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Selective Memory
 
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Selective Memory [Illustrated] (Hardcover)

by Katharine Whitehorn (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £18.99
Price: £16.14 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Price For Both: £19.63

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  • This item: Selective Memory by Katharine Whitehorn

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    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 8 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; 1st edition (4 Oct 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1844082407
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844082407
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 160,710 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
'There is a fair amount of cheerful cynicism here, but also a touching memoir of times and people past' TIMES 'Humorous and bittersweet' OBSERVER 'Katharine Whitehorn's long-awaited and beautifully achieved autobiography, the best present you could give, a book to treasure for its wit, honesty, good sense and warm laughter . . . What she writes is timelessly intelligent, agelessly elegant' TELEGRAPH 'Dry, aphoristic, keenly intelligent' TIMES 'One for flagging feminists everywhere' DAILY MAIL 'Her lively, witty autobiography is a highly entertaining read' THE GLOSS 'Katharine Whitehorn's long-awaited and beautifully achieved autobiography, the best present you could give, a book to treasure for its wit, honesty, good sense and warm laughter . . . What she writes is timelessly intelligent, agelessly elegant' TELEGRAPH

Observer
'Humorous and bittersweet'

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
46 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Have typewriter, will travel, 2 Nov 2007
Katharine Elizabeth Whitehorn was born in 1928. She worked as a columnist for The Observer in London from 1960 until 1996. I give these dates because, unlike many an autobiography, Katharine has been extremely "selective" in her autobiography and has chosen, for whatever reason, not to provide many dates, so you're left wondering when certain events actually took place.
I finished reading this book only this morning but already, apart from the last section which deals with the death of her husband, writer Gavin Lyall, little of it remains. I was left wanting more, or at least answers to questions. Small wonder she has called it Selective Memory. What really happened when she was fired from jobs? How did she pay her way when she was out of work? Did she 'sign on' and get a Giro payment? How did she get a job in Finland, teaching English to small classes of adults? It is known that in writing it can be either feast of famine, so when did famine (rented accommodation) turn into feast (buying a home; buying a boat; sending their sons to private schools)?
Indeed, the most enjoyable episodes in this book are descriptions of Katharine and Gavin's various boats. But again, Katharine doesn't explain why for one of them the name Simpkin was chosen. I kept asking the journalist's questions which I thought this consummate journalist would've been keen to provide the answers to: who, what, when, where, why and even how?
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Less than I expected, 16 Aug 2008
By booksetc (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Selective Memory (Paperback)
I agree with the previous reviewer that this was a very disappointing read. (Although I was left wishing that Katharine Whitehorn had been rather more selective because the end of the book degenerates into a list of minor conferences she attended ... and frankly, all these years on, who cares!)
I really thought that such a high-powered journalist, who worked through some of the most exciting times on Fleet Street would have done better than this - and, although it feels cruel to say so, maybe Whitehorn should have written her memoirs when she was slightly younger and on better form.
When the book flickered into any kind of life, she came across as a difficult woman, rather full of her own achievements - and I felt rather sorry for her late husband, whom she seems to have treated somewhat condescendingly. (I couldn't quite work out why, he was a few years younger than her and she seems to dismiss him as being somehow less 'experienced' in life, which even if it was true when they met, surely can't have held true for very long!)
All told, a disappointing book - and only goes to show that journalists can't always tell a good story. Possibly because it's hardest to write objectively about yourself.
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