Jukian Barnes' 'A Sense of an Ending' is at last a worthy winner. Brief and well written it tells of an old man suddenly recalling events that happened when he was young decades ago. It has of course a denoument which surprises the reader as much as the narrator who tells the story. Most of the prizewinners are forgotten in spite of the fulsome comments at the presentation. As John Wain put it, "Where does that leave Tolstoy?" The book started my own reminisences of coming to London with various Oxbridge contemporaries and our first stumbling steps in the real world. It was the time when "La Ronde" was playing at the Curzon Cinema and I must have seen it at least twice. Anton Wallbrook plays the master of the merry-go-round as the various characters - all beautiful go from one partner to another until the last man meets the first woman. French film stars of the time were all fascinating and none more so than Danielle Darrieux when the merry-go-round breaks down to the dismay of the young man who performed so well with his previous conquest - the luscious maid Simone Simon. He talks at the time of Stendhal's treaty on love. That brings me to the most entertaining of all the great nineteenth century novelists. For those who are interested the NY Review has just republished "The Life of Henry Brulard" - one of the author's many pseudonyms. It contains the account of an infortunate experience in a plush London brothel wnth a dissertation on fiascos. I shall buy the book as well as the DVD of "La Ronde" for an orgy of escapist pleasure.
Coming down to earth we can see Dave having his very first experience of negotiating with unions. He will of course be backed up by inexhaustable supplies of taxpayers money so he is bound to give in. It will end with a triumph for UNISON with beer and sandwiches at No. 10. As the other John Wain might have put it, "Don't send a boy to do a man's job."
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