Witty Little Knitter

This book gives a good introduction to Ludwig's life. When it comes to the topics that are still a cause of discussion (his homosexuality, his possible mental illness and his death) the author does have certain views on those but also does not fail to mention the things that do not fit 100% with this theory. A somewhat rare treat when it comes to literature on Ludwig.
Mcintoch writes that he only learned about Ludwig because of his fascination with Wagner and it shows. The chapters on Wagner are rather extensive and while it is impossible to write about Ludwig without also talking about Wagner I sometimes wondered if quite as much details had been neccessary.
I had similar feelings about the quotes. The author quotes quite extensively from letters written by/to/about Ludwig and while it's always good to have some things "in their own words" for authenticity's sake, I do think it often would have done to quote only parts of these letters and sum the rest up as they didn't really add anything.
Apart from thise minor annoyiances the book is really great and also comes with a in-depth bibliography of more literature on Ludwig.