• Five Trees Shaded in Grey

It may also be dim and dank, but there’s more sense, strength and atmosphere in this autumnal mist (six o’clock this evening) than in you-know-what.  And that’s not to mention EMI’s tawdry decision to release an oh-so-safe CD of the novels’ ‘sound track’.  Heaven help anyone whose appreciation of its music is now irreparably conditioned by the novels.  As I wrote to one friend, the CD will win an award at next year’s Classical Brits, mark my word.  Give me a dim and dank Cornish mist any day.  I’ll now go and join the harrumphing horses in the field beneath the trees.