I spotted this in W. Smith at Northampton services on the M1 last weekend. Now the shortlist is out, short character bursts have been tweeted using the hashtag LRBadSex As an aside, and nothing to do with bad sex or erotica, I went to the Made In Germany exhibition in Shoreditch on Thursday — a show by six young or emerging German artists.
On another tangential note, I listened to Dustin Hoffman on Desert Island Discs this morning and the section where he talked about being a young, unknown actor, trying to get parts at auditions was fascinating.
His life at that time was all about coping with almost continual rejection. He still seems to feel the pain in some ways and made a very telling point about how people in the acting industry judge talent.
Because of this, the original talents are often overlooked. The photo above of all the Fifty Shades derivatives on the shelves at Northampton services makes the point. But Dustin Hoffman is a salutary example of persistence. I was in London today and took the time to do a bit of novel-related research. The floor where I was sitting is home to the current Gerhard Richter exhibition. And seduction was on the menu for the book I found on one of the tables in the store was The Aphrodisiac Encyclopaedia by Mark Douglas Hill.
And seeing as my novel has lots of food in it and relationships then it immediately attracted my interest. The book gives a recipe for two, obviously for each of the ingredients — and some look rather nice. However, some choices seemed utterly bizarre — such as broad beans.
