The son-in-law also rises

Well, I don’t know. I’ve just been to the Guardian site to look at the latest book reviews and what do I find? The first item is Ian McEwan on millennial doomsters. So far, so predictable. I haven’t had time to read the piece so I can’t comment, though I’m sure McEwan isn’t as closely related to the Rapture as I am (read here). The second article is on a début novelist called Nick Harkaway and the third is on another début novelist called Isabel Fonseca. It’s wonderful to see space devoted to début novelists, and I’m sure they’re both very good. But it would be even more wonderful if Nick Harkaway weren’t John Le Carré’s son and Isabel Fonseca weren’t Martin Amis’s wife. I don’t doubt that both books have been published on their merits (well, perhaps I do, a little, but I recognise this as sour grapes). But I can think of an awful lot of other début novelists (yes, including me) who would have been more than grateful for this kind of exposure. Billie Holiday had something to say about the mechanism that rewards those who don’t really need it, so I’ll stop here. But not before I thank Kay Sexton, and John Self, and Dovegreyreader, who did find the time to review me, despite the dismal failure of my immediate family to be famous.