'Women are bitches.' It was odd and ugly of J. R. Ackerley to put it like that, since both the sentence before this terse rancour and the one after it dote upon a bitch, his dog Queenie. Much-loved Joe Ackerley was not much-loving, but he did love his dog, loved her even more than he loathed his sister Nancy. Nancy loathed them both back. She also loathed their old aunt Bunny, whom Ackerley only intermittently hated. When Ackerley took a break, he contrived a busman's Roman holiday, since he went to stay with Siegfried Sassoon, who was fully occupied loathing his wife, as she him. 'He was obviously very wrought up over her emotional persecution of him, and described at much length her jealous rows, resentments, emotional blackmail, etc. He was describing Nancy.' Nancy was chagrined at not having been invited, so Ackerley gave it her straight:

LRB 20 May 1982 | PDF Download