Yesterday’s The Review Show on BBC2, in which an assembly of horse-racing correspondents – sorry: erudite authorities – sprinted through the whole cultural year, included a shot lasting 1.5 seconds of Andrew Motion turning the pages of the CBe edition of David Markson’s This Is Not a Novel – there it goes, above, flashing by; quick, press the pause button, or buy the book – and also a firm thumbs-up for Markson from Paul Morley. This Is Not a Novel was chosen by Geoff Dyer in the Guardian Books of the Year issue: ‘It felt like a book one had unconsciously been waiting to discover.’
The winter issue of The Author, the Society of Authors’ journal, is out. It answers many questions you might have been wondering about, including: How do authors avoid headlice when doing school visits? Which are the most popular titles in the prison library at Guantanamo Bay? What was the asking price on eBay for J. D. Salinger’s toilet (‘uncleaned and in it’s [sic] condition when it was removed from Salinger’s old home’)? In case you’re also wondering why CBe books are usually listed on Amazon as ‘out of stock’, that too is answered, in a piece by me on CBe.
The cricket. Jennie is more relaxed. The men of England have less of a swagger about them and are reverting to type: sweaty palms, bitten fingernails, a glumness in the eyes.
1 comment:
And "The Song of Lunch" is Michael Hofmann's Book of the Year in the TLS, 3 December.
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