Throughout the book Joseph employs traditional features of the genre; inserting herself into the text and outlining geographic context. Greg Bearup says of his travel memoir Caravanastan (2009), ‘it couldn’t have just been us driving around and interviewing people ... we had to be characters in the book’. Whilst the author of Behind the Text does not resile from asking personal questions, one has the sense that she is somewhat reticent about revealing herself in any substantial way.

One of the book’s highlights is a conversation with acclaimed non-fiction writer and journalist Margaret Simons; a skilled ‘meta-narrative’ such as Joseph espouses. Both Simons and John Dale, identify the book’s main audience by noting that the creative non-fiction label resonates chiefly for the academy and its students.

Other readers might be actively dissuaded from approaching this collection because of the central argument regarding nomenclature and its usage of a particular footnoting style. That would be a pity: there is a plethora of life and writing experience contained within these pages, enough to engage a diverse audience.