• I liked the title...
• and the cover...
• and the fact that David Niven was in the movie adaptation...
• which had a brilliant Saul Bass poster.

The novel bored me silly - which, I suppose, serves me right - and I never again concerned myself with the work of the woman dubbed 'the charming little monster' by fellow author François Mauriac.
However, the late Mademoiselle Sagan went up in my estimations this weekend (I'm sure her estate will be wildly pleased to learn that) when I read a report of France's renewed interest in the woman.
What tickled me were the details of her wild, hedonistic lifestyle.
Apparently, she gambled fervently, crashed luxury cars, seduced legions of glamourous men and women, and 'took so many drugs that her pet fox-terrier overdosed from sniffing her handkerchiefs'.
Most wickedly, Mlle Sagan died, aged 69, leaving debts of £470,000, after being found guilty of tax evasion.

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