[Eric]

I wonder what it is that people have against Amélie Nothomb. I liked the humorous, tongue-in-cheek, mixture in the Robert book of the small girl's aspirations to become a success against all odds, ballet, the way she is treated by coevals and older people, etc. And the brevity of the book. I thought Nothomb was onto a good thing. If she goes on too much about Japan and anorexia, she could indeed become wearying, but she has style and pace, something many novelists have not. There is a kind of inverted Nothomb worship abroad, just like inverted snobbery.

Much of the supermarket "Beaujolais" I have bought in Holland is not worth the name, but one from Bully was OK. Trouble is, that once the winemakers sus that a particular brand is popular, I reckon they then start putting second-rate wine in the bottles, thinking that the plonk-swilling classes will not notice, but merely buy the bottle for the sheer snob value of the magic appellation "Beaujolais".