NEVER since William Caxton saw his first printed pages run off the presses in the late 15th century, can there have been a better time to visit your local library than now.
For it emerges that thousands of literary types across Northamptonshire have inexplicably missed one of the great pieces of literature to sit on the shelves of our libraries, namely that of Glitz, that 2008 blockbuster by the author formerly known as Louise Bagshawe and now, of course, @LouiseMensch, a New York-based purveyor of prose whose work wins plaudits such as “‘If a novel were a glass of champagne, this would be it” (Cosmopolitan).
Quite why nobody has wanted to read about the heady tale of the four young (rich) Chambers girls whose daddy is set to marry an even younger lady, named Bai Ling etc, etc, is beyond Aufona. Either way, it has lain untouched for two years and is begging for one of you, just one of you dear readers, to give Glitz the TLC which @louise gave to it when she wrote it.
If that isn’t incentive enough to visit the library, perhaps the arrival on the shelves of Den Boy Meredith’s acclaimed autobiography, My Life, will spur you on towards the library. As regular readers here will know, it was penned with the help of punters at The Gallery pub, in Southfields. Quite rightly, the Lib Dems went to the trouble of press releasing this major literary event. Only a suggestion, but if, say, Andy “Third in a Two-Horse Race” Simpson, took it out and then passed it on to a party colleague once he’d read it, every Lib Dem supporter in Northampton could have waded through it before the fortnight loan period was over...
Good to see Kathy Kerswell easing into her new job as director general for civil service reform at the Cabinet Office. This week, La Fraise was in The Guardian offering ideas about shaking up the service (“it will be faster, smaller and provide more services online. It will be more open and less bureaucratic.. and deliver major programmes effectively and efficiently”). A far cry from dealing with Norman Hacker or, for that matter, collecting £420K for 20 months’ work at Kent County Council.
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