STRETCHED OUT ON FRIDAY ON A SUN LOUNGER, ST.CLAIR BEACH,
LE LAVENDOU ON THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST -

Between swims, (32C with a gentle cooling breeze and an impossibly blue sky), and a salad lunch washed down by exquisitely pale Rose I managed to read today’s issue of The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and for a little balance between those English newspapers, the International Herald Tribune.
Here are some of the stories I especially noticed:

The Daily Telegraph – reviewing Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince movie critic Sukhdev Sandhu says it is the best and the darkest of the movies yet. It is a rave review.

The Times – Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne says why he is not joining the boycott against school visits. Story on my blog.
Vatican Embraces Oscar Wilde after decades of disgust.

The Guardian – Telegram, telex now Teletext News is consigned to history.
Also carries the Anthony Browne story. And a marvelous, thoughtful and provocative piece by Martin Amis headed, “End of the ayatollas?”
All the British newspapers carry extensive coverage of the British Open, the Ashes Test and the Tour de France and all have stories opposing windfarms as a means of generating electricity.

International Herald Tribune – Another Jane Austin novel is set to be grafted to a classic horror milieu. PW reported that Quirk Books would follow its hit, “Pride & Prejudice and Zombies” with Sense & sensibility and Sea Monsters” to be published on Sept.15. “Zombies” written by Seth Grahame-Smith, combined Austen’s text with a tale of undead flesh eaters. The new book, to be written by Ben.H.Winters, will find the Dashwood sisters tossed from their home and sent to an island of man-eating sea creatures.) Watch the trailer for “Sense & Sensibility and Sea Monsters” at www.artbeat.blogs.nytimes.com
Shepard Fairey, the artist whose “Hope” poster of Barack Obama became a ubiquitous part of the presidential campaign, is working on a coffee table book, “Art for Obama”, that will be published in October and will include 150 works by various artists and designers.

Now it’s back to my book featuring Ian Rankin’s D.I.Rebus.