A piece written by a graduate of studies in English literature from St. Peter's College in Oxford. More or less a new build, so not exactly Merton, but nevertheless, fully a part of Oxford University. A place which it is quite hard to get into.
A piece which explains that War & Peace is far too long and is much better consumed as a costume drama on television, preferably with the addition of a bit of sex and violence to spice up an otherwise rather tame story. And which, to be fair, goes on to make the more respectable point that a lot of modern fiction is far too long, particularly fiction from the US.
However, I found it a bit dispiriting to find that someone close to being a member of the ruling classes, almost certainly a resident of Islington, should more or less make a boast of not bothering with novels from the great era of novel writing. How far have we come from the days when the privileged lawyers who used to inhabit our House of Commons used to quote Cicero in the original at each other or when senior civil servants could make a reasonable fist, in between meetings, of a Beethoven sonata on the office piano?
Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps it is just a bit of froth, knocked out months ago to go in the pile of stocking fillers for holiday editions. Nothing in it at all. Perhaps even, one would find that in the privacy of her own home, far from prying eyes, she actually does read 'À la recherche du temps perdu' in the original...
PS: such a piano still existed for most of my time at the Treasury. A respectable grand, perhaps a Beckstein, kept in tune.
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