Ann Bridge, besides being a famous author, was also, in her own words, “a person who frequently has, when awake, inexplicable ''knowings'' of events taking place at a distance: and, in dreams, am informed, sometimes uncomfortably, of facts of which I can have no knowledge by normal means”.

In this remarkable book, part memoir, part a personal statement, she wrote of a number of such moments taken from a varied and distinguished career, and ranging from a startling premonition of a cypher-breaking job in the Admiralty during World War I to a somewhat macabre later episode concerned with the Duchess of Windsor. Moments of Knowing can be read for its appealing autobiographical qualities or for the steady and careful light its author throws on areas of experience of which few people may have first-hand knowledge.