Jo Lennon

And it reminded me of another book which was

is sometimes described as a novel, sometimes as linked short stories by Kent Harouf called Plainsong, which instead of skipping across continents and time is much more tied to a single town in rural United States.

So I think it's part of a tradition of writing, but you don't need to buy into that necessarily to just really enjoy reading this book.

It's

Certainly an effortless, enjoyable read.

Yes, that's right.

So a lot of people have pointed out the Dickens elements in Stead's novels and Stead's own family life apparently was quite influenced by Dickens.

She had a very

enterprising grandfather who came out from England in the 19th century, having read Great Expectations apparently and came out to the colony of New South Wales the year after it was published, determined to make his own fortune in a similar style.

I have a few things on the boil.

I think it's probably about time I got around to reading a good proper novel.

I have V.S.

Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas on my list.

Well, so influential for some really wonderful writers and I think probably a good bit of escapist, immersive fiction.

And then some other kind of non-fictiony things centred on London.

So I've been wanting to get a copy of a book called My Town by David Gentleman, which has the subtitle An Artist's Life.

And that, I think, is a sort of illustrated memoir about

from this illustrator who's lived in London for almost 70 years, most of it on the same street, and it looks like a really beautiful volume.

And then, again, non-fiction, there's a collection out called At the Pond, Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond, which is edited by Margaret Drabble and I think would be quite nice to dip into as well.

Thank you, Kate.