Having ranted about the tawdriness of the Czech political scene, I feel the rather bathetic political scuffles here have been somewhat upstaged by recent events just round the corner in Hungary. Not quite a clear cut issue here (is it ever?), since the anti-government rioters are reportedly made up largely of opportunistic looters and right wing extremists. And in addition, even if he probably should resign, it’s difficult not to feel a smidgeon of admiration for the paradoxically refreshing honesty of a PM who simply says “we lied”.

Changing the subject completely, I recently received a heartily encouraging and thoroughly eloquent missive from my former schoolmate Rob, always a pleasure to hear from such a man of letters. Rob works for a bookshop in London and so, in his own words, gets to “flirt with the outer circles of publishing”. Clearly a world which has its ups and downs, and he inadvertently offers up a few words which may be of some consolation to certain parties who are still licking their wounds following skirmishes with the business:

On the plus side, went to the launch party for the new Irvine Welsh a few weeks ago and am going to the Martin Amis one in a fortnight. On the minus side, most of the people
I've met in publishing so far are called Jemima and are vacuous beyond
belief but I do get the feeling that some of them could suck a marshmallow
through a police horse....

Now that’s writing!