Blanco examines the relationship between life-writing in Martin Gaite's notebooks and her fictional work. Carmen Martin Gaite (1925-2000) was one of the most important Spanish writers of the second half of the twentieth century. From the 1940s, until her death in 2000, she published short stories, novels, poetry, drama, children literature and cultural and historical studies. This book studies life writing in Martin Gaite's notebooks Cuadernos de todo (2002) and her novels of the 1990s, Nubosidad variable (1992), La Reina de las nieves (1994), Lo raro es vivir (1996) and Irse de casa (1998). It looks at the use of first person narration in Martin Gaite's work, drawing a parallel between the notebooks and her fictional work. It further analyses the waythe author's notebooks relate to the development of her later novels as well as the use of writing as therapy. This work offers a way of looking at Carmen Martin Gaite's work from a personal and intimate perspective. Maria-Jose Blanco Lopez de Lerma is Spanish Lecturer and Language Tutor at the Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin-American Studies, King's College London.