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Well, administering a good flogging takes concentration. Whilst women are acknowledged to be expert at multi-tasking, expecting me to wield a whip and engage in conversation at the same time is going too far.

You lookin' at me?

Happy new year – and a good dose of whatever you want for yourself (with plenty of good reading, of course ;) ).

Well, I added a few more to this list to give it a modicum of respectability. Nana by Émile Zola is now on the 'read' list, together with: Live from Golgotha by Gore Vidal Scouse Mouse by George Melly The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford Polar Star by Martin Scott Cruz

First, thank you to Stewart for allowing me to join this part of the boards. As I sit at my computer, we're a few hours from 2008 and I can hear the TV in another room. The other half is watching Monty Python's Life of Brian – "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy". Channel 4 are...

Well, I enjoyed the Christmas Day edition. Okay, we're not talking about the greatest drama ever, but it was good, old-fashioned hokum – a neat take on the '70s disaster movie, in my view – and I found myself caring about the character.

He's far from my favourite screen actor, and Gene Hackman has a record as someone who is adept at picking naff roles, but that doesn't mean that he hasn't been in – and contributed positively to – some good films, from The French Connection to Unforgiven.

The tragedy of that, of course, is that books that are not necessarily going to sell hundreds of thousands of copies won't get the chance to have shelf time so that browsers can see them. Similarly, one could ask why some authors go out of fashion. It's incredibly difficult to get Thomas...

I must admit, Silverseason, I've enjoyed both the first two and the next one, Red Square is on the shelf, but I'll leave a little gap between reading it. Havana Bay comes after that, followed by Wolves Eat Dogs and Stalin's Ghost (which was only published in the UK last summer). When I get to...

I've read Great Apes and enjoyed it (although I found it quite difficult to get into), but have not, as yet, got around to reading any more of his work. I know what jaybe means about his vocabulary, but I don't think he uses words for effect (well, not the sort of 'look at what big words I can...

In essence, you were right earlier. Saturnalia was celebrated in the winter and 25 December was the day of the Sol Invictus feast. There's no mention in the published gospels of a date for Jesus's birth. One has to be a tad careful with Wikipedia, but this seems a reasonable explanation of...

I don't really keep a list of what I intend to read, but there are things that I think: 'yes, I must try such-and-such'. Like Stewart, I have plenty of books on my shelves that I have yet to read, but unlike Stewart, I couldn't give you a list of them. I fully intend to read some (at...

Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith The return of Arkady Renko after Gorky Park left him in the snow and freeing mink in the US. Having avoided being shot for treason, his old enemy Colonel Pribluda has enabled Renko to 'escape' Moscow, but after a few years, he's on the "slime line" of a...

Neither were the Irish, but you still hear about their allegedly pro-Nazi neutrality in WWII, while I've equally heard that their not joining in the war is part of the reason for the popularity of Irish pubs in Germany. ;) But please, I wasn't meaning the comment in any way offensively – but...

Thomas Mann, without a doubt: Buddenbrooks, the novel that was on his citation, is good, but it's not a 'novel of ideas', as his later works often were. My favourite Mann work is Death in Venice, which I think is the most exquisite piece that I have ever read. Quite beautifully and completely...

So, who has seen the Christmas Day Dr Who special?

I saw a production some years ago at the National Theatre in London, with Alun Armstrong, Julia McKenzie and Denis Quilley in the leading roles. A superb piece and a superb production, it has been referred to more than once as 'a chamber opera'. Usually, I'd be terrified of what would be done...

Well, it took long enough, but my Folio Society membership renewal package finally turned up – a very nice four-book collection of Shorter Crime Fiction, Raymond Chandler's Trouble is My Business and Blackmailers Don't Shoot, Richard Dawkins's The Blind Watchmaker and Casanova (concise version...

Loads, I'm afraid, and crossing genres, but as a few examples: Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya. Ute Lemper and Olivia Ruiz. Annie Lennox and Cher and Debbie Harry.

I usually describe it as 'porn' because of the double standards surrounding the question of 'erotica'. What is the difference between erotica and porn? One person's erotica etc. Most erotica probably arouses the reader – so what's the difference with that and porn? I write stories that...