Reading for Pleasure

money we had." The distinctive identity and qualities of the individual initiating the message evoke a mental image with a pattern of association that arouses corresponding expectation. In like manner, the growth of biographical writings to a recognised literary species in recent decades reflects the public's appetite for personal record. The brief snatches I present here reflect but the merest glimmer from the Aladdin's cave of biography, which overflows with the riches of incident and the contending interpretations of the subject's inner self.