171: Nobody's pig had died.

A bumper start to the academic year. George Eliot, Naomi Klein, Claire Keegan, Judi Dench & Shakespeare, George Saunders & David Sedaris, Macbeth, and much more.

Back again

after the summer holidays. Summer reading was as unpredictable as ever. You start with certain plans but then zoom off sideways, which is also a delight.

However, I did complete the immense and profound Middlemarch as planned, in a leisurely manner across plenty of time. What an achievement it is. As David Frum writes,

In its scope, ambition, a…