Philobiblon

* A reflection on the art of the introduction, which leaves me wondering if I’ve been spoilt for life for fiction by too many years of newspaper writing? I have been accused in academia of writing too journalistically, but then when I think of Orwell, that’s the sort of writing I like in all context. Cut the adjectives!

* Perhaps it has come out badly in translation, but while the Japanese PM, Junichiro Koizumi, has lots of things going for him, urging women to have lots of litters, like dogs doesn’t raise him in my estimation.

* A sensible take on the latest dodgy “abortion causes depression” study. It contains the figure – which I suppose I should have known, but didn’t – that one in seven mothers suffer from post-natal depression.