I just saw the first episode of season 2 of Downton Abbey and saw that the cowardly Moseley gave the loyal Anna a copy of “Elizabeth and her German Garden” by Elizabeth von Arnim. I first read Elizabeth von Arnim because an Italian friend suggested I read “All the Dogs of my Life,” her very tart and very merry memoir. Then I got to write the introduction to the New York Review Books edition of “The Enchanted April,” a book to read over and over. Especially when it’s raining. Flowers, Positano…

Let’s see…it first came out in 1983…so Alice would be how old now? Nevermind…she’s still nineteen!

I am reading Otto Friedrich’s book on Glenn Gould. I am listening to the Goldberg Variations. There are advantages to not being able to fall asleep.

I met Ron Charles the Washington Post book reviewer at a wonderful Pen/Faulkner event. He introduce the panel (Elinor Lipman, who read a chapter from a work in progress that was stunningly good, Stephen MacCauley whose novel Insignificant Others I am now reading and loving and me who needs to lose 25 pounds). Ron Charles is hilarious. These video book reviews/parodies are truly sublime. Who said the art of criticism is lost? Enjoy.

Hector the cairn terrier seems to have done an interview for Writers on Writing with Marrie Stone on the Irvine public radio station. You will hear his dulcet tones and profound insights a little after the halfway mark.
http://penonfire.blogspot.com/2011/02/susan-maushart-cathleen-schine.html