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the complete review - biography

Such a Strange Lady

by
Janet Hitchman

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : decent introduction to the author's life and work

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Hitchman has hurriedly put together a 177- page biography in a successful attempt to beat out at least five other authors currently researching the life of this marvelously eccentric woman. (...) Little of the material is new. The information which Hitchman has compiled has been available in scattered magazine articles and out-of-print books. The bibliography is brief and incomplete, and the book lacks an index. " - Daniel F. King, Books Abroad
  
  
• "This is not a biography but, as it was originally called, an introduction to Sayers. Hitchman says her book is not definitive, that she had no access to Sayers's family or papers. With those limitations, it is awfully intelligent, compassionate, interesting and, as they say, a very good read." - Louise Bernikow, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "It is to Janet Hitchman's credit that her memoir leaves one thinking more kindly of Dorothy L. Sayers by showing her as an erratic, eccentric and throughout her life lonely figure. (...) This book makes her likeable because it shows an inadequate human being struggling towards self-knowledge, and a writer, whose potentialities were never fully expressed. One has to add that she wouldn't have cared to be appreciated in such terms." - Julian Symons, Sunday Times
  
  
• "The book is both badly organized and not particularly well written; Miss Sayers deserved something better." - The Times

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Such a Strange Lady is a slim overview of the life and work of Dorothy L. Sayers -- best-known as the author of the mystery novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Author Janet Hitchman notes that that she did not have access to Sayers' most personal papers, and so: "A great deal must be supposition, a reading between the lines of her published work", and freely admits: "This cannot be a definitive life of her. It is more like an introduction, but it is the first one". No doubt later biographies are considerably fuller and probably more informative, but Hitchman does track the basics, giving some idea of Sayers' life and a decent sense of her character -- even if the overall impression remains (perhaps appropriately):

     She was a mass of contradictions. Her public manner was always formidable, but this camouflaged a deep shyness. She talked incessantly, mostly about her craft, and managed, while continually burbling, never to give away a single thing about herself. It was years, for instance, before people who considered themselves her closest friends knew where she lived, or that she was married.

My feeling about this is no doubt unreasonable, but the fact remains that "Dorothy Sayers" has unpleasant associations for me and I do not like it. It is, if you like, a Freudian complex associated with my school days, and possibly I ought to get over it, but I can't. It produces in me a reaction of humiliation and depression and I don 't like it. I am tired of writing letters of protest to Brewer and Collins and the B.B.C. and the newspapers -- and when Mr. Gollancz, in his largest and blackest type, goes back on me it does seem hopeless. After all, that is the signature I have chosen -- may I not have it ? Other authors seem to get what they want: I don't see allusions to Ethel Dell, or George Shaw, or Freeman Crofts . . . Mayn't I have my "L" ? I wish you would take this request seriously.

Dorothy is also insufferably rude about "niggers," servants and the working class, and she has a complex about the Soviet menace. Some of her utterances are very hard to stomach in the climate of opinion which now exists.

     Dorothy did not concern herself with war work as such, except for knitting socks for trawlermen from thick, coarse wool. She kept chickens and a pig to help out with the rations. The pig was called Francis Bacon and had the run of the house as well as the garden. [...] It was a much-loved animal, the subject of foolish endearments and all manner of cosseting -- but they ate him. A typical example of Dorothy's ability to shut doors on life. There was no connection, once the deed of slaughter was done, between the bacon on the plate, and the affectionate creature that had come at her call and chuntered round the house like a happy if somewhat feeble-minded child.

- M.A.Orthofer, 30 June 2026

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Links:

• Diary of an Autodidact
• Howling Frog Books

• The Dorothy L. Sayers Society

• See Index of Biographical works under review

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About the Author:

       British writer Janet Hitchman lived 1916 to 1980.

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© 2026 the complete review

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