Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Alice Munro

Congratulations to Alice Munro for being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.  It's another shot in the arm for the short story, since Alice Munro doesn't write anything else - she's sometimes been called the Chekhov of  Canada.  I love her stories and have often tried to analyse them - and failed!  They have a mysterious magic you can't explain by plot diagrams or character analysis.  But they make a gut-wrenching connection with the reader, tapping into some kind of universal knowledge of the human condition.

Congratulations, too, to my fellow Cumbrian Sarah Hall who has won the BBC National Short Story Prize with 'Mrs Fox' - described as 'a darkly erotic tale'.

Tomorrow we will be packing the car to leave Italy, driving all the way to the north of England, via the Zeebrugge-Hull ferry. We're aiming to arrive on Monday morning.  Just hoping for good weather and calm seas!