Gathered here in a single edition are the three parts of Janet Frame's autobiography.From a childhood and adolescence spent in a materially poor but intellectually intense railway family, through life as a student and years of incarceration in mental hospitals (essentially for wanting to pursue a career as a poet), followed eventually by her entry into the saving world of writers and the 'Mirror City' that sustains them. This is not just the records of a life but also the flourishing of a writer's career. Janet Frame accomplishes 'the transformation of ordinary facts and ideas into a shining palace of mirrors'.All three volumes of this autobiography - TO THE IS-LAND (1983), AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE (1984) and THE ENVOY FROM MIRROR CITY (1985) have won major literary prizes. Internationally lauded director Jane Campion made a film of AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE that won international jury prizes at Venice, Toronto and other film festivals.Janet Frame died in January 2004.