I have now started this huge omnibus which I bought, like many of my books from a charity shop for a £1.




I must have got it a year ago and have finally now got around to reading my first John Updike. I don't know if the American guys here would see him as one of the quintessential modern American novelists but I have been bowled over by the quality of the prose. By page 8 my mouth was almost hanging open with the succinctness and beauty of his phrasing. It is really good stuff, so much so that it has inspired me to design some original artwork on which I will shortly be working. I hope to travel to the States one day but would like to do so with enough spare money and free time to create and exhibit some art over there and this just whets the appetite. It is full of little dramas lived out in front of epic backdrops.