Flattery gets you everywhere

The most insightful and respected blog in the literary community – Uncool – has produced this long-awaited analysis of the cross-over of writing and aesthetics. Click here.

It is to be applauded...and is proof that flattery gets you everywhere.

Six Random Things

I've been tagged (in the internet sense, not in the playground sense) by PD Smith, author of Doomsday Men. It's a game doubtless meant to perpetuate clicks, surfing, blogs and other mouse-operated madness.

It involves saying 6 random things about yourself. For me, these are:
1. I have a fetish for cotton-wool buds
2. I can't say the words 'celebrity' or 'laboratory' without stuttering
3. I dress up as Darth Vader at weekends.
4. My second toe is longer than my big toe.
5. I am colour-blind but still a snooker-addict.
6. Poor punctuation should carry the death sentence.

Otherwise, the rules are as follows:

a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up

The six people I’m tagging are:

Gavin Plumley
Claire Wigfall
Uncool
Sylvia Petter
Dolly Mopp
Phil Schoenfelt

I am Uncool

A fine and witty blogger at Uncool has done me the kind service of placing the PoV among Nabokov, Turgenev and Hughes in her favourite books of the year. Two even finer points, however: she has a laudable aversion to Kafka's The Trial and Russian writers bring her to tears. I wish there were more people like her out there.

I recommend you read her blog: funny, insightful and, most importantly, unflinchingly irreverent.