Lemony Snicket: Lemony Snicket: The unauthorised autobiography

By MARGIE THOMSON

This purports to answer many of your most commonly asked questions about the enigmatic Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It's all part of the enjoyable mythmaking about the elusive author, who is a fictional creation of San Francisco writer Daniel Handler.

His series of what will become 13 books has become a game in itself, with clues scattered around and little cult-engendering touches that readers avidly look forward to: his dedications to the dead (or perhaps not) Beatrice, for instance. Who was she?

And, increasingly, who is Lemony Snicket and why is he so obsessed with the fate of the Baudelaire orphans who are the heroes of his series?

Here is the evidence of Snicket's existence and continued life, despite a recent obituary in The Daily Punctilio. It's a scrapbook of notes and pictures which will leave you as muddled, perhaps even more so, as you were at the beginning.

Kids love it, according to their reviews posted on an independent internet site. Says one: "I really liked this book, but I must admit that I am totally confused as to what direction this series is going in."

HarperCollins

$24.95