Power, Love and Politics in the Ancient World. Nice history well told. The dashing Anthony out maneuvered by the shrewd survivor Augustus. I had not realized the amount of time that lapsed after the death of Caesar before the final showdown at Actium.

A memoir which reveals more about the young, rather fey, self righteous lefty than the more interesting man who crossed over to America to discover himself and to lead a sensible life. He loves the literary craick – and his pals are all interesting – Amis, pere et fils, Fenton etc, He has always seemed rather dangerous to me – he has that weird Gore Vidal ability to insist on being the drunkest and most argumentative man in the room. I am sorry he is sick. He is great company. And very funny.

Ok Jay McInerney is the real thing. Brett Easton Ellis isn’t. He knows what it is but he can’t do it. This is like a minimalist revisit of a minimal novel he wrote some time ago. Nothing wrong with it. Except expectation. That killer level where you have set your own bar and you have to jump over it again.

Murder at Holyrood. A not particularly well written gallop through the facts of this most amazing scene from history, where the Queen’s Italian favorite is murdered in front of her eyes. There are better versions.