That would be an ecumenical matter

Waggish discusses the "ecumenical" editorial policy of the TLS. I tend to agree with him. Despite quietly seething when Washington-based empire loyalists like Edward Luttwak and, this week, Kenneth Anderson are allowed to soil the pages without balance from the left (in both reviewers and books reviewed), I do appreciate its non-political coverage.

This week's edition has a review by somebody or other of William Wall's collection of stories No Paradiso, not online. The Financial Times' review of it is online however, and Rachel Aspden isn't keen on its "smart-aleck protagonists and relentless tics of reference". The TLS review barely mentions them, due mainly to space but also because they don't get in the way. In fact, to that reviewer they opened up a mysterious, echoing void beneath the stories.

Generally, such allusions embarrass the fashion-conscious. It's odd how contemporary films win knowing smiles when they nod toward famous movies, yet books aren't allowed such leeway - unless, of course, it's not Horace or Dante's Inferno they mention but daytime TV and Heat magazine.