Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson - book review

I've started reading Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson, not the well known (and staggeringly well written) blog (which I must admit I dip in and out of from time to time - especially now, as parenthood beckons), but the accompanying book...I mention it simply because it's so completely unlike any other blog books, most of the other ones I have read (Belle de Jour/Blood, Sweat and Tea - that sort of thing) have been simple collections of carefully selected posts, perhaps tidied up a bit, put into a logical order - in fact, exactly the sort of thing one would expect from a blog book - after all, the hard bit has already been done, it's just a matter of picking out the diamonds for publication...

This one is very, *very* different - to read it is almost like putting on a DVD with the directors commentary playing instead of the main soundtrack, it follows much of the history of what is covered in the blog, but written again completely from scratch - this time telling the truth about what really happened and deeply analysing both what she wrote on the blog and her motives for doing so, explaining what was going on in her mind, and in an incredibly brave move it also includes pointing out where she added embellishments to make posts seem more amusing or poignant...an example being the episode where she was left trying to set up the video conferencing system in the office ready for an important meeting and ended up giving a room full of executives a close up of her cleavage (a classic bit of comedy), in reality it was just one IT guy at the other end, still embarrassing, but nothing like as funny...it's refreshing, it's interesting, and it also explains why each of her posts was unfailingly entertaining - because they weren't necessarily entirely true - it's made me wonder just how many other blogs I read are just very slightly fictitious...anyway, it's a highly entertaining read, standing head and shoulders above it's competitors simply for it's unique perspective - to be recommended...