river sleep clash

 Thames scape. St Paul's, unusually in a photograph taken from this viewpoint, is  tucked away on the left. On the extreme right is the unfinished Shard. Click for full picture.

"'Close your eyes so that sleep doesn't get into them,"' said Zahra, as she gently closed my eyes and continued with the story." So begins the introduction to Sasha Guppy's The Secret of Laughter, subtitled "Magical Tales from Classical Persia. How better to invoke the atmosphere of the bedtime story, and to whet  the appetite for mystery and excitement, and to recall childhood contentment and ensuing drowsiness!

Talking of Jack Russells, among the bizarre news stories of the year, I read of a woman who returned her Jack Russell to a rescue centre in Kent, because it clashed with her curtains. The woman told the staff that she had "spent a lot of money on the curtain". (From the current issue of The Week). Lucky Jack Russell.