Roland Butter

That's fantastic news, Diane. Is that a paid post or a voluntary one? Either way, it's an excellent way for Andy to get some solid experience down on his cv. Well done and good luck to him!

"Gilgies" sound like they might be the same as "yabbies". Do they use that term in NSW, Kylie? I certainly heard it when I was down in South Australia.

Yes, Cloudstreet is an excellent read indeed, and I'm not surprised you're enjoying it.

Taken care of, don't worry about that!

That's typical Kylie - everyone else is going "Oooooh, chocolate!", and you're "What books did you get?" Anyway: Great Expectations, Anna Karenina, Huck Finn, Moby Dick, The Lost Estate (Alain-Fournier - no, me neither ), Journey's End (R C Sherriff), Diary of a Nobody, Emma, The Woman in White, Gatsby, 1984 and Candide (which has a rather snazzy strip-cartoon style jacket introducing the characters and plot. Rather nice). And, for the sake of completeness, 2x each of: White chocolate with strawberries, Milk chocolate, Fruit and nut dark chocolate, Dark chocolate with raspberries, Dark chocolate with ginger and orange, and Orange milk chocolate.

It won't even be close, Claire!

Many thanks to those kind people at Divine Chocolate, who've just sent me 12 Penguin Classics. Oh, and 12 bars of (what else?) ... Divine Chocolate.

I read The Welsh Girl a couple of years ago, Laura, and a very good book it was, too. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

As in "Where's the safest place to hide your wallet? Under the soap in a Pom's house". That's actually quite funny.

I know you're a huge Claire Martin fan. She just keeps producing quality upon quality. Sorry, I've only just noticed this, Jules. He and his brother used to busk around South London as The Dualers, and they always did lots of great old soul stuff, and plenty of ska, too. They were the best buskers I've ever heard, and they always attracted huge crowds.

Welcome to the Forum, Dori!

That brings back some memories. It was one of my O level set books when I was at school (mind you, it was a new release then ...). I think I enjoyed it (as much as you'd have admitted enjoying reading a book at the school I went to!).

Not me! I've never read it (although I'd like to). You know how I feel about sub-contracting out essential public services (such as reading .....) - although I suppose getting someone else to read your books for you would be a way of increasing your output! Or maybe there's another me, and I don't know it. The comedian Jackie Mason does a riff on "finding the real me". Maybe it's on Youtube or something - if I can find it I'll stick it on Facebook. Anyway, not guilty! Chesilbeach rather than me, I think

VAT's irrelevant. All companies do is act as tax collectors for the Government, and pass on the VAT that you pay on goods and services. Amazon don't "just miss out on corporation tax", they've made a conscious decision to avoid paying it. Corporation tax is the principal vehicle by which corporate bodies pay their fair share of the cost of the public services they benefit from. These aren't insignificant sums we're talking about. Corporation tax in the years in question stood at 26 per cent. If Amazon made as little as five per cent profit on that turnover, then that's £91 million lost to the Exchequer in tax revenue. That's an awful lot of nurses, doctors, teachers, firefighters, school buildings ..... The effect of allowing companies to dodge their responsibilities like this is that the rest of us end up paying more tax to make up the shortfall. That's why this country feels like it's so heavily taxed.

Don't worry about Paris, poppyshake. Clarke's got books to sell, and he knows we love reading about how rude and arrogant the French are. Whenever I've been to France (yes, even as the most obvious tourist on the planet, and yes, even in Paris!), I've never come across anyone who wasn't polite, helpful and as friendly as you could hope to meet. You'll have a wonderful time there.

Yes, I no longer buy anything from Amazon because of their tax avoidance policies. Amazon UK has hundreds of employees, who were educated in the state educational system, who are kept healthy for work by the NHS and who get to work using public transport and the road network. It seems only fair that the company should make a contribution to the costs of all those things. The sign in Andie's photo sums up perfectly what the problem with Amazon is, for me. For the sake of a couple of quid on the price of a book, I'd much rather support my local (tax-paying!) bookshop.

Any developments on Andy's job applications?

A list of books you've read, coded by language and format! Mary, I think you're going to fit right in here ....

Welcome to the Forum!

Cloudstreet is definitely worth reading. I read it a couple of years ago now, and I'd recommend it very highly indeed. Tim Winton is generally considered to be one the the leading modern Australian novelists, as you'll know, and Cloudstreet shows why - it's a touching, at times funny and always engaging book. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Let us not forget the immortal words of Boney M, Sue: Rah rah Rasputin, lover of the Russian Queen There was a cat that really was gone ... Wise words indeed, I think you'll agree.

Yes, as I said, I enjoyed it, too. I thought he managed to weave real-life historical figures into the narrative quite convincingly.

Yes, you're right, and I'm hoping to catch it when it comes back to London. John Salthouse, who played the part of Tony in the original TV production, went to my school - he was a few years older than me, but he was in the same class as my sister.

You've just missed Abigail's Party at the Theatre Royal, Bath - aren't you out that way somewhere? It was the Chocolate Factory production with Jill Halfpenny, and by all accounts very good.

It's taken a very long while, Claire, but I've eventually got round to putting up my photos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150403345513858.453797.563888857&type=3