Jeffrey Archer's short story collection, his fifth, Cat O' Nine Tales (2006) came to my attention through its illustrations by that consummate expatriate English artist Ronald Searle. Of the twelve stories included, nine were based on tales the author had heard while in prison. There seem to be a fair number of glowing reviews of the book. I wanted to like it, but frankly the collection didn't do much for me. The illustrations were in full color, and they were published as such in an early gift edition, but even there I found some were far better than others. The illustration of the story "Maestro" from page 51 depicts the Italian restaurateur who "could not explain away 3,000 table cloths." Nor could he explain his yacht, his Ferrari, and his Florentine villa to the tax assessor. The illustration was sold last Thursday at Dawson's Auctioneers in Maidenhead.
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| Ronald Searle Dawsons June 29, 2023 |
Note: Clearly, I'm not the right person to extol the virtues of this book. For more information on Ronald Searle's illustration work for Cat O' Nine Tales, see Matt Jones's 2006 post on the subject here.
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