The strange and talented Patricia Highsmith, who learned to read before she was two years old, was born on this day in 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was adapted for the screen by Raymond Chandler and made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

One of her most interesting books, which I think tells a lot about her personality, her love for animals and her ambivalence towards humans is a collection of short stories about animals turning on their inhumane humans called Animal Lover’s Book of Beastly Murder.

Never been to Texas but I have visited Ticino, Switzerland, the town near the Italian border where Highsmith spent the last years of her life.