Tilda Swinton is writing a memoir. Consider us sat.

Her forthcoming second book, Material Evidence (following Ongoing, her earlier exploration of creative life from 2025), was announced this week by Canongate. But Swinton's celebrity memoir will not, however, march obediently from childhood to career to fame. Instead, the actor has chosen to tell a life through objects: a christening dress, a letter, a wooden leg, a sweatshirt, a piece of embroidery silk and a photograph. Which, if you ask us, is a very Swinton-inspired solution to the problem of explaining a life.

Here's what we know so far about the book...

What is Material Evidence about?

Rather than following a conventional timeline, Swinton will use individual objects as starting points for memories and stories. The book is described as an "associative, sensory" memoir, and Swinton herself described it as "a book about curiosity" and "a trail of breadcrumbs through the forest".

When will it be released?

The book is scheduled for global publication in the fall of 2028 (which means spring 2028 for those in the southern hemisphere).

Is Material Evidence a traditional memoir?

Not quite. Swinton has spent much of her career swapping identities in the name of cinema, moving between radically different characters, identities and worlds. A neat, definitive portrait would perhaps be the least Swinton-like approach possible.

Instead, Material Evidence appears to build a life sideways: through fragments, possessions and the memories attached to them. Canongate describes the book in terms of curiosity, wonder and the difference between “spirit” and “solid matter”. The most intriguing thing may be what it refuses to provide: no neat Swinton timeline, just a collection of things, each with a story stuck to it.

And, presumably, the woman doing the looking.