A USE FOR CATULLUS

Whose name I know only because we had to translate one of his letters for Latin GCSE. The gist of it was that he had uncharacteristically spent the day hunting, although he'd caught nothing having passed all his time writing, and was advising a friend to do the same if ever he got writer's block, "for you will find that Minerva does not dwell on the hills less than Diana" - or somesuch.

The immediate relevance of it is in the opening line: "You will laugh, and it is permitted that you should laugh." I've joined a book group.

First book was Richard Ford's Independence Day, which almost none of us enjoyed and only two out of six finished (I was not one of them). Good excuse for a natter and a trip out to Kinghorn, met some new folk whose company I enjoyed, and the discussion was useful and brought out a few things I hadn't considered, thus enabling me to give a more fully-rounded rejection of a Pulitzer prize-winning novel. Pleasant afternoon, shame about the book. I intend to give it a few months, anyway.