Excuse us another jaunt off-topic, but I have to recommend Mark Lawson’s new radio series on post-war American writers. It’s on BBC Radio 4 and it’s called — you’ve guessed it — Capturing America: Mark Lawson’s History of American Literature. You have, at time of writing, a day to listen again to the first episode. Check out Gore Vidal on John Updike at about 25:10. “I can’t stand him.” Then listen to Tom Wolfe on John Irving and vice versa. On that last dispute, I do remember John Irving giving out about Tom Wolfe not being a serious writer and finding myself staring incredulously at the page. John Irving? It was as if Tom Clancy had decided to set himself up as a model of the highbrow intellectual. Anyway, enjoy…

“I can’t quite make out who it is, but I’m pretty sure I hate him.”