An Experiment in Leisure

'Before I began this experiment I had always been haunted by the feeling that the surface of life what everyone said about it was quite different from the reality of life that the important things that were happening all the time were on the whole quite different from what was said about them.' - Marion MilnerWhat is it that stops people from knowing what they want? How much of our experience is shaped by images symbols and early memories – and do such things help or hinder one becoming an adult? Written in 1936 An Experiment in Leisure continues Marion Milner’s unique and compelling investigation into how we lead our lives complementing the account she began in A Life of One’s Own.Attempting to understand the gap between what she memorably describes as ‘the poverty of words and the reality of living’ she draws on memory images – in books mythology religious experience travel and even going to the theatre – that seem to point to a suspension of ordinary everyday awareness. From this state of emptiness springs an increasing imaginative appreciation of being alive and as Milner concludes of being a woman.With a new Foreword by Akshi Singh An Experiment in Leisure remains a striking and captivating adventure in thinking and living with uncertainty whose insights remain fresh and relevant today.