Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Off to Holland tomorrow, so no more from me for a while. In the meantime, enjoy the new stuff on the UK site for A Series of Unfortunate Events and buy book the sixth!

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

R, a schoolfriend, has just emailed me to say that he has just qualified as a vet. Given that he was told at aged 15 by some cretinous teacher that he would never be one, I think that represents a pretty sterling effort. I remember how disappointed he was at the time; most of the rest of us hasn't a clue what we wanted to do when we left school but R had known since he was about 9. He is obviously chuffed to bits, and I am very pleased for him too. I just can't imagine being that dedicated. Well done R!
The Bookseller Buyers' Guide is in, and the front cover is taken up with one of the most eagerly awaited novels of recent years, Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. I am looking forward to it, but I do have a tiny sense of trepidation- The Secret History was a long time ago, after all, and I was much younger (and dare I say less well-read) than I am now. . .
Jacob the Frog contains some rather lovely and typically impenetrable cartoons by my long-suffering ex-housemate JML. The site is named after a frog bought for her by my mother (don't ask).

Monday, July 15, 2002


After an extremely stressful weekend driving around London with min Laererinde, I am faced with a mountain of work which obscures another mountain of work just behind it. I get extremely tetchy and ring my boss, who is very patient with me, but I still feel aggrieved.

Danish learnt on drive round London: negligable. The tape is useless without the coursebook. All we hear is a man reciting those nine vowels (and let's not forget, the diphthongs) in a faintly bored manner. Other things learnt on drive round London: don't drive in London. Ever. Again.

Anyway, I am going home shortly to listen to music and drink wine, and I am not going to moan anymore.

Oh, you were here for links, were you? Well, whilst I'm in Holland next week, the first issue of the second series of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comes out. What larks!