Cynical Ben, my partner in crime on The Culture, Cheese and Pineapple - now open - has sent me presents which seem to form part of an attempt to toughen me up. Jenn Ashworth's A Kind of Intimacy, in which a fat stalker gets obsessed with the neighbour, leading to 'a bloody climax' (Ben likes it), Faith No More's Angel Dust, and Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power, to which I haven't listened since I was 16, except for 'Walk'. Cool!
I think that's enough from me for today. I'm away tomorrow, meeting my old friend (the friendship's old, not the friend) Victoria in Chester tomorrow for lunch, gossip and - inevitably - bookhunting. Au revoir
