Just been listening – with wicked snickers – to the last excerpt of The Uncommon Reader, British author Alan Bennett’s impish fictive speculation on the consequences, for monarch, court and constitution, of the Queen of England’s being bitten by the reading bug. It’s been on BBC4 arts, Afternoon Reading, for this last week.

I’m also waiting for the last part of the Book at Bedtime, Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road, about the hollowness of the American Dream for a young couple, Frank and April Wheeler, living in post-WWII suburbia. With their dream – or rather April’s dream – of escaping suburbia for Paris undone by her pregnancy, and Frank’s manipulation and prevarication named and shamed by their neighbours’ disturbed son, their marital battles have descended into primal cruelty. The climax of the last episode made for shuddersome listening.