Like Abelard and Heloise, they are buried in a joint grave, their names linked for eternity. They are one of the world's legendary couples. We can't think of one without thinking of the other. "Tete-a-tete" tells the story of a relationship, one that still arouses steamy controversy, particularly in France; the notoriously open union between those freethinking and engaged Existentialist philosophers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Hazel Rowley portrays these two people close up, in their most intimate moments. Since theirs was an open relationship, the story involves rather a lot of other characters. Whether or not we think it is one of the great love stories of all time, it is certainly a great story. Exactly what Sartre and Beauvoir most wanted their lives to be? In the quarter of a century since their death, new light has been cast on this famous pair by numerous memoirs, as well as Sartre and Beauvoir's own journals and correspondence. Their intimates are more willing to talk now than they were in the past. "Tete-a-tete" is based on access to primary sources, which no biographer has seen before, as well as on original interviews. The result is a fascinating book that shows the passion, energy, daring, humour, and bizarre contradictions in this extraordinary and unorthodox relationship.