The Stranger in the Mirror [Hardcover]

`An intriguing self-portrait of a thoroughly interesting person.' --The Times, January 18, 2011

`Like Montaigne, the essayist on whom she modeled her early attempts at writing, she elevates naval gazing into something beyond self absorption' --Daily Telegraph,

`An intelligent discursion on what it means to be a no-longer-youthful female in a world obsessed with staying young ... Her thoughts are refreshing, provocative and a pleasure to read'
--Metro,

`I loved this book so much I gulped it down in just two sittings... Jane Shilling is a peerlessly elegant and evocative writer' --Mail on Sunday

`Shilling is brave and endearingly frank' --The Scotsman

`She writes beautifully. Her perceptions are acute, her imagery memorable' --The Sunday Herald

`Imagine Montaigne as a thoroughly modern unmarried mother and freelance journalist living in south London... Everywhere there is detail, and nuance, and care about others, and about words' --The Guardian

`Shilling is a gorgeous writer and there are chunks of this book that I would happily steal... If this woman wrote a novel I would buy it in a heartbeat... Shilling puts the ageing process under the microscope and, as we read, we squirm' --The Observer

`Shilling's style, dashingly cavalier and artfully artless, bubbles with wit and brio. Never was a lament less lugubrious' --The Independent

'This `memoir of middle age' shuns self-pity and bubbles with wit. The gap between soaring mind and sluggish body becomes a source of rueful comedy' --The Independent, I

'Jane Shilling is an outstandingly good writer...The Stranger in the Mirror shows that she also has emotional and intellectual courage' --The Spectator

`Shilling's thoughts on love and ageing are so wise and so memorably expressed that they would grace a literary novel... Shillings mild obsession with control and with the delicate, the equisit and the theatrically miniature almost makes her into a latter day Jane Austen' --New Statesman

`Wry, quietly fuming and often moving memoir of a midlife cri de couer... exceptionally companionable, occasionally bejewelled and richly sustaining broth of a book... Highly recommended' --The Sunday Telegraph

A remarkable and poignant memoir about one woman's attempt to understand middle age

'I looked in the mirror one morning, and saw the face of a stranger. Who was she, this haggard, bun-faced woman with the softening jawline, the downturned mouth, the world-weary air of a woman who hasn't had what she wanted from life, and knows she isn't going to get it now? Why, it was no one else but me, myself and I.'

Middle age took Jane Shilling by surprise. She hadn't seen it coming, and she certainly wasn't ready for it. She lives in a tumbledown urban cottage by the Thames, with a son, a cat and a horse in livery fifty miles away - a flawed, bittersweet version of the idyll she dreamed of in her twenties.

Must she accept that middle age is the beginning of the end or is there one last great adventure still to be grabbed? Her sense of hope and excitement seem at odds with her contemporaries' resolute denial or rueful resignation in the face of middle age. And what of the strange, conflicting attitudes - a mixture of fascination and revulsion - that surround the public perception of middle-aged women?

The Stranger in the Mirror is one woman's attempt to understand what middle age is, what it means for her and whether, as a new generation of women turns fifty, some kind of revolution is under way. The result is a very personal meditation about what it's like to be at the midpoint, looking both backwards and forwards. It definitely won't reverse the signs of ageing - but it will make you laugh, it will make you think and it could just make you look in the mirror in a slightly different way ...

'I looked in the mirror one morning, and saw the face of a stranger. Who was she, this haggard, bun-faced woman with the softening jawline, the downturned mouth, the world-weary air of a woman who hasn't had what she wanted from life, and knows she isn't going to get it now? Why, it was no one else but me, myself and I.'

Middle age took Jane Shilling by surprise. She hadn't seen it coming, and she certainly wasn't ready for it. She lives in a tumbledown urban cottage by the Thames, with a son, a cat and a horse in livery fifty miles away - a flawed, bittersweet version of the idyll she dreamed of in her twenties.

Must she accept that middle age is the beginning of the end or is there one last great adventure still to be grabbed? Her sense of hope and excitement seem at odds with her contemporaries' resolute denial or rueful resignation in the face of middle age. And what of the strange, conflicting attitudes - a mixture of fascination and revulsion - that surround the public perception of middle-aged women?

The Stranger in the Mirror is one woman's attempt to understand what middle age is, what it means for her and whether, as a new generation of women turns fifty, some kind of revolution is under way. The result is a very personal meditation about what it's like to be at the midpoint, looking both backwards and forwards. It definitely won't reverse the signs of ageing - but it will make you laugh, it will make you think and it could just make you look in the mirror in a slightly different way...

'I looked in the mirror one morning, and saw the face of a stranger. Who was she, this haggard, bun-faced woman with the softening jawline, the downturned mouth, the world-weary air of someone who hasn't had what she wanted from life, and knows she isn't going to get it now? Why, it was no one else but me, myself and I.'

Middle age took Jane Shilling by surprise. She hadn't seen it coming, and she certainly wasn't ready for it. Living a flawed, bittersweet version of the idyll she dreamed of in her twenties, in a tumbledown urban cottage by the Thames, with a son, a cat and a horse in a livery fifty miles away, she wondered whether middle age was the beginning of the end. Or was there one last great adventure to be had? The Stranger in the Mirror is one woman's attempt to understand what middle age means for her and whether, as a new generation of women turns fifty, a revolution is under way. It definitely won't reverse the signs of ageing - but it will make you laugh, it will make you think and it could just make you look in the mirror in a slightly different way...

'Shilling's style, dashingly cavalier and artfully artless, bubbles with wit and brio' Independent

'I loved this book so much I gulped it down in just two sittings... Jane Shilling is a peerlessly elegant and evocative writer' Libby Purves, Mail on Sunday

'Wry, quietly fuming and often moving memoir of a midlife cri de couer... exceptionally companionable, occasionally bejewelled and richly sustaining broth of a book' Sunday Telegraph

'Shilling is a gorgeous writer and there are chunks of this book that I would happily steal... If this woman wrote a novel I would buy it in a heartbeat... Shilling puts the ageing process under the microscope and, as we read, we squirm' Jenny Eclair, Observer

'Imagine Montaigne as a thoroughly modern unmarried mother and freelance journalist living in south London... Everywhere there is detail, and nuance, and care about others, and about words' Guardian

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Jane Shilling writes on books for the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail, and on television for the Evening Standard. Her first book,The Fox in the Cupboard, was a critically acclaimed memoir about her midlife love affair with fox-hunting. She lives in Greenwich with her son.