Structure

Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told is a collection of essays written by Jenny Diski. They were originally published in the London Review of Books. The compilation begins with an introduction written by Mary-Kay Wilmers, a friend of Diski, and ends with an afterword written by Diski’s daughter, Chloe Diski. There is a credits section after the afterword that lists the original publication date of each essay in the London Review of Books. The essays are not numbered, and the book does not include all of the essays she had published in the London Review. Thirty-three essays are included in this book, and they are presented in chronological order starting in May 1992 and ending in September 2014. Each essay is prefaced by its title and ends with its date of publication.

The individual essays vary in structure a bit. The majority of them...