Sort of Literary

Knitting

Half-way through repeat no. 32 of the Princess shawl edging; eight of thirteen stripes on the second sleeve of the striped Koigu. That's all there is to say about that.

Other

We got an invitation in the post yesterday to a joint book launch: daughter-in-law Cathy's (Catherine Sampson) second thriller, Out of Mind; and Adam Williams' second book, The Emperor's Bones. In London, during the first week of August, conveniently only two days before Thomas-the-Younger's Christening. Adam Williams lives in the same compound as the Beijing Mileses. We met him when we were there two years ago, and on the strength of that I am reading -- slowly but steadily -- his first book, The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure. It's extremely good -- and it had to overcome two of my prejudices 1) against books about foreigners and 2) against historical novels. I've read more than 400 pages, which should allow me to gush convincingly when we meet again.

Cathy's first book was called Falling Off Air. It's very good, too.

The Hitchhiker's Guide is up against another two of my prejudices: science fiction and whimsy. It's doing pretty well, too.

I got this message the other day from my son Alexander. He and our daughter Rachel Ogden live fairly near each other in south London. The Ogdens live on Lewin Road in Streatham, and the "Hellie" mentioned here is their elder daughter.

"I read your blog this morning (not something I normally do) and saw the bit
about virii. I was recently paying one of my frequent visits to Lewin road
to sort out Ogden computer problems. Amongst other things there was a
problem with the mouse. I fixed it and explained to Hellie, the only person
present, what was wrong. "Ah", she said "is that how mouses work". I said
that the plural of mouse was mice. She looked at me as if I were mad and
said something along the lines of "Duhhh, but this is a computer mouse.
It's not the same". I felt she had a point, and wondered what Pinker would
have made of it."