Newsreaders on the wireless have adopted a new phrase: “now for the latest … “ and there is a clip, and it isn’t necessarily live, from a sports venue, Westminster, Gaza, Kiev etc. Well, you won’t find the latest here.
When I was a child there was always a pumice stone on the side of a basin. It’s a useful companion to a nail brush but I haven’t seen one for ages. There is nothing new in using exfoliants.
The Greeks and Romans used strigils and I used a similar tool to smooth the surface of coiled clay pots. I was once told Australians clean their nails when they wash their hair – if so it sounds as if it might make the nails clean but the hair dirtier.
I have, enfin, finished The Angel’s Game. It took about a month and was an unsuccessful attempt to find a new Spanish writer. I will stay loyal to Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez. As you know, I then read White Eagles Over Serbia and have started a novel by an author I have never read: Nicholas Monsarrat. His breakthrough came in 1951 when The Cruel Sea was published. Perversely, but I have a reason, I am reading The Kappillan of Malta. Justine has been delivered and is a small enough paperback to slip in a pocket for a train journey.
I don’t like going out in the evenings but Bertie enjoys seeing new people and places, so we have been out to dinner twice this week. Last night I got book recommendations from two friends; one by an author I admire but I probably will not read his latest (sorry) ‘cos I can’t read everything. Published last year it is Big Caesars and Little Caesars: How They Rise and How They Fall – From Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson by the admirable Ferdinand Mount. The other is by a prolific, living author I have never read – it is on order.
Today’s music link is inspired by finishing The Angel’s Game. I don’t know why Steve McQueen seems to be wearing a headband decorated with the MGM logo.