Caroline Moore
Two outstanding biographies: one fatly complete, stuffed with irresistible gossipy detail; the other elegantly concentrated on a single relationship; both superbly read- able. Jenny Uglow's Elizabeth Gaskell (Faber £20, £12.99) was published early this year: its sympathetic human warmth lingers in the memory. Richard Holmes' Dr Johnson & Mr Savage (Hodder, £19.99) explores simultaneously the relationship between young Samuel Johnson and the profligate mythomaniac poet Richard Sav- age, and the very nature of biography, which Holmes defines as akin to friendship. Actually, I'm not sure I entirely believe that Johnson's Life of Savage is the first `romantic' biography (what about Kenelm Digby's memorial of his wife, Venetia Stan- ley, for starters?), but this matters not a whit: no other contemporary biographer is quite so intellectually beguiling as Holmes.
The novel which gave me the most enjoy- ment — which you could call sheer or mere, depending on whether you believe novels should entertain — was Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy (Phoenix House, £20). Highly rated, and not at all an origi- nal choice, I'm afraid; but not overrated: it gluts every reader's narrative greed. I don't like nominating overrated books, so shall end with the most underrated one. Peter Ackroyd's House of Dr Dee (Hamish Hamilton, £14.95) received almost univer- sally bad reviews — The Spectator proving a rare exception. But, although more flawed and less obscure than Hawksmoor, it is per- haps more interesting — and that, I trust, will be recognised to be high praise enough.
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