This one will have to be pretty well all Eng Lit – I haven’t knit a stitch yet today, and suspect that I am off to bed pretty soon.

Liz, I agree with you that KD’s new striped hap looks like an easy and fun knit, and I remain tempted. Ann, I think when she says that the Millarochy club samples are enough to knit the hap, she is referring to the samples that come with this year’s club. I didn’t sign up in time, so I haven’t got those. I’ve still got last year’s. It’s probably just as well that I don’t have any more.

Non-knit

I was wrong about today’s rugby match. It was played in London, not Paris – and England are almost unbeatable there. That’s why (among other reasons) that there is almost no hope that we will retain the Calcutta Cup this year. England smashed poor France today.

Kristen, I think there is much to be said for re-reading “Persuasion”. I, too, have read it recently. Don’t, whatever you do, attempt “In Cold Blood”. I have finished it, skipping a handful of the most distressing pages at the end, and will soon, and very happily, put it back on the shelf forever.

It could be the basis for a potentially interesting conversation, but I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s intended as a “non-fiction novel”. In a real novel, one knows that the author’s invention is supreme. Here, no one is in charge; that’s part of what is distressing. Another distressing aspect is Capote’s own relationship with some of the principal characters, however artfully concealed. And I don’t, on the whole, like Mr. Capote. But the worst is the actual subject-matter.

I wouldn’t mind going on to read “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. I remember the movie with delight; I wonder if I have ever read the story. But there doesn’t seem to be a Kindle edition. Pattie, I wouldn’t mind reading him “On Writing” but I can’t find it. (Stephen King wrote such a book, and it’s good. I like Mr. King, in contrast to my feelings about Mr. Capote.)

I think the opening pages of “Persuasion” are the best in all of English literature (although Evelyn Waugh’s “Handful of Dust” is pretty good). We could have a side-discussion on the subject of first pages. I will read the next section of “Cousin Phillis” tomorrow, and am happy to follow you back to “Persuasion” if that’s what you decide, Kristen. I hope nothing I have said is tempting you towards “In Cold Blood”.