Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Presence Of The Past | 1976 | Penelope Lively | Buy |
| 2 | Oleander, Jacaranda | 1994 | Penelope Lively | Buy |
| 3 | In Search of a Homeland | 2006 | Penelope Lively | Buy |
| 4 | Dancing Fish and Ammonites | 2013 | Penelope Lively | Buy |
| 5 | Ammonites & Leaping Fish: A Life in Time | 2013 | Penelope Lively | Buy |
| 6 | Life in the Garden | 2017 | Penelope Lively | Buy |
Penelope Lively’s non-fiction includes memoirs, essays, and works of narrative non-fiction published across four decades. The Presence Of The Past (1976) was an early work examining the relationship between landscape and history. Oleander, Jacaranda (1994) is a memoir of her childhood in Cairo, Egypt, written with the same attention to place and memory that defines her fiction.
Later non-fiction works include In Search of a Homeland (2006), a retelling of the Aeneid for younger readers, Ammonites & Leaping Fish (2013), a meditation on aging, and Life in the Garden (2017), which weaves together literary history, personal anecdote, and reflections on what gardens mean to those who tend them.