Garamond Bôphin

I suppose I should know by now that a good deal of luck is involved if something I plan comes off successfully, but that things will often work out all right in the end, even if the middle seems a bit dodgy!

( ...gang aft agley )

When I was still at school, I once saw a genuine Stetson close up in a gentlemen's outfitters and was most impressed, but I wasn't really a wearer of hats in those days (school caps don't count!). When I became one (shortly before departing for university), I went for more of a "Sam Spade" look and with a modest budget at that. I blame two characters for my current interest in cowboy hats: The Doctor in "Doctor Who" and Raylan Givens in "Justified".

When Matt Smith said: "Bow-ties are cool!" I thought: "maybe, but I think I'll just include one in formal wear/Holmesian costume". When he said: "Fezzes are cool!" I just laughed - of course they aren't!* When, during a behind-the-scenes documentary, he opened a Christmas present and said: "Oh my God, it IS a badger! Aw, Dude, that's cool!" and then terrorized his co-star with his new glove-puppet, I had to buy one for myself (thanks, Amazon Marketplace!). That got me thinking back to the beginning of the series and a scene filmed in Utah in which he said: "I wear a Stetson now; Stetsons are cool!" I'd bought the cool badger, should I buy the cool hat too? (Even though he only wore it for a few minutes, before it was shot off his head and never mentioned again.)

Now, I haven't managed to see enough of "Justified" to know if I'm a fan of the series or not (it has an inconvenient time-slot and there are so many other programmes I'm trying to keep up with at the moment that I haven't watched it 'on-demand'), but I am a fan of Timothy Olyphant's hat. I've read what Elmore Leonard has said about it being the wrong style, but I don't think an "Open Road" would have worked with that actor on that show. Stetsons certainly are cool, at least when worn by Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a little research (I ought to know by now what that means!) and rather fell for the 4X "Stone Portage" - unfortunately rather pricey as hats go (though there are far more expensive ones available, for those with deep pockets) and I had to suffer shipping costs and import duty as well. I did try to talk myself out of it, or at least stall until another foolish headgear purchase arrived (of which, perhaps, more later?), but I got a rebate from my electricity supplier and couldn't resist. As with a lot of parcels, collecting it did involve a trip to an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere (well, Beddington, which is much the same thing!), but it turned up really quickly, fits perfectly and is just generally marvellous (though I am still getting used to how wide the brim is and keep knocking it on door frames etc.). I was a little anxious about possible reactions the first time I wore it to the shops, but I needn't have worried: being this close to London means that what might be considered odd items of headgear (or, indeed, clothing) hardly get a second glance.



*Whilst I still don't think I want to wear a fez myself, I was fortunate enough to get the incredibly helpful and talented miss_next to make me one for my cuddly orang-utan!

Something has been bugging me recently: the use of real/historical people in fictional works. It had bothered me before, but not nearly to the same extent. Now, I acknowledge that the subject had been brought to the forefront of my mind by a couple of novels featuring J.R.R. Tolkien and a fantasy story with William Tell as a major character, but it only really became problematic when I started reading "The Three Musketeers" (something I had been meaning to do for a long time).

When I saw Michael York and company romping around to "Swords for your supper" some years ago, I just enjoyed it as a fun story. The 1993 version prompted me to take a cursory glance at the synopsis of the written version, but little more. However, a combination of occasional boring 'down time' and the proliferation of the internet have seen me researching all sorts of things and one of these forays included looking up a book I had seen in the pre-1950 'stack' of Exeter Central Library: "Memoires de M. d'Artagnan" and then tracing the historical characters involved. The more I read, the more it disturbed me.

Dumas' book starts in 1625, with the eighteen-year-old D'Artagnan travelling to Paris and meeting up with three older musketeers, with whom he has various adventures over the next thirty years or so, involving events like the siege of La Rochelle and people like the Duke of Buckingham.

In reality, Charles Ogier de Batz Castelmore, Seigneur d'Artagnan, was still living at home with his parents (as a teenager) when La Rochelle was besieged and Buckingham assassinated - he only became a musketeer in 1632, four years after those events. Then Armand de Sillegue d'Athos d'Autevielle and Henri d'Aramitz, who were four and nine years younger respectively, only joined up eight years later and Isaac de Porthau, six years d'Artagnan's junior, came into the regiment two years after that. As Athos was killed in 1643, they only served together for a year or so. In the books, Porthos is the first of the group to die, but his historical counterpart outlived them all.

Now, you may ascribe the differences to Dumas following the lead of the book I mentioned above (by one Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras) or to artistic licence (in one or both authors), but then we have by contrast "The Count of Monte Cristo", in which Dumas retold a real (to an extent) historical story and changed the names of all the characters, the opposite of what he had done with the musketeers! Admittedly, the revenge story had happened much more recently, but there had already been at least one book on the subject, so Dumas needn't have worried about sparing the feelings of anyone connected with the case. Why such different approaches? And does it matter?

Surely, having fictional characters (even if they are clearly thinly-veiled copies of real people) allows the author to do what he likes with the plot, without fear of contradiction (except on the grounds of lack of internal consistency). Using historical characters might be tenable if the story is specifically a "what if...?" scenario, but otherwise? I'd really like to know what the rest of you think.

After all this time, it may not be worth posting this, but I hate to leave things unfinished... We had got to the point where I was organising a second absinthe party:

This time, we used the venue that had originally been suggested: the kitchen of a rented cottage, which was made easier by the fact that one of the people who was keen on the idea was one of those doing the renting. As we had less space to work with, I didn't bother with the fountain this time, relying instead on my auto-verseur a bascule or see-saw dripper to prepare a single glass at a time, which was then passed around the assembled company for tasting. I had given away the rest of the Louche, but we still had quite a lot left in the two full-sized bottles and several of the tubes, including one containing Mansinthe, made to Marilyn Manson's own specifications and with a bottle strength of 66.6% ABV!

Once again, I ran through the history of absinthe and tried to answer as many questions as I could, something that was made slightly more daunting by the fact that our erudite guest speaker and her husband were there. Of course, we also chatted about other things (and I think Tolkien may have got the occasional mention!) and we all seemed to have as good a time as the night before, with a similarly late finish.

Strangely enough, I didn't get up in time for breakfast again, but surfaced around lunchtime and checked out The Swan Inn. Now, I must admit I was under a misapprehension: when I had looked up accommodation before, it had seemed to have nearly the highest prices in town and, with that in mind, I was seriously underwhelmed. However, on checking again I find that it has recently changed management and now has much more reasonable prices, so I shouldn't be over-critical. At least that is one more ticked off the list of local watering-holes...

After the events recounted in "Romance in the Cotswolds", I ended up back in the Bell Inn, chatting with Malcolm (now a local resident) and the staff about absinthe, cocktails and special events. I was told that they had a quiz night on that very day and agreed to come back after dinner.

Last time I stayed at the Redesdale Arms, I rather got swept along with other people's plans and didn't manage to try one particular menu item; this time, I had determined to have at least one major meal there without interference. Sadly, the item in question was no longer on the menu, so I'll never know how good it was, but there was still plenty to choose from. As it happened, they had got hold of some (early?) Vale of Evesham asparagus, so I had that (with a poached egg and Parmesan shavings) as a starter from their 'specials', along with some very nice bread with dipping sauces. For the main course, I went for the Roasted Gressingham Duck Breast and they kindly let me have peas instead of the spring greens (as at least some of you will know: I hate brassicas!). As excellent as those two courses were, however, they pale into insignificance against the dessert: Iced Malibu & Coconut Parfait with Strawberry marmalade. I wish I could find the right words to describe how truly scrumptious that was - all the elements were fantastic in their own right, but the combination was absolutely amazing!

Anyway, I just had a nice amount of time to calm down again before setting off for the Bell once more and taking my place as a 'ringer' (!) on Malcolm's quiz team. There were three rounds: a sheet of 20 pictures of celebrities (of various sorts, from George Clooney to Ernest Hemingway) to identify and two sets each of 40 questions that were read out. As usual with quizzes, it helps to have a varied team, especially as there are some subjects I know practically nothing about, and this time I was lucky with the mix: overall we got 67/100, which may not sound like much, but there were some very hard questions and our runners-up only got 49/100, so we won by a respectable margin. Of course, there was also quite a lot of drinking and chatting between rounds and afterwards, especially when the owner returned and gave us a round on the house!

As you may have noticed, up till then I had managed to miss all the breakfasts, but I made up for it on my final morning, having a truly full English, including black pudding and mushrooms! After that, I just took things easy until what I thought was a suitable time to go and catch a train. However, I hadn't realised that the train company effectively had a lunch break: there was a two hour gap, instead of the usual one hour one, so I trundled my suitcase back to the Bell to kill some more time. Still, even with quite a leisurely journey home, I was back here by early evening and I had sensibly booked the Tuesday off work as well, to give myself some proper recovery time.

Having taken this long to write such a short piece (admittedly in instalments between other things), I can appreciate why it took JRRT 17 years to finish The Lord of the Rings - you have my apologies for trying your patience so much! I hope this will serve to convey what a marvellous time I had and encourage you to try both the AGM weekend (wherever it may be) and Moreton-in-Marsh yourselves whenever you get the chance (if you haven't already).

Just in case you thought I'd given up on this...

After a while, we all drifted over to the White Hart Royal for the official Innmoot. Some of the others had gone there first and we were joined by quite a few more as the evening progressed. Some people had already eaten; others of us had something there, on an ad hoc basis. A performance by folk group Tinkerscuss had been arranged and quite a lot of people went to attend that, but I was not really in a musical mood and had heard them during my previous visit, so it wasn't as if I was missing out and I therefore remained in the bar, as did a number of others.

Now, you will know from my other writings that I have recently been dabbling in absinthe drinking and had discussed it with some of the others (especially after I bought the Secretary a symbolic spoon, which she wanted to try out 'for real'), so I had brought my paraphernalia with me, but we hadn't managed to sort out the arrangements properly, despite e-mail exchanges and a chat earlier in the evening. As a sort of last resort, I suggested that I could check with my own hotel, to see if we could host something there and it actually turned out to be a very good idea indeed: they allotted me an L-shaped area in one of the rooms off the bar and we agreed a suitable 'corkage' fee (as it was my own booze that was to be consumed). I went back to the White Hart Royal to explain the situation and the Chairman accompanied me back to the Redesdale Arms to look after the tables while I collected the relevant bits of luggage from my room.

As I unpacked things, the others who were interested and not otherwise occupied gradually joined us. I placed my fountain (which the barman kindly filled with iced water for me) in the centre and laid out plastic 'glasses', spoons, sugar and the various bottles and tubes and began my first large-scale demonstration as a professeur d'absinthe. I hadn't packed a measure, but one of the tubes (in which I had brought a sample of Jade V.S. 1898) luckily held exactly 30ml, so I poured that first and we were able to use it as a guide for most of the evening. I then showed how the absinthe is poured into the glass, the spoon placed over the top and the sugar cubes put in position on the spoon, before the whole assemblage is placed under one of the spigots (or taps/faucets, depending on your preferred terminology) and the flow of water is turned on and then regulated back to a slow drip, after which the louche can be watched developing: as the alcohol (in which the essential oils of the herbal distillations is dissolved) becomes diluted with the water (in which those oils are not soluble), complex oil trails develop in the so-far transparent liquid and it gradually fills with what look like billowing clouds and becomes almost milky. In fact, the first absinthe I plied people with is called Louche, after this very process. I thought it would be a good one to start with as it is a 'proper' absinthe, made by a reputable French producer, but is not extreme either in flavour, alcohol level or price.

After this initial round (with the party/audience gradually increasing to about eight), I went on to the La Fee XS Suisse, which is somewhat more refined (and expensive!) and starts off clear, rather than the green that most people expect. I'm not sure if it was then, or the following night (or both) that I explained that green absinthe was more popular in its early days as a herbal tonic and throughout the time it was freely available everywhere, with the better manufacturers using a 'second maturation' to infuse the clear distillate with green from added leaves of the constituent herbs (and less reputable ones saving money by using such unsavoury additions as copper sulphate!), but the clear variety (though always available) became much more popular after the various bans, as it made the drink more difficult for the authorities to recognise as absinthe - something that led to the name Clandestine being applied to it.

Almost everyone seemed to be enjoying it, so I then progressed to Lemercier Absinthe 72: made by the same firm as Louche, but with more alcohol and a more complex mixture of herbs (including gentian, I believe). A couple of suppliers sell tubes containing small quantities so that you can try a number of different varieties before committing to the cost of a full bottle and (as alluded to above) I had brought some of those along, so the Jade finally got louched and passed around and so did a couple of others, including Montmartre, which has an added flavour of cinnamon! Some of us also had additional glasses from the full-size bottles and this, with talk of absinthe and completely unrelated topics, took us up to about two o'clock and time to disperse.

At least three of the hotel staff had expressed an interest/shown curiosity during all of this, so I donated the remains of the Louche and one of my spoons to them, so they could try it for themselves (when off duty, of course!).

I got up about half-past-eight the next morning, decided I wasn't hungry for breakfast and didn't have anything much I particularly wanted to do until later and so went back to bed until lunch-time!

Then it was time for what was becoming my habitual trip round the three bars, with occasional chats with other 'stragglers', until it was time for the AGM proper. This was held upstairs at the White Hart Royal and I'm sure you'll hear about it elsewhere. The main discussions were about publicity and finance, but it was comparatively 'tame' and short, as AGMs go.

After that, there was more 'barfly' time and time to change for the Annual Dinner. The food was rather nice, though not spectacularly so (especially considering the price), and the company even more so: I was sitting with someone I had met briefly a couple of times, some people I had not yet met and someone I had known for a long time, but hadn't seen recently. The highlight, however, was undoubtedly the speech - one of the best I can remember hearing - by Dimitra Fimi, explaining the trials, tribulations and triumphs of her progress as a Tolkien academic.

During after-dinner drinks, several people expressed regret that they had missed my absinthe party the night before... so I organised another one!

It is taking me longer to write this than I had hoped, but I don't want to get too out of date, so here is the first instalment and more will follow when I manage it.

April 2011 is turning out to be a very busy month for me (and it isn't over yet), but (so far, at least) in the nicest possible way. In one of my earlier write-ups, I mentioned meeting a very friendly couple in Purl, London and - most surprisingly - not only did I not scare them off forever, but they actually contacted me to say that they would be spending a night in London (on their way to Paris) and would I like to have a few drinks with them again? As it turned out, this was going to be the night before the Tolkien Society AGM weekend, meaning I wouldn't have to get up early for work, so I booked us a table at Bourne & Hollingsworth and gave them directions.

I was lucky enough to get all my work done at the office by just after five o'clock and (for once) there were no delays on the Tube, so I actually reached the venue rather early and was glad I had brought my Sony Reader with me. Now, I must confess that I am rather short-sighted (even with my glasses on) and not always good at remembering what people look like (especially if I've only met them once, after a few drinks...), so I was rather counting on the fact that they would recognise me and, a few cigarettes and most of a chapter of "Against the Grain" later, such was indeed the case. We were still a few minutes early, but I ushered them down the stairs and into the bar and we were shown to our table (after the staff had dislodged a couple of people who hadn't booked - the place is very popular!). I hadn't wanted to put B&H to the trouble of fishing out their absinthe fountain, so I had brought my auto-verseur à bascule, but they seem to have acquired a mini fountain since my last visit, so I was able to louche successive glasses of Pernod 68 both ways! Olwyn started on the cocktails list straight away (Rob, perhaps sensibly, stuck with lager) and I dove in after my absinthes. I won't go into detail, but there were some very nice concoctions, including one in a jam-jar for sharing! We chatted about all sorts of things and I had a great evening, without getting too drunk or being too late home (I hope the same was true for them and that they managed to catch their Eurostar in the morning and enjoyed their time in Paris too).

The next morning, I felt fine (if a little tired) and so had less of a lie-in than expected, whilst still leaving myself plenty of time to pack. Now, I've said this is a busy month and I didn't realise it at the time, but I'd mixed up the train times for two trips. This dawned on me as I was sitting on a train at East Croydon station and decided to check my connections: it was the wrong train! Luckily, I had time to get off and change platforms, but because of this error I gave myself an extra-long wait at Reading (which seems to be a bit of a tradition, so maybe it was my subconscious making me stick to the rules!). Even so, it was barely early evening when I arrived.

I'm sure I've said nice things about the Redesdale Arms Hotel before, but this stay has caused me to run out of superlatives and I'd like to award them six stars out of five or 12 points out of 10 if I could. The rooms I've stayed in (numbers 10 and 6 so far) have left a certain amount to be desired (though that may be due to the limitations of it being such an old building), or at least there are a couple of things I'd do differently if it were up to me, but it is still a very nice hotel in itself. What makes it stand out from the crowd is the friendliest, most helpful staff I have ever encountered anywhere: all of those who were still there from my previous visits recognised me immediately and, with the ones who have started since then, I built up such a rapport through the course of the weekend that it was like saying goodbye to old friends when I checked out.

Having settled in and had a snack and my first pint of cider of the weekend proper, I went over and had a quick look at the White Hart Royal (which was to be the main venue), but it was a little early for anyone else to be there, so next I went to The Bell Inn, which is the favoured watering-hole of the local Three-farthing Stone Smial and those who have visited Moreton before. Sure enough, a couple of them were already there and we were soon joined by some others. Now, I'm not going to name-check people generally speaking, partly because it saves me having to remember who was where at each stage and it also avoids the problems of not knowing names that I should, but we had a good mix of local smial members, TS committee members and (for want of a better term) unaffiliated Society members. Thus the carousing commenced!

Tune in next week (?) for another thrilling instalment...

My write-up of last weekend is taking a while and this didn't really fit in with the rest of it, so...

For those readers not yet familiar with my pet wolf, Paddy Smith, I suppose I had better start by explaining how we met. Last August, I attended one of the Tolkien-inspired art exhibitions hosted by Andy Compton in Moreton-in-Marsh and, quite early on, happened to spot a slightly forlorn looking, but eminently cuddleable, wolf sitting on one of the trade stands in the downstairs part of the Redesdale Hall. Now, I may have been misinterpreting (he's a bit of an inscrutable chap), but I thought he was trying to convey: "Please rescue me - I don't really belong with these other items and, anyway, I'm being evicted from my real home soon" (well, I only gathered the last bit later, when I saw a notice in the relevant shop window saying that planning permission had been granted to turn it into yet another teashop...). I reckoned I had better not be too hasty, but thought (or did I say it out loud?): "If he's still there on Monday, I'd better take him home with me" - he was, and I did! (Before you ask: yes, I did compensate the people who had been looking after him up till then.)

When I found out that the 2011 Tolkien Society AGM was going to be held in Moreton-in-Marsh, I promised Paddy that I would take him on holiday with me, to see his old stomping grounds. I don't know if he really looked more cheerful when I said it (he can seem a bit grumpy at times) or if I just imagined it, but "Oi made a prahmiss, Mr Frowdow!", so off we went...

Now, as other pieces I intend to write will make clear, I was rather busy with other things on Friday and Saturday, so it wasn't until Sunday afternoon that I got the chance to take him for a little toddle around the town (although he had had a look out of the window, shortly after we arrived, and seemed quite happy to spend most of his time relaxing in the hotel). As it happened, there was a sort of crafts & antiques fair going on in the Redesdale Hall, so I explained why we were there to the stall-holders and he helped me buy a pen with a hand-turned wooden barrel. There weren't many stalls, though, and I was running out of cash, so we didn't stay there for long.

I thought I might introduce him to some other TS members, but it turned out they had either left already or simply weren't in when we called. However, on the way up the road we had passed the local chemists/pharmacy, which had an Easter-themed display in the window. The little chicks seemed to be admiring the ceiling or the (generally) good weather, but the cutest little lamb beamed the warmest of smiles straight at us... and suddenly Paddy looked all coy! It was love at first wuff!

I didn't want to scare the staff or other customers, so I took Paddy back to the hotel and told him to sit tight - I wouldn't be long. I was a bit worried that the shopkeepers might want to keep the sheep (she turned out to be older than I had first thought) until after Easter, or even longer, especially when I discovered that she was the only one in the whole shop, but luckily they were happy to fetch her out of the window for me, for a very modest handler's fee.

There happens to be a dedicated toy shop in the same row of businesses and I thought it would be churlish of me not to check that out too and it turned out I was right: a soft, golden fur-ball (I think he may be a distant cousin of Benson O'Hedgehogs) practically launched himself off a shelf at me, with a sort of "Me, too! Me, too!" eagerness (in fact, he was so boisterous, I had to pick him up off the floor a couple of times - he seemed to be trying to rush out of the shop without permission!) and the shopkeeper had trouble persuading him into a bag for me to carry him in. Still, it wasn't long before I got back to the hotel.

Paddy seemed bashfully pleased when I let Shari the Sheep sit next to him, but a bit non-plussed when GanleyTM the Gund(R) (or Len, for short) joined them - he wasn't expecting a ready-made family (albeit with an adopted toddler) all in one fell swoop! As I had already made plans for the evening, I left them to get better acquainted (having taken a quick 'snap' with my 'phone*)...

They were still snuggled up, though quite chastely so (whether that was a "not in front of the children" scenario, I wouldn't dare to ask), the next morning and now their 'uncle' Rangi-Tangi is acting as chaperone, just so things go at a civilised pace and I don't have to worry about leaving them alone in the flat when I'm at work. (Although, with all the 'pets' I've now got, "alone" isn't really accurate anyway.) I do wonder, though, if the extra Bank Holiday we have coming up might give them ideas...

*

Special FREE offer!

I know I'm always way behind with technical trends, but I may (gradually) have started catching up. As some of you will know, I run The Baldric Press as a bit of a sideline and have bullied/cajoled/persuaded some of you to buy copies of a couple of paperbacks I've published.

Well, the acquisition of my Sony Reader (which I've posted about before) has prompted me to bring out electronic versions of both via Smashwords.com (go there and do a search for The Baldric Press to see what I'm talking about) and I need someone (preferably several people) to review them. If you would be willing to write a review of one or the other or both, please e-mail or PM me and I'll give the first 5 who do so (for each book) a coupon code allowing you to download a free review copy. Even if you have already read the book(s) in question, your opinion as to how an electronic version works on whatever device you may have would still be of value (and you can include whatever nice things you may have said about the stories too!). So, what do you say?

As I only have one device myself, I have had to rely on calibre's built-in reading capabilities and I think they may leave something to be desired: the ePub version seems to be OK in each case, but other versions apparently have... idiosyncrasies! However, if you have the right machine, that may turn out not to be the case, so I'd particularly like to hear from someone with a Kindle and other non-Sony machines, though I'd be happy to get Sony Reader reviews too - the more, the merrier!

Of course, if you just want to buy a copy: that's great as well! Having looked at what other people on the site charge, I've kept the price quite low - let me know if you think it's fair or should be changed (one way or the other). As an incentive, if anyone buys an e-copy and then wants a print one too, I can discount the price accordingly. In fact, I'm planning on running such an offer for the general public in due course, but you are getting the chance first. To avoid cheating (not that any of you would do such a thing!), I'd just ask that you quote the special Tolkien Society code from the end of the book when contacting me to place an order (I haven't yet worked out how to do that via PayPal "Buy Now" buttons, so if you just buy it from my website, I'm afraid you'll get charged the full price, though I may be able to do refunds...).

I look forward to hearing from lots of you soon!

Let me begin by apologising: I am going to use exaggerated examples and generalisations, which may well be sexist or objectionable in other ways, to make my points, but I do realise that there are exceptions to most, if not all, rules and that there are undoubtedly men who fit my 'female paradigm' and vice versa. This is just a kind of thinking out loud, to explore something that has just occurred to me (or has just moved more from unconscious to conscious, at any rate) and to elicit comments and opinions: am I on to something? Or have I misthought?

( cut for length )

I suppose it was Marion who sparked everything off, though she doesn't know it. Some time ago, she asked me if I knew why Koshchei the Deathless was locked up in Maria Morevna's dungeons (before Prince Ivan foolishly helped him escape). I didn't know, but (almost as foolishly as the Tsarevich) I thought I could find out. After a dispiriting number of false leads and dead ends, I found an English version of the story, which included an explanation. Not wishing to get too carried away, I made use of the published link to his LiveJournal to contact the author, only for him to tell me that he had made that bit up, as the traditional tales offered no clues.

Now, from his bio, I learned that this author is married to another writer (whose name was also familiar thanks to Marion), so, when she was included in a FaceBook list of "people with mutual friends", I befriended her. One of the first of her items to appear on my News Feed was a limited-time offer to get one of her eBooks free, before it went on sale for 'real money'. Well, free is just about my favourite price, so how could I resist? Having downloaded it, though, I then had to find a way to read it and doing so on a computer screen would not have been particularly convenient and might well have involved eye-strain.

I think I first encountered an eReader when sally_maria (who may still have been the Secretary at the time, or may already have advanced to Acting Chairman) brought one to a TS committee meeting and I have been gradually seeing more and more of them on my commute to and from work, but I had been resisting getting one myself mainly because the ones I had seen were an awkward size: too big to fit in a pocket, but too small to make a bag worthwhile - I was worried that, if I had to carry one, I might well put it down somewhere and forget to pick it up again (yes, that somewhere could well have been a bar...!). However, my research this time was much more successful than it had been with Russian folk tales and so I am now the proud owner of a Sony Reader Pocket Edition PRS-300 and it really does fit in my pocket (coat or jacket), so I can safely carry it around, without having to worry about having it in my hand. (This is, of course, not to say that I might not still manage to lose it, but it is certainly a lot less likely.)

As it is not the latest model and I bought it via eBay, I was able to get it for less than half price (even including P&P) and the previous owner (who was, I believe, upgrading) had already loaded an eclectic mixture of some 42 books on it - I have now raised the total to 95 and have scarcely even started...

Thanks to the vagaries of Royal Mail and the somewhat impenetrable nature of this block of flats, I ended up having to collect the device on my way to work last Friday and therefore didn't have a chance to download the free book from my PC straight away. Consequently, I decided to try it out with one of the books already there and plumped for "The Catcher in the Rye", as it is one of those famous books that are on the list of "I really ought to read that someday". Well, the Reader works very well indeed - the eInk technology, even with quite a small screen, is really easy on the eye: no more strain than reading an actual paperback - and it took up a lot less room than my fellow-commuters' reading materials, but as for the book... to quote "The Fast Show": "It's all old bollocks!" - I really cannot understand why "...Catcher..." is so famous and popular. Perhaps it is one of those "Your Mileage May Vary" cases?

Anyway, I am now about a third of the way through the book I actually bought it for and have just received my Sapphire Blue M-Edge GO! leather case, which makes it look almost like a traditional book and enhances the experience enormously. And I have the Lensman Series, "Against the Grain", "The Three Musketeers" etc. etc. to look forward to, as the whim and the touch of a few buttons takes me...