Bookish learning

Jane Gardam has just died, aged 96. She wrote quite wonderfully. I suggest readers who do not know this author should begin with the trilogy of Old Filth, The Man In The Wooden Hat, and Last Friends.

I have also read Conundrum by Jan Morris. She died recently having formally transitioned from man to woman about fifty years ago. She had to divorce her wife, Elizabeth, since the surgeon did not want to face a legal action in the event of the operation going wrong. It did not. Jan was a terrific writer with a copious output. She and Elizabeth sent their sons to Eton - and not many authors can afford that sort of programme.

Finally, on the book front, Lord (David) Owen's In Sickness And In Power considered illness evinced by world leaders. What seems to have got lots of them is hubris and, then, nemesis. And right now Trump is showing clear signs of a  madness born of hubris. This could all go seriously awry.

Tony Blair has this morning come out and blasted Ed Miliband right out of the water. I have no idea why the Labour Party goes on tolerating this idiot. But I bought a further 50,000 Jersey Oil (JOG) this morning.