Alfred & Emily by Doris Lessing (HarperCollins)

Alfred & Emily is a very odd book, albeit quietly interesting.

Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing says she hated her mother. So she set about, quite late in life, to write out her hatred.

Lessing did this by devoting half of this book to her idea of how life could, and should, have been for her parents, even then, making her father more likeable than her mother.

That done, the second half of the book was supposedly the real story of her parents.

But Alfred & Emily wanders off into an autobiographical account of life in Africa, quite often losing its way in book and grocery lists.

It can only be said that Lessing's imaginary parents were more interesting and that the writing was bewilderingly appeared to be aimed, at times, at the comprehendingly impaired.

One would like to say Alfred & Emily is a good book. Instead, it is definitely an odd book.

Verdict: Rather like a pleasant dose of Valium.

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