Splinters

The story about two novelists criticising the BBC's The Big Read is gratifying. Andrew O'Hagen and Adam Mars-Jones (called Andrew Mars-Jones on the BBC's Ceefax service, who also misspelled "Steven" King's name) have popped their heads above the parapet. I'm glad somebody is resisting this, as they say, anti-literary trojan horse. Perhaps this will become part of the debate rather than screen-hogging populists making vague references to 'purists' and 'elitists'. It would be nice to hear more than one-word quotations though.

I saw one of my favourite TV presenters, the adventurer Benedict Allen (his programme Ice Dogs was an exceptionally moving programme) arguing for the wonderfulness of a book. From what he was saying, I couldn't work out its author and title. It seemed recent yet not modern. Turned out to be His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Allen said it would, one day, rank alongside the greats of English literature. Faint praise indeed.