Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland

My wife says that the automatic novel extract which I mocked up in "What it is like to be in Milan right now" sounds like Adrian Mole's epic novel of the title given above. I am just thankful that she has not started calling me "Jake Westmoreland". Personally I can't see the likeness but then again Adrian Mole could not see how effete his own efforts were.

We saw Amelie at the weekend. "All that is right about France and all that is right about Cinema". ( I may not have this quote exactly right but the meaning is 100% correct). I thought it was a bit like Diva but it is a long time since I saw that; (I was amazed to learn that it was made in 1981). I was worried that "Amelie" was going to be a bit like "One from the heart" but it was a lot less "Cartoonish" than I thought. The idea of creating a book of discarded Passport booth photographs was brilliant. I am trying to think of a suitable alternative which I could carry out myself. I make scrapbooks from any pitcures I find suitable in various magazines. You can trace my changing life through the publications from which those pictures are taken. It starts with "The Face", progresses through "ID" and "Q" and now is mostly "Q" and "Fortean Times". (This does not mean that I agree that most of the things in "The Fortean Times" are real. I am struck continuously how little the editors actually endorse as real.) I would scan a few pages in and show them here but I am not sure about the copyright situation.