"When they do the dishes," she observes, "they appear to believe that the part where you are supposed to rinse off the soap is optional." After discussing sex education and le vice anglais (the Frenchman's gleeful term for the British love of spanking), she concludes: "Is it any wonder that Englishmen -- particularly British men of a certain class -- are so mixed up about sex?"

Finally, there is the food, which, according to Lyall, is dependably bad (in spite of a liberal use of "salad cream, a squirtable mayonnaise product that can be slathered on their food to obscure its unpalatibility".

British author Diana Wynne Jones has commented in the British online journal Ansible on the classification of young adult novels and the furore that has erupted there.

"Has it come to the august and all seeing eyes of Ansible that there is currently a furious row raging in children's book circles? I know this doesn't sound like sf, but actually it is because the leader is Philip Pullman, who is objecting furiously to the publishers' unilateral attempts to label every book that might be for children with the age-range for which it is putatively intended. Pullman says, reasonably enough, that this will exclude both children and adults from reading books the publishers have labelled 11+ and so forth.

Needless to say, I am in full agreement with him, the more so that my publishers tried to pull a fast one on me and presented me with this labelling as a fait accompli, telling me that it only remained for me to choose which age band each of my books was in. Almost all my books weren't in any age band, as far as I could see, and short of labelling them all 7+ (which wouldn't work), there seemed no solution. It then occurred to me that publishers (not to speak of writers) were going to lose money over this, as ignorant aunts were not going to buy books labelled 11+ plus for ten-year-olds and adult devotees were going to be shy of being seen reading, say, _The Lord of the Rings_ with a large sign on it saying FOR ELEVEN YEARS UPWARDS. I wrote to Philip and suggested he put this to the publishers -- for whom Losing Money is the Ultimate Horror -- but he so far hasn't included this argument on his website Notoagebanding.org."

Face book and Hi5 Lead Global Growth among Top Social Networking Sites

"During the past year, many of the top social networking sites have demonstrated rapid growth in their global user bases. Facebook.com, which took over the global lead among social networking sites in April 2008, has made a concerted effort to become more culturally relevant in markets outside the U.S. Its introduction of natural language interfaces in several markets has helped propel the site to 153-percent growth during the past year. Meanwhile, the emphasis Hi5.com has put on its full-scale localization strategy has helped the site double its visitor base to more than 56 million. Other social networking sites, including Friendster.com (up 50 percent), Orkut (up 41 percent), and Bebo.com (up 32 percent) have demonstrated particularly strong growth on a global basis".

Details and tables here.

Vulgar UK soccer players are not a new phenomenon

The Sotheby auction catalogue for the October 2nd sale of the library of the Earls of Macclesfield includes a Dutch grammar of 1675 that complains about "vulgar" English football players.

Waterstone's UK Site for e-books open for business

Waterstone's e-book store opened for business on 4th September, with around 7,000 titles available from its website as e-books, including titles from the five largest trade publishers in the UK. Waterstone's expects to have 20,000 titles available by the end of this year, with new e-book titles being added to the website as they are being produced by publishers. The titles are on average discounted by 20%.

Mills & Boon: the art of love

As Mills & Boon celebrates its 100th birthday, a new collection of cover illustrations reveals "how all those blushing virgins and square-jawed heroes" have evolved over the decades, reports the UK Telgraph.

"Mills & Boon, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is the biggest publisher of romance novels in the world. Derided, ridiculed, the easiest form of fiction to knock, they're still obstinately popular. One is sold every three seconds in Britain, 200 million a year worldwide. Up to 70 new titles are released each month. For all the brutal criticism the books receive, Mills & Boon has tapped into a perfect formula of easy-read, no-nasty-bits romance, which is loved by millions of women".

Lost in Austen has a great hook: time-travel with Mr Darcy

More Jane Austen in a new British television series as reported by the Guardian.

"Don't you hate that - when you go to the bathroom in your own house, and you find it not just occupied, but occupied by your favourite character from classic fiction? It happened to me only the other day: I went for a shower and the Cat in the Hat was in there, up to his tricks with my lemon-and-tea-tree shower gel.

Amanda Price, the main character in Lost in Austen (ITV1) has different - some might say more highbrow - literary tastes. So it's Elizabeth Bennet she finds standing in her bath, all bonneted-up and speaking early-19th-century English. But for Amanda, this is excellent news. She is fed up with her dead-end office job, her slobby boyfriend and the general lack of manners in 21st-century London; Lizzie Bennet in the bath is just what she needs.

It gets better still, because she leaves Miss Bennet in her 21st-century bathroom, under her drying 21st-century underwear, and steps through a panel, Narnia-style, into the early pages of Pride and Prejudice and the well-furnished rooms of Longbourn, the Bennets' residence. What's up the road from Longbourn then? Netherfield, of course, plus everything that goes with Netherfield - in particular Mr Darcy's bulging breeches. Oh joy!"

The most popular books to be left behind in British Travelodges!

The UK Guardian also reports that John Prescott, Cherie Blair and Russell Brand "are the strange bedfellows who share the top spots in the Travelodge list of the most-abandoned books in their 336 hotels: The most popular books to be left behind in Travelodges

John Prescott, Cherie Blair and Russell Brand are the strange bedfellows who share the top spots in the Travelodge list ofthe most-abandoned books in their 336 hotels: The most popular books to be left behind in Travelodges The top 5 most

discarded books in hotel rooms this summer: 1. Prezza: Pulling No Punches by John Prescott 2. My Booky Wook by Russell Brand 3. Speaking For Myself by Cherie Blair 4. Don't You Know Who I Am by Piers Morgan? 5. Angel Uncovered and Crystal by Katie Price

Travelodge has also applied a regional analysis to the abandoned titles, discovering that Cardiff and London hotel guests are most likely to discard money saving books - reflecting despair at the high cost of city life, perhaps - while Cornwall holiday-makers have left behind the most spiritual titles.

Paul Anstey, Travelodge operations director, said that overall the most discarded genres were autobiographies, chick lit and thriller books. "This summer we have found a number of money saving books, revealing just how much the credit crunch is taking hold," he added.A further "key finding" from the survey of 336 hotel managers reveals that Travelodge's Southend-on-Sea branch was the lucky recipient of a copy of The Best 50 Love Making Positions for the Over 50s. Its Peterborough branch, meanwhile, saw its customers abandon 10 copies of the Kama Sutra.

Overall 7,000 books were left behind in Travelodge hotels throughout the year. Travelodge either returns the books to customers, or donates them to local charity shops".

Podcast downloading 2008

19 percent of Internet users have downloaded a podcast

As gadgets with digital audio capability proliferate, podcast downloading continues to increase, according to the latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Currently, 19 percent of all Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they could listen to it or view it later. This most recent percentage is up from 12 percent of Internet users who reported downloading podcasts in August 2006 and 7 percent in a February-April 2006 survey. Still, podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of Internet users, as very few Internet users download podcasts on a typical day.

Other findings reported by Pew:

"As demand for podcasts has grown, so too has the catalog of offerings. In November 2006, Podcast Alley, a popular podcast directory, cataloged over 26,000 podcasts with more than 1 million episodes. Now, that number has nearly doubled to over 43,000 podcasts and well over 2 million episodes. The most extensive podcast genre is “technology” with over 4,000 podcasts available on the subject; this genre is followed closely by comedy, religion and spirituality, and business.

Men continue to be more likely than women to download podcasts; 22 percent of online men compared with just 16 percent of online women report ever having downloaded a podcast. However, men and women are equally likely (3 percent) to download podcasts on a typical day.

Internet users under 50 years old are significantly more likely than older users to download podcasts. Fully 23 percent of those under 50 say they have ever downloaded a podcast and 4 percent downloaded one yesterday, compared with 13 percent and 1 percent of their older counterparts. Since 2006, younger generations have more fully embraced the technology, their percentages nearly doubling since 2006.

34 percent of American adults and 43 percent of Internet users report owning an iPod or MP3 player, up from 20 percent of the total population and 26 percent of Internet users in April 2006. Young adults between 18 and 29 years old are the age group most likely to own MP3 players; 61 percent of them own these gadgets. Parents, those with broadband access, and those with higher socioeconomic status (higher income and education) are also considerably more likely to own MP3 players or iPods".

Ten of the best: Unconsummated passions from the The Guardian

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Why are Heathcliff and Cathy among the most vividly remembered pairs in all of fiction? Because they never consummate their love. Kindred spirits they may be, but Cathy marries the genteel and drippy Edgar Linton, just to torment Heathcliff. However, the two would-be lovers do seem to get it together after death, as ghosts.

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

In the 1770s, this was a Europe-wide bestseller. It is written in the form of letters from its lachrymose hero, Werther, who is in love with Charlotte ("Lotte"). She is betrothed to another, and Werther can never even tell her his true feelings. In the end, he shoots himself. It drove female readers to tears and some male readers (apparently) to imitative suicide.

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Another that ends in suicide. Edward Ashburnham, the "good soldier" of the title, is a beautifully mannered serial adulterer. His inclinations catch up with him, however, when he falls for the teenage Nancy, who is his ward. This girl is unattainable, so she gets sent to India and he gets the shotgun out of its case.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

The canny author realised that the most absorbing way to do passion in a historical novel was to have it unfulfilled, in fact almost entirely unstated. Her novel is narrated by Griet, a maidservant in the house of the painter Vermeer. He paints her and they stare at each other, but nothing happens and...

Carlyle Letters Online

Duke University Press has announced its digital archive based on the Duke-Edinburgh edition of The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle.

Literati walk out over the London Library the London Evening Standard

"What's a library without any lenders? The London Library may be on course to find out having lost a staggering 15 per cent of its members since membership rates were hiked last November. Readers have voted with their feet and more than 1,200 out of its 8,000 members have walked out.

Founded in 1841 by Thomas Carlyle, the library is the workplace of some of London’s top writers, many of whom use it as a sort of St James’s club for the literati. But the posh but poor - hit by the credit crunch - appear to be struggling to meet the increased fees. The 80 per cent rise in its annual fee - from £210 to £375 per annum - was proposed by the library’s president, Sir Tom Stoppard (pictured, left), last year to meet increased running costs. There was vociferous opposition to the move from Bamber Gascoigne, the former presenter of University Challenge, and biographer Lewis Golden, a former chairman of the library who pledged a donation of £250,000 if the fee rise was dropped last November. Gascoigne claimed: “The library keeps absolutely everything at the moment and it may be that to save storage costs, some stock can go.”

Other vice-presidents include Jeremy Paxman and Drue Heinz Neither of them are likely to be struggling to pay their fees: Paxman earns £1 million for presenting Newsnight and University Challenge, while Heinz is a multi-millionaire food heiress.A spokesman for the library insists that the 15 per cent drop in membership was all factored in to the library’s plans. Conversely, day membership, which was introduced in 2006, has risen. For the thrifty minded who want to keep up with the literary Joneses, it’s a tenner a go. Very economical".

Literary translator Amanda Hopkinson of the University of East Anglia has won the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger crime fiction prize, awarded to a crime thriller translated into English from its original language. The winning work was her translation from French, in collaboration with Ros Schwartz, of Dominique Manotti's Lorraine Connection.

P-p-pick up with Penguin says the Observer

"Lovelorn literary types will be delighted by the news that Penguin is launching a dating site. But claims that the service 'brings together book lovers and dating for the very first time' will prove surprising to readers of the London Review of Books, home to a decidedly eccentric personals page for the past 10 years. The section is so popular that it has even spawned a book by the inspired title of They Call Me Naughty Lola. A sample ad reads: 'Stroganoff. Boysenberry. Frangipani. Words with their origins in people's names. If your name has produced its own entry in the OED then I'll make love to you. If it hasn't, I probably will anyway, but I'll only want you for your body. Man of too few distractions, 32.' How will Penguin compete?"

Spam Is a Letters Game, a Study Finds

"Sick of finding your e-mail inbox filled to the brim with spam? Well, here's a thought: You could always change your name to Quincy or Xavier. It's an extreme strategy, to be sure, but it'll probably work -- as long as your first name determines the first letter in your e-mail address, that is. So says Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge who analyzed e-mail traffic logs. According to Mr. Clayton's study, e-mail accounts that begin with common letters -- like, say, S, P, A, and M -- generally receive much more spam than accounts that start with W, X, or Y. The Peters and Patricias of the world can expect that more than 40 percent of their e-mail messages will be junk, but a Y ancey using the same Internet provider may find only one in 10 messages to be spam. The findings come as something of a surprise: According to PC World, conventional wisdom has held that it's your e-mail provider, not your user name, that determines how much spam you get. But Mr. Clayton says many spammers simply guess at names to send junk mail to, so it makes sense that they'd focus on common letters, not obscure ones". -- Brock Read in the Chroniclea of Higher Education's Wired Campus.

Alasdair Gray - a Scottish Boswell needed?

Did Alasdair Gray's Boswell save his life, asks The Guardian "It's a possibility raised by a bizarre incident towards the end of Rodge Glass's Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography, when Glass - a novelist who for many years was the Glaswegian writer's amanuensis - and an intoxicated Gray were in Edinburgh during the festival. Suddenly Gray inexplicably broke into a run down the cobbled High Street with his secretary/biographer chasing, tripped, and "went flying, head first, arms down at his side like a diver unafraid of hitting the pool head-first.

Fearful that his employer's "skull could be splattered like a watermelon dropped from a great height", Glass then somehow found himself lying underneath Gray, but unsure if he had thrown himself down heroically or simply tripped too. At any rate, the eccentric author's recovery was swift: once he'd heaved himself upright with a handy chain, Gray declared: "You know, Rodge, sometimes I think women's bottoms are the only thing in the world that matters."

Welsh Books from the Past online and free

Books from the Past is an on-line collection of books of national cultural interest which have long been out of print, and are unlikely to be reprinted by traditional means. The texts are available in two forms - images of the original book pages, together with a fully searchable electronic text which is also suitable for printing.Developed by Culturenet Cymru and the Welsh Books Council, Books from the Past is a resource freely accessible to all. The web site will be developed and expanded over the coming years to include many more texts in both languages.

Odd Book Title

How to avoid huge ships. John W Trimmer,Cornell Maritime Press 1993.

Libraries Australia report an earlier edition can be found here.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Beware of women - they always have a manuscript hidden about their person

Logan Pearsall-Smith in a letter to Professor Hugh Trevor Roper