November 2017.
Alan Hollinghurst, who is one of my favourite authors, has a new book out. I haven't got that far into The Sparsholt Affair but I am loving it and, anyway, all of his previous books are brilliant, so this almost certainly will be.
I haven't read as much as I should recently because suddenly and out of the blue I have become a willing victim to the TV box set. I've watched all of Billions (Shakespearean in its character plots) and Big Little Lies (simple, confident, brilliant) and now I have started on Suits. I know, I know, late to the party and all that. I didn't realise I had so much spare time; but I have been staying up later to feed the habit.
I've been in the car a lot and have just finished Johnny Marr's Set the Boy Free on audible. The Smiths were my favourite group of all time; it was a question of right time, right place, right feelings. I hadn't imagined I would be particularly interested in this but it's good and I was. This led me to listen back to some of The Smiths (I bought the reissue of The Queen is Dead on vinyl; possibly my favourite album ever) as well as some of the bands Marr worked on when The Smiths split; late period Talking Heads, The The, Modest Mouse, Billy Bragg. In the last few days I have been playing mainly Hiss Golden Messenger and Michael Chapman (both highly recommended). The other day a friend was raving about Gretchen Peters which I am enjoying hugely; I seem to be having a mellow moment.