Lately, I’ve been trying to work out a way of advertising my books on Facebook. I’m not naturally a very sociable sort of person. Don’t get me wrong: I like people and I’m not aware of having any enemies. But I don’t actively seek out friendships. Eight years ago, I belonged to a now defunct writers’ website called Authonomy. After two months I ended up with about fifty friends. Then felt guilty about bringing virtually nothing to each “friendship”. Anyway, that’s not what

Some readers may be familiar with a US website called The Art of Manliness, devoted to all things gentlemanly. A couple of years ago, two of its contributors – Kate and Brett McKay – wrote an article encouraging men to read more fiction. “While many men have stacks of books accumulating on their “to-read” pile,” they said, “chances are that pile is composed primarily of non-fiction tomes. For the past 20 years or so, the publishing industry has noted a precipitous decline in