It was slightly strange to read a story that focused on a black rights extremist with a poor background from Boston, USA, as written by an upper class white woman from the Home Counties who was living and working as a literary editor in London at the time their paths crossed. (She was editing his book and they fall into a bizarre, stilted romantic affair.)

While Athill herself handled that disparity with great tenderness and tact, I still finished the book thinking that something was lacking. Namely, you still only got her side of the story and there were so many other sides to be read in order to have a full picture. But it would have been naive of me to think that I would have got this from this book knowing the outcome of the story.

After recently reading a surprisingly uplifting article by Athill about how silly it is to fear death made me look at some of her books because she is an exquisite, forthright writer and Make Believe continued to prove that she has an excellent turn of phrase and is very capable at analysing herself, events that happen to her and the people who surround her. I loved the honesty in this book.

There was also much to open my eyes - the "free love" nature of Hakim's relationships with women, and how they all seemed to stand back and wait doe-eyed as he slept with other women, often in neighbouring rooms, and how unapologetically selfish Hakim and Hale were as they leeched off one person to the next - and I will certainly look at Athill's other memoirs. My only wish was that I knew more from Hale's side of things as she seemed the most vulnerable, most deluded and ultimately the most tragic player in the whole story.