Customer Reviews
Less than I expected - By: M, 16 Aug 2008 
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 ... & 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 & 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 - & 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 & 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 - & only goes to show that journalists can't always tell a good story. Possibly because it's hardest to write objectively about yourself.
Have typewriter, will travel - By: Mrs. M. G. Powling, 02 Nov 2007 
Katharine Elizabeth Whitehorn was bornin 1928. She worked as a columnist for The Observerin London from 1960 until 1996. I give these dates because, unlike many an autobiography, Katharine has been extremely "selective"in her autobiography & 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' & get a Giro payment? How did she get a jobin Finland, teaching English to small classes of adults? It is known thatin 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 episodesin this book are descriptions of Katharine & 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 & even how?
