Unique, transgressive & as funny as its subject, A Life Discarded has all the suspense of a murder mystery. Written with his characteristic warmth, respect & humour, Masters asks you to join him in celebrating an unknown & important life left on the scrap heap. A Life Discarded is a biographical detective story. In 2001, 148 tattered & mould-covered notebooks were discovered lying among broken bricks in a skip on a building site in Cambridge. Tens of thousands of pages were filled to the edges with urgent handwriting. They were a small part of an intimate, anonymous diary, starting in 1952 & ending half a century later, a few weeks before the books were thrown out. Over five years, the award-winning biographer Alexander Masters uncovers the identity & real history of their author, with an astounding final revelation. A Life Discarded is a true, shocking, poignant, often hilarious story of an ordinary life. The author of the diaries, known only as `I`, is the tragicomic patron saint of everyone who feels their life should have been more successful. Part thrilling detective story, part love story, part social history, A Life Discarded is also an account of two writers` obsessions: of `I`s need to record every second of life & of Masters` pursuit of this mysterious yet universal diarist.