Selective Memory

by Katharine Whitehorn

Book by KATHARINE WHITEHORN

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

269 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ms Whitehorn was educated at the private Roedean School near Brighton, Glasgow High School for Girls (closed in the 1970s), and Newnham College,
Cambridge.

Katharine Whitehorn was a columnist with the Observer. Famous for her classic book for Londoners: Cooking in a Bedsitter in the 60s.

She has lived in Finland and America.

Was married to thriller-writer the late Gavin Lyall,

In 2018, it was reported that she was living in a care home.

Reviews

[Adrian Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is both a good life story and a terrible memoir. I was only vaguely aware of Whitehorn before reading it, so was keen to find out more. For someone who spent decades as a professional writer, she couldn’t structure her own life story at all. It begins chronologically but soon becomes a rambling mess of recollections. At its core, her story shuttles back and forth between the late 1950s and late 1970s. This makes it unappealing to read, other than a few pages at a time.

Reading the book in this way makes sense, though, given that Whitehorn was principally known as a columnist (for the Observer in particular, for a phenomenal 36 years, from 1960). You get the sense that she is much more comfortable whispering pithy anecdotes behind her hand than creating a coherent single narrative of her life story.

The structural challenge masks a more important problem with the book: it’s long on small, unimportant practical details and frustratingly short on emotional content.

For example, she doesn’t tell us in broad terms what she thinks of becoming a parent, mainly discussing her experience in terms of the hired help that enabled her to carry out her jobs and various activities outside the home. This relates to her important stance on juggling family and career which made her a role model for many.

However she only alludes to marriage and family life, presenting a blurry picture as if we’re looking in through a rain-dashed window. She does pick one or two subjects to talk about candidly, including her husband’s alcoholism (he was the novelist Gavin Lyall) and indeed her own reliance on alcohol.

As the book continues, we get more of a sense of Whitehorn’s remarkable climb from schoolmaster’s daughter to general purpose opinion former, happy to write speculatively on subjects she knew little about and then be treated as an expert. She writes openly about this and there is a real value to her honesty throughout the memoir.

She was a trailblazer; her personal opinion column for the Observer was the first of its type and did much to sweep away the stuffy attitudes of the Fifties in favour of a more realistic, generous and modern view of life. She was also a great networker across all fields within the metropolitan elite, occupying much the same sort of ‘village London’ Claire Tomalin describes in her autobiography. This becomes an issue, though, when we get innumerable honourable mentions and thumbnail life stories of people we don’t really care about, some of them no doubt included just in case they read the book themselves.

Whitehorn’s story, insofar as you can piece it together, is an interesting one. She clearly loved being busy and her wry, common sense attitude got her onto radio and TV shows, voluntary committees, public commissions and company boards, including that of the Nationwide Building Society. She was even elected unopposed as the Rector of St Andrews (1982-85) and the university has named a new hall of residence after her. She may have been a pre-feminist but her ideas and courage in committing them to print have left their mark on our culture.

It was a slog to get through this mess of a book but its very messiness seems to provide a sense of Katharine Whitehorn’s character. She seems like someone who has found joy in funny little stories and day to day living. Has her autobiography made me want to track down one of the anthologies of her weekly columns? Very much so. Without those, I've only got half the story...

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely read - she writes beautifully & this story was much more intimate than I had expected. She’s quite happy to “blow her own trumpet” and I was very surprised at the class aspect, specifically the level of privilege which she seemed to very much take for granted. This apparently opened doors to opportunities probably not afforded to most of us and caused me to wonder if this was of its time or is still a common factor in present society?

Thought provoking and very interesting for me.

[Schopflin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is well-written and quite entertaining but, like Claire Tomalin, she acknowledges her luck without really appreciating how tiny and self-supporting the world of arts and media were in the 60s and 70s.

[Paul Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars really. Thankfully not too egocentric; an interesting retrospective on an era which I was too you to experience to the full and a twilight gloaming to which I have become familiar.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting book. Such an interesting life. I had never heard of the author before but her marriage in and of itself was a fun read, her husband was multi-talented.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forget now where I read the phrase that attracted me to this book. I don't suppose I would have bumped it up my list of things to read had it not been on the shelf at my local library (and perhaps also because I recently made her carrot ragout recipe from Cooking in a Bedsitter again). At home I picked it up because the book I was supposed to be reading was in my bag downstairs... and then I was hooked by the sunny opening.

It's not an especially fascinating life (I don't mean that at all unkindly and maybe I've read rather a lot of autobiographies by people of a similar age and (adult) milieu) Some things about it sadden me (not necessarily things she'd recognise herself as sad). It's at least as much a biography of her late husband Gavin Lyall, a bit too much in some ways but it is clear that they were both very good with words. Definitely some great phrases in there I'd like to adopt eg her husband's description of a house as 'centrally catted'

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do like Katharine Whitehorn, she's the sort of stout-shoe wearing, no-nonsense tolerating, sensible-haircut having woman that I imagine teaches in posh girls' schools and makes sure no-one leaves without being able to tie a reef knot and signal "Bring more Tupperware" in semaphore. So I liked her autobiography too, which has exactly that tone but spoke touchingly of her forty-five year marriage, her experiences as one of the first well-known female columnists and her current adventures in old age.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Currently reading for Book Group. Not my choice and would not be my choice, because in general I have no interest in reading about other people's lives!! I will struggle to read it, firstly because of the above and secondly because I don't think it is amazingly written (the nerve to say that of someone who wrote for the Observer for years and has written several other books to her credit!)

Post Script - as I thought! Not my cup of tea!!

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Katharine Whitehorn's writing since I was in my teens and I so wanted to like this book, but it was considerably less gripping and interesting than I would have predicted. Maybe it would have been better if it had been written a decade earlier.