Agatha Christie: The Biography is a mildly overblown account of a life which was slightly less interesting than the author wanted it to be. It reads more like a genteel domestic saga than a penetrating piece of investigative biography, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I became increasingly irritated, though, with the amount of what I suppose could be called poetic license but which I might instead call “making things up”. At one point we are told that Agatha was “far more beautiful than is apparent from photographs”, and given that the author isn’t much older than me, I found myself thinking but how do you know?
Category: Books
Good book, bad title
On Beauty was more fun than I expected it to be, on my second attempt at reading it. The cover blurb describes it as a “comic novel”, which I don’t think does it any favours at all, because whilst it is beautifully observed* and deftly plotted, one thing it isn’t is all that funny. But it made me want to see what she does next, which is a better review than it sounds.
*Thanks to my days in a tiny corner of a big newspaper, I cannot type the word “observed” without giving it an extra “r” – “observerd”. Likewise, I always initially add an involuntary “ian” to the end of the word “guard”. I just did both things while I was typing this.
…and then the hamster died
The Christmas Letters: The Ultimate Collection of Round Robins is Simon Hoggart’s collection of edited highlights from the round robin letters his readers have sent him over the years. The awful people are, of course, the funniest, but there are some gems from people whose mailing list I’d be genuinely pleased to be on. I shan’t spoil it by reproducing my favourite (and very short) extract here, partly because it would probably be illegal.
Glad All Over 