Millions

Saw Bill Bailey's 'Part-Troll' tour last night over in Cheltenham. Thought he was slightly less funny than last time I saw him but two or three excellent exceptions including a reworking of Zippety Doo Dah as by Portishead that was worth the admission money alone. Three jokes, all post-modern re-workings of the 'three-men-go-into-a-pub' idea. Very clever. Best when philosophically meandering or playing an instrument. (What would happen if U2 lost their effects pedals?)

Still reading my way through the Christopher Brookmyre back-catalogue. Just finished 'Be My Enemy' which I throughly recommend and can be picked up in QPD style from Fopp for a fiver. He is a sort of Scottish Elmore Leonard. Has an investigative reporter called Jack Parlabane as hero of most books but there are some with other interesting main characters.

Music recommendation this week would be Robert Randolph and the Family band. R&B as it was meant to be. Soul-destroying. Plays pedal steel like Clapton plays Fender.

Found 'Millions' by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Discovered on starting to read it that it is for children (as long as they can do words like 'catharsis' and 'lexically' so probably bright older children). So easy to read, great story and finished in a couple of hours. Damian's the narrator. His mother has recently died. He knows a lot about saints and they regularly visit him. He has the same sort of voice as Mark Haddon's, 'Curious Tale...' narrator, but Asperger's Syndrome is never mentioned or diagnosed. We are left to decide what we think of Damian. Anyway he comes across a lot of money and tries to do good things with it in the few days left before it goes out of currency and the Euro comes in.