Catching up

I haven't posted for some time: my intentions haven't been matched by my achievement. I had intended to write about the Scottish writer Jeff Torrington, author of Swing, hammer, swing, who died last week after a long illness. His novel, on which he worked for 30 years, is wonderful and deservedly won the Whitbread Prize: I learned from his obituary how much he supported and influenced other writers in Glasgow.

Today I was in Cambridge, and found myself unexpectedly moved by the 50 Etchings of Christopher Le Brun on show at the Fitzwilliam. Le Brun is not an artist I've previously been drawn too, but today I found these etchings, with their references to the Forest, the Tower, the Quest, the Given, extremely powerful - I really wanted to bring them home with me to look at at my leisure.