This morning, after the usual flurry of sending the children off to school, I found myself still in pyjamas and so I got back into bed, to read a bit, and maybe think.

Kate, just about to do a school run herself, didn’t think it looked much like work. Her whole attitude bristled with suspicion. Which raises the question of what, exactly, writing does look like.

I suppose St Jerome is the proper model.

But later, perched Jerome-like in front of my screen, I happened to come across this lovely literary blog, with a review of Lords of the Horizons, at http://tinylibrary.blogspot.com/2011/02/lords-of-horizons-by-jason-goodwin.html

To the casual observer, I was by then at work, like our saint here. But actually I was just messing about.