All religion and much philosophy has been concerned with the contrast between the ephemeral and the eternal. Human beings have always sought ways to overcome time, and to prove that death is not the end. This book consists then in an exploration of certain closely related ideas: personal identity, time, history and our commitment to the future, and the role of imagination in life.

Mary Warnock was born in Winchester and educated at St Swithun's School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Hugh's College, Oxford for fifteen years, and Headmistress of the Oxford High School for six. She was Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge from 1984 till 1991, and became a Life Peer in 1985. She has chaired various Government committees, and written books on philosophy and on education. She is married to Sir Geoffrey Warnock, and they live in Wiltshire.