Superfluous Summations

IT seems bizarre to arrive at the end of a 384-page autobiography and find a paragraph appearing beneath the heading 'About the Author'. Unless the book is completely indecipherable, or having catered to someone with a very poor memory, the reader will have acquired enough detail about the writer's life to manage without the assistance of a potted biography.

On the other hand, the only logical reason to include a section of this kind is if the writer is a congenital liar and the publisher is trying to set the record straight. Writing these literary conclusions would make a fascinating job, I must say, almost like a reversal of the advisory prologue one finds at the front of a 'controversial' text, but warning us that what we have just read is absolute nonsense and that it is our sacred duty as a responsible citizen to forget the whole exercise and move on to another book as soon as possible.