmopolitanism, and who was deeply committed to freedom of expression.

Drawing on her own extraordinary experiences as well as on political and historical events, this collection brings together for the first time some of her finest writings – on war, politics, sexism, martyrdom, the arts, censorship, exile and the city. Essays sit alongside short stories, poetry, plays and letters, all enlivened with her signature humour and enduring compassion.

Whether she’s extolling the pleasures of cooking or defying political hypocrisy, her voice – always clear and true – restores our faith in humanity.

Mai Ghoussoub, artist, author and playwright, left Beirut for London in 1979, where she co-founded Saqi. Her art has been exhibited internationally, and her play Texterminators was performed in London, Liverpool and Beirut in 2006. Her many publications include Leaving Beirut, Imagined Masculinities, with Emma Sinclair-Webb, and Artists and Vitrines, with Shaheen Merali. Her stories have appeared in Hikayat: Short Stories by Lebanese Women and Lebanon, Lebanon. She was a regular contributor to al-Hayat and openDemocracy.