Learning all the time. Today's blog appears idiosyncratically as two comments on yesterday's blog, and this is an unlooked for addendum attesting to the newness of the process. Jaffy continues to use language that is not quite congruent with his character, but still it's a mesmerising story. The silver lining to the cloud of shame that overshadows how few of this year's Booker longlist I had heard of, let alone read, is that there are undiscovered gems to be clasped to the bosom and made one's own. Lovely long moments in the sunshine with new friends, laughing and crying and adventuring on the high seas of someone else's imagination. Carol Birch has written nine other novels and I'll be making my way towards them in the Autumn.