Marion Milner introduces this edited collection of her papers from 1942 to 1977 with a fascinating biographical account of her development in psychoanalysis. The collection includes her classic papers on symbolism.

Milner's final text, Bothered by Alligators, came about when, in her nineties, she unexpectedly came across a diary she had kept during the early years of her son's life, recording his conversations and play between the ages of two and nine. With it was a storybook written and illustrated by him when he was about seven years old.

Whilst working on the material, Milner gradually realised that both diary and storybook were provoking questions she realised had scarcely been asked, let alone answered in her own analysis. Through her memories, her notebooks and by...