The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.

Well, less Mole than Vole, but I've handed over a fistful of dollars, got my keys and inspected my kingdom. It's OK. A few faults, and I still don't know where the books and records will go, but it's mine, and moving commences tomorrow, with help from James, Gerry, Mark, Dan and Anita.

I'm exhausted, dusty from head to foot and the heavy work hasn't started. Before that though - another poetry lecture…

A literary question

What book has changed your life? What one book should people read? What one book shouldn't anyone read. I tried these questions on my first-year students and discovered that nobody likes 19th-century novels any more.

My answers:

Changed my life: Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

Book everyone should read: more tricky - so many good ones, so many for particular reasons. The Communist Manifesto? The Wind in the Willows? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Don't touch with a bargepole: The Lord of the Rings. Atlas Shrugged. The Book of Mormon. Left Behind. Any of Dickens' 'funny' novels. The Narnia novels. Loads more…