Booker Bickering

Bookish feathers are flying as learned souls recover from a perceived downgrading of the Booker as an accolade for high brow, if impenetrable literature. Indeed the chair of judges is a mere writer of spy thrillers. Dumbing down must come naturally to her. Never mind that Stella Rimington is also the former director general of MI5. She has been subject to vilification for prioritising readability as a vital determinant of a book's worth. Rimington wants people to read and enjoy Julian Barnes's novella The Sense of an Ending, rather than simply admire it. Committee member MP Chris Mullin was also pilloried for commenting that books had to "zip along" to be worthy of consideration.

A Festival in Paradise

The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is over and my head is pounding. It has been a bumpy ride at times, dodging motor bikes and getting soaked in spontaneous tropical downpours. Not to mention workshops, book launches and story readings; it can do your head in, gab fests like these, and to be honest, ambivalence threatened.

"Come on, Jules, it'll be great. Let's go."

And so we did.