Hoorah! Happy Birthday to me, and amongst a rather meagre selection of cards lands the new issue. Already read Mr. Hepworth's article on the afterlife of songs, something that's fascinated me for ages. Richard Coles is always interesting on 'Newsnight Review' (or whatever it's called these days), so I was pleased to read more from him; couldn't find much fault with the Best and Worst, and it was a real treat to see the talents of Eddie Marsan featured. (More of this sort of stuff please!) Still needs more letters space though.

As a man of more 'mature' years, with each passing birthday friends are finding it hard to cater for me present-wise, and so along with the (requested!) pants I find myself with a higher proportion of HMV/Waterstones gift cards than usual; all gratefully received it must be said. Any advice from the massive on how I should spend them? Even as a dedicated Word reader I still feel a bit out of the loop re. new stuff, so any suggestions welcome.