Love With Hell News Today

Marcus Berkmann challenges readers to a literary quiz for the chance of winning £1,000. The closing date for entries is January 17, 2022.

by William Palmer (Robinson £20, 262pp) The size of my monthly Majestic Wine bill suggests author William Palmer is not wrong when he says that writers — ‘psychologically slippery’ at the best of times — are particularly prone to the joys and pitfalls of grain and grape. Booze, ‘at least at the outset, is hugely enjoyable’, Palmer says correctly. It is ‘an excellent buffer against social boredom,’ and any other sort of boredom. Drawing on the descriptions by Anthony Burgess and...