Told

Alan Bennett's Untold Stories are now told in my case, and I'm very glad they have been, though in some ways sad to lose the companionship of the collection. For such an avowedly shy person - and he is particularly good in teasing out the implications of that all too common condition - he makes a remarkably good companion. The voice of his prose is that of an observant, honest friend, the kind who illuminates the most ordinary of our experiences in a way that seems curiously ordinary - not really adding to what was already there - but which you recognise as brilliantly perceptive. I suppose the role is more that of what these days is termed a mentor, but I can't imagine Bennett employing this term, so I won't.

Now I'm devoting my full attention to Atwood, having almost reached the halfway mark in The Blind Assassin, but I'm thinking of what I might balance against this. I seem constitutionally unable to have only one book on the go.