?One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman', wrote Simone de Beauvoir.



This is a woman who was also to become a philosopher, a novelist, an existentialist, and a feminist icon. Her novels won prestigious literary prizes and The Second Sex transformed the way we think about sex and gender.



Kate Kirkpatrick draws on previously unavailable diaries and letters, including those written to filmmaker Claude Lanzmann to whom she wrote ?You are my destiny, my eternity, my life ...' in letters which only came to light in 2018.