Violet Crumble with Mr Kurtz

At the LRB, Andrew O'Hagan on ghostwriting Assange.

Bonkbuster redivivus

At the LRB, Andrew O'Hagan on Fifty Shades of Gray.

"A smirr of rain, snoking for supper"

I believe it is behind the subscriber paywall, but Andrew Hagan's lovely long meandering LRB piece about travels with Seamus Heaney and Karl Miller through Scotland and Ireland is well worthwhile if you have access that way or through a print edition.

The sow of feeling

At the Guardian, Andrew O'Hagan on stories of talking animals.

(Annoyingly his new novel The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, which sounds utterly delightful, is not published in the US until December. Another new book I very much covet is Barbara Trapido's Sex and Stravinsky, which doesn't seem to have a US edition at all - hmmm, might have to order some books from England, Trapido I think I cannot wait for...)